Some people can go an entire day without eating by simply forgetting. I do not understand these people. My entire life, whenever I feel an inkling of hunger creep toward me, I stop whatever I am doing and immediately have my lunch, snack or insert meal here.

Not only do I love eating, but I also love eating all sorts of foods new to me. Trying new restaurants became a favorite pastime of mine during high school and only became more prevalent as I moved to Los Angeles to attend USC. The L.A. food scene was a sight to behold, with masses of different cuisines from all around the world at my doorstep.

With so much food just waiting to be tasted, I knew I had to seize the opportunity. Before I graduate from USC and venture into the unknown, my goal is to try as many different cuisines as possible. As I set this goal for myself, one word kept pinging in my head: Ethiopian. I had long heard that Ethiopian cuisine was very good, but had never tried it myself.

What better way to embark on my global food journey than by trying some of the highest-regarded sub-Saharan African food? Luckily for me, Los Angeles is home to its very own Little Ethiopia.

During the 1970s, Los Angeles saw its first major waves of Ethiopian immigrants. Political unrest during the 1990s would lead to further waves of immigration. At this point, a one-block-long stretch of Fairfax Avenue became home to a large concentration of Ethiopian restaurants, markets and service shops.

Originally called Little Addis, after Ethiopia’s capital of Addis Ababa, this block would eventually be recognized as Little Ethiopia by the city of Los Angeles in 2002. Despite its small size, Little Ethiopia is packed to the brim with Ethiopian restaurants, cafes and shops.

One of these restaurants is Messob Ethiopian Restaurant, where I ventured with two of my friends. The restaurant is named after a “messob,” a traditional bread basket that can also be used as a table. The interior of the restaurant immerses diners with pictures of Ethiopia and tiny messobs hung up on the wall. The dark lighting creates an intimate atmosphere.

The only appetizer on the menu is the sambussas, triangle-shaped savory pastries with a lentil and herb filling. The pastry was firm and had a perfect crunch, and the filling was soft and delicious. The sambussas also came with a sauce that added extra spice flavors, with one of the ingredients I detected being cardamom. The spices and herbs from the filling and sauce complemented the simple yet scrumptious pastry.

Each of us ordered one item off the lunch menu and had all our food presented on a large plate on top of a large injera, a soft, fermented flatbread from Ethiopia. Its texture is like that of a spongy pancake, and its taste is similar to that of a sourdough.

Our meal also came with a basket of smaller folded injera. When eating Ethiopian food, pieces of injera are torn off to grab scoops of your main dish. Grabbing my food with the smaller injera reminded me of making tacos by hand. Injera’s simple flavor makes it a perfect neutral base for the herb- and spice-heavy nature of Ethiopian dishes.

The three dishes we ordered were yebeg siga alicha, kitffo and awaze tibs. Yebeg siga alicha is a mild lamb stew spiced with garlic, ginger and other spices. The lamb itself was incredibly tender and practically melted in my mouth.

The green stew the lamb came in was closer to a sauce and was seasoned in a way that felt like a warm hug from an aunt every time I put it in my mouth. The injera was perfect for eating the yebeg siga alicha as it was able to grab the pieces of lamb while also soaking up all the delicious stew’s flavor.

Kitffo is finely chopped lean beef with spiced Ethiopian butter, homemade cottage cheese and spiced hot chilis, featuring a texture resembling a paste more than beef. The kitffo was definitely the most spiced out of what we ordered, with an initial bite that packed a punch. Even with the cottage cheese, taking too many bites in a row could overwhelm the palate if not accustomed to the spiced nature of Ethiopian food.

However, our giant plate came with a small side salad next to small piles of an unspecified dish that resembles fit-fit. The salad served as a nice palate cleanser, perfect as a transition point from switching from one dish to another. The dish resembling fit-fit, which is typically made with clarified spiced butter, berbere spices and injera, looked like a collection of injera pieces held together by its seasoning. This was on the milder side, working with the side salad as a palate cleanser.

The third dish we had was definitely the star of the show, the awaze tibs, which are cubed beef with onion, tomato, hot red peppers and spiced butter. While the awaze tibs were in a sauce, it was easier to grab compared to the stew in the yebeg siga alicha. The beef was cooked perfectly, although not as tender as the lamb.

Where the awaze tibs really shine is in their flavor, with a bolder flavor than the yebeg siga alicha but not as powerful as the kitffo. The spices hit you as if you were listening to your favorite song being played live at the Hollywood Bowl.

Ethiopian food is heavily seasoned in ways that many Americans aren’t used to. This makes some hesitant to try Ethiopian food, but the variety of options, along with the high caliber of food at Messob, make it an excellent first experience for anyone wanting to try it out. The next time you feel like trying something new, take two or three friends down to Messob Ethiopian Restaurant and have some delicious food together.

Pablo Rodriguez is a junior writing about international cuisine in Los Angeles in his column, “Global Gastronomy,” which runs every other Wednesday.