Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Spoiled by the Greek

Man am I spoiled! I have had felafel at two places in my life. Once at a restaurant in Chiang Mai, Thailand at a place called Jerusalem Felafel. And the second place is at this restaurant in Greensboro, NC called Jack's. Both are authentic Greek restaurants run by Greek families with broken English. Both restaurant's felafels tasted the exact same! Granted the hommus was a bit different tasting but that can be something as simple as more or less garlic, lemon juice or whatever.

For some who may not know what felafel is, let me explain. It's a mixture of ground of chickpeas (or garbanzo beans), minced onion, garlic and lots of herbs and spices. They are shaped into little balls and then deep fried in oil. The felafel is then stuffed inside of a pita bread along with lettuce, tomatoes, sometimes cucumber and an assortment of either hummus, tahini sauce and/or cucumber sauce. It's to die for! And one of my favorite things to eat! At Jack's you get a Greek salad on the side and a medium drink-all for $8! And I owe a huge "thank you" to Tanya Judd for introducing me to the place.

One day I'll try and make it myself. But really, when there's a place right down the street that makes it as good as they do, why try?