Before I begin, happy New Year! I hope that everyone had an amazing (and food filled) experience celebrating the various holidays that come about this time of the year. It’s been quite a while since I started this blog back in 2015 or so, and I want to say thank you to all of my readers for reading, commenting, and just being a part of this community. You’re all the reason why I write and why I started this in the first place. I’m sure that my 2019 (and yours) will be filled with plenty of food experiences, so I hope that you’ll enjoy my first post of the year!

Here we go! If you’re looking for an incredibly tasty and diverse food cuisine to try, you’re going to want to try Ethiopian Food. All of last week, I was in Los Angeles with my family. Out of all of my food experiences there (and there were a lot), what stood out the most was Messob, a traditional Ethiopian restaurant.

Before the day that we dined at Messob, I had only eaten Ethiopian food once before, so it was going to be a brand new experience. After getting settled in my seat, I took a peak at the menu. On the very first page, I read about the Ethiopian way of eating. First of all, I learned that we were supposed to eat with our hands (no utensils). I was like “What!” because who would’ve expected that? Next I learned about Gursha, the Ethiopian tradition of hand feeding others. I totally didn’t expect that either. It was going to be a fun night.

After a round of tasty lentil samosas, the main food came. In front of me sat a very large plate covered completely, in a variety of different food. It was so large it contained 4 people’s dinner. On the side sat a basket Injera, a spongey thin bread with a bit of a sour taste. My dad’s Ethiopian friend’s showed us that the proper way to eat is to take a piece of the Injera, and use it to scoop some of the food on the giant plate into your mouth. So even though we were using our hands, they weren’t going to actually get dirty. Bite after bite, I slowly tried all of the foods with the Injera. I had spicy lentils, tasty yellow beans, tender beef stew, cold vegetables, and much more. The waiters kept coming back to restock our Injera and pour new foods such as the raw beef onto the plate. It was quite the experience, as I had tried nothing like it ever before. Something interesting that I learned was that the plate is always split into sections with equal portions, so you don’t have to reach over into someone else’s area to take food. At the end of the meal, I don’t think I tried Gursha, because honestly, I was just too focussed on the eating.

Looking back on my experience at Messob, I definitely glad that I had the opportunity to eat there. It was a whole new experience, which is what this blog is all about. I want to give a big shoutout to my dad’s friends Aunty Frey and Uncle Sof for their amazing recommendation and for giving us the chance to eat Ethiopian style.