I finally made a stop on Fairfax Ave in the neighborhood known as “Little Ethiopia” for dinner tonight, and it was a very cool experience.
Of the many restaurants all along both sides of the street we decided upon Messob, both because we thought it looked interesting inside and because it had good reviews on Yelp.
The dining room was full and smelled of interesting spices and dishes, people sat around eating communally with their hands out off large platters filled with a variety of colors and textures.
I’d never had Ethiopian food before, and I’ll admit the prospect of eating soft, saucy food without any utensils or plates (Gursha style) sounded both challenging and different – right up my alley.
From Massab’s website:
Gursha is an Ethiopian tradition of hand feeding your dinner companion. The tradition of giving Gursha plays on the exotic component of eating. Gursha means mouthful and refers to a morsel of food which one places carefully in another person’s mouth, usually as a gesture of affection. This is perfect for couples wanting an intimate experience that is out of the ordinary.Out of the ordinary for sure. After consulting our waitress for a popular, signature item to try we were served the Super Messob Exclusive, which as you probably know consists of Doro Wot, Siga Wot, Yebeg Siga Alitcha, Yater Alitcha, Kitffo, Tibs, Yatakilt Alitcha, Alitcha, Yemisir Wot & Collard Greens.
The dish is served on a large plater along side and over lots of spongy bread called Injera which is used to scoop up the food for eating. There was salad, corn, lentils, chicken, beef, lamb…and…who knows what else but it was flavorful and filling and I’d try it again for sure. It reminded me of mild Indian food with the addition of lots of veggies and of course the injera.
I sipped on a floral Ethiopian beer and K enjoyed a homemade honeywine in an awesome chemistry-class style glass flask.
For more Food of the World of Los Angels, check out my posts on the food of Vietnam and Shanghai.
Trevor Brightman 
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