Where's the Falafel?!

A funny thing happened on the way to getting falafel.  It got upstaged by shawarma.  Here’s what happened.  Food Friday found the lunch bunch at Max’s Kosher Café which is apparently the place to get falafel in Maryland suburbia.  We were among, in TopChef’s words, “her people” – so my plan was just to follow her lead because well, I had never been in a kosher restaurant in my life so I felt a little fish out of the waterish.  She ordered the shawarma plate so that’s what I got too.  I didn’t understand that shawarma and falafel were two different menu items and then the line was too long to reorder so I stuck with the shawarma. 

Nevertheless, my shawarma (shaved lamb) was served on a bed of cabbage, Israeli salad, and cauliflower and was topped off with tahini and hummus.  It also came with a falafel ball…which was my first taste of falafel (good) but not exactly worth an entire post.  It was a small ball so I think I’m going to have to go back to Max’s for a whole falafel entrée. 

I have to say…there was a ton of food on the plate!  Deputy Pepper did his best stern dad impersonation and told me that I wasn’t leaving the table until I finished all my food.  But it was kind of hard to take him seriously while he was mopping off his sweaty brow – he likes his shawarma spicy.  I didn’t eat every last bite but I made a sizeable dent and I was allowed to leave the table so that I could get back to the office in a timely manner.  While the shawarma was delicious, my real take away from the meal was the hummus…I really liked it!  And now when people bring chips and hummus to parties, I’ll actually eat it!

So Falafel Friday didn’t really happen but lucky for me, there are a lot more Fridays left in the year!