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After reading this article on the cuisine(s) of Eritrea and Ethiopia, I feel slightly less guilty about (loudly and publicly, in front of an Eritrean restaurant) saying that "it's the same shit" — i.e. spiced, buttery stew on a sour, membrane-like bread:

Both Eritrean and Ethiopian restaurants serve highly spiced stews ladled onto injera, a flat, spongy dough primarily made from teff, a tiny grain indigenous to the region.

Does that mean the difference between Eritrean and Ethiopian food is merely political (whoever happens to own the restaurant) or linguistic?

When I asked the person who answered the phone at Addis (Ethiopian) what the differences were between Ethiopian and Eritrean food, she replied, "They're not different." The woman who worked at Cafe Colucci (Ethiopian) told me, "I'm from Africa, and I don't know the difference," and shooed me away.

The woman who answered the phone at Red Sea -- which proclaims itself an Eritrean restaurant -- also told me the two cuisines are the same. This time I pressed. "So are the names of dishes different because of differences in the languages?" I asked.

"Yes," she replied.

I still donated to some African charities as penance (neither on that part of the continent, but I wanted to send money via PayPal instead of giving my credit card info recklessly).