Azla combines music with vegan Ethiopian cuisine
Photo courtesy of Azla Vegan
Almost Addis Ababa · Azla Vegan offers a variety of traditional recipes and allows L.A. residents to explore Ethiopian culture. They have recently partnered with hip-hop artist Ras G of Brainfeeder records.
Located in the Mercado de Paloma, the Azla Vegan Ethiopian restaurant stands out in the renowned South L.A. food center by engaging the neighborhood in Ethiopian culture through customary recipes and handcrafted beats. Among the persevering entrepreneurs and cultural pioneers in the marketplace, owner Azla and daughter and co-owner Nesanet adhere to a health-conscious lifestyle through their vegan options and adhere to showcasing their culture through entertainment mediums such as music.
L.A.-based hip-hop producer Ras G, who is signed with Brainfeeder records, helped the family-owned restaurant earlier this month to immerse their customers with their African roots by creating the first out of a special series of mixtapes “that highlight the tradition, culture and diaspora of Ethiopia,” according to L.A. Taco. Azla Sounds Volume 1, available in limited edition cassette and digital album format, consists of 13 flavorful tracks that give customers insight into authentic Ethiopian sounds, but with a jazzy, inner-city twist to adapt to its South Central setting.
Each track on the Bandcamp digital album is named after its ordered number in Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia. The music collection alternates between short, jazzy snippets like the first song “And” and choppy, electronic tones like the third song “Sost.”
Aside from the music partnership that the restaurant has made, Azla allows customers indulge themselves in authentic Ethiopian cuisine, consisting of the foods such as injera, a traditional spongy pancake-like bread, spicy stew and other vegan entrees. Brown rice can act as a substitute for the injera to complement the main dishes people can choose from, including different wots made of red lentils, yellow split peas, baked tofu and various vegan ingredients. Salads are also offered as options for the main course, which complement the refreshing drinks available such as kale lemonade, kombucha and sorrel, an iced tea made of hibiscus flowers, ginger and cinnamon.
These individually plated meals contrast the traditional large platter group settings of the Little Ethiopia eateries, one of L.A.’s popular ethnic districts on South Fairfax Avenue. While it is the first Ethiopian restaurant in South L.A., Azla Vegan appeals to Ethiopians and non-Ethiopians alike by supporting a personalized cultural immersion within a culturally accepting city.
As veganism has come into the forefront of the city’s fitness craze, Ethiopian culture has embraced the no-meat, no-dairy diet as one of its long-standing religious traditions. The Orthodox Christian custom requires its supplicants to abstain from eating animal products over its various fasting periods, including the Nativity, Lent and almost every Wednesday and Friday. By spending more than half of the year adhering to a strict vegan diet, Azla Vegan engages in an older tradition in which Los Angeles’ Ethiopian population can indulge in and a newer trend that the city’s general population can conform to.
While looking at veganism through a new-fashioned lens, traditional Ethiopian music has been modified for this cutting-edge restaurant, whose mission as stated in the Bandcamp biography is “serving mama Azla’s love-infused Ethiopian food … [and] sharing the rich artistic traditions of Ethiopia and the Ethiopian diaspora with the world.”
With its hip-hop and trendy fusion vibes, Azla Vegan affirms the melting pot dynamic of the Mercado de Paloma, while cooking up various flavors and beats for customers.