Flamingo Restaurant's vegetarian combo: 100 Favorite Dishes, No. 60

Sara Rice

Unlike Skittles, this rainbow has more than one flavor

​The Midway area of St. Paul is a veritable melting pot, bringing together cultures from around the world. One point where two of them--Somali and Ethiopian--meet, is Flamingo Restaurant.

One of Flamingo's most popular items is a feast for the eyes as well as the taste buds.

The vegetarian combo is a personal buffet laid atop spongy, injera--east African flatbread made with teff. Each mound of vegetable goodness flaunts a different color, creating a food rainbow across the platter.

Alicha (cabbage and potatoes) and atar (yellow split peas with onions, garlic, and ginger) are yellow from turmeric. Hamil (collard greens with jalepeno) and difen miser (whole green lentils) are dark green. Shiro (saucy chickpea flour) and timtimo are both a lovely red.

Sara Rice

​And how does this rainbow taste? Like it's hugging you from the inside. The warm-climate seasoning coupled with the yielding texture of all the dishes adds up to pure comfort food--that you get to eat with your hands, no less!

As an added bonus, you can feel good about what you're eating, too. "We want to do more healthy food," says co-owner Fre Haile. "We make it all from scratch using fresh vegetables, and our injera only uses teff because it's healthier than white flour."

If you're looking for something a little more omnivorous, try the meat combo with Halal lamb or goat--their other most popular menu item.

FLAMINGO RESTAURANT
490 Syndicate Ave., St. Paul

651.917.9332

flamingorestaurantmn.com

Hungry for more? The dishes in our countdown thus far are linked below:

No. 61: Haute Dish's "steak and eggs"
No. 62: Sea Change's brioche pain perdu
No. 63: Tremblay's Sweet Shop's salt water taffy
No. 64: Bars Bakery's Turtle Bar
No. 65: Pizzeria Lola's Lady Zaza Pizza
No. 66: In Season's fried oysters
No. 67: Cave Vin's steak frites
No. 68: Everest on Grand's cabbage and potatoes
No. 70: Surly's Coffee Bender
No. 71: Quang's bun tom xao
No. 72: Maple bacon doughnut at YoYo Donuts
No. 73: Cupcake's mini cupcakes
No. 74: Willy D's ribs
No. 75: Salsa a la Salsa's fried chocolate truffles
No. 76: Anodyne's Artichoke Melt
No. 77: Origami's steamed duck
No. 78: B.T. McElrath's Salty Dog bar
No. 79: Mozza Mia's house-made limoncello
No. 80: Salty Tart Bakery's pastry cream-filled brioche
No. 81: Little Szechuan's bamboo tips with chili sauce
No. 82: Oceanaire's Jumbo Lump Crab Cake
No. 83: Aperitif's Nonni's Meatballs
No. 84: Christos's Saganaki
No. 85: Sesame seed bagel at Seven Stars Coffee House
No. 86: Lemon ricotta pancake at Hell's Kitchen
No. 87: Blackbird gourmet banh mi
No. 88: Tank Goodness cookies
No. 89: Gal Bee at Sole Cafe
No. 90: Porter & Frye's El Pelon
No. 91: Coffee News' fish and chips
No. 92: Bread & Chocolate's Fabulous Fudge Bar
No. 93: People's Organic panna cotta
No. 94: Sea Salt Eatery crawdad po' boy
No. 95: Fuji Ya's Tofu Don
No. 96: Ike's Food and Cocktails The Weekender Bloody Mary
No. 97: Punch's Toto pizza
No. 98: Stockholm Pie Company's peanut butter fudge cream pie
No. 99: Dogwood Coffee Co.'s macchiato
No. 100: Al's Breakfast buttermilk pancakes