If you've had really good felafel, what was it like?

Yeah – I don’t think it’s the falafel itself that does much for the dish; it’s the combination of the crunch of the falafel with the fresh salad (tomatoes, lettuce, onions, cukes) the tahini sauce, the pickles and the pita that makes it good. A really fresh falafel sandwich is quite delicious.

I’ve not seen that dish/sandwich, @janbb. Almost sounds like a veggie gyro.

That’s the way falafel is commonly eaten in Israel and probably elsewhere in the Middle East. It’s definitely the way to eat it.

I have had really great falafel and janbb is right about how it’s served. I prefer falafel that isn’t too dry. It is deep fried but varies a little in so far as its crunchiness is concerned. It can be a little crunchy on the outside but should be moist and flavorful inside. It has a seasoning of garlic,parsley, cumin, and turmeric. Generally the lettuce is shredded and tomatoes and cucumbers are chopped. The tahini dressing (tahini mixed with plain yogurt, garlic, and a little lemon juice) adds a lot of flavor to it. I have never had it with pickles though.

Follow the link below to see what is considered by many to be the best falafel restaurant in New York City. Even my Israeli friend concurs on that one!
http://www.mamouns.com/

I have made it at home and then I do not deep fry it, I pan fry it and turn the balls so they get evenly cooked. I coat the balls in flour and they aren’t as crunchy as the falafel you get in restaurants. I got my recipe from one of my favorite falafel restaurants. The chef did a demo at the State Fair of all things.

I’ve never had it overly crunchy. Most falafel I’ve had has had around the same texture as ground beef; maybe a little crunch to the outside (especially if flame-grilled), but juicy and tender on the inside.

NO lettuce, just a little dab of tzatziki (I prefer tzatziki over tahini any day), maybe a little thin-sliced tomato, all in a homemade pita… some string-cut garlic-feta fries on the side… okay, hungry now!

/walks to Greek place next door

The best I have had was similar to @janbb‘s description. There was a falafel stand in Isla Vista that looked like it sold food poisoning, but their falafel’s were like heaven.

Remember, though, that falafel’s are really just street food. Kinda like tacos.

When I lived in Providence as a kid, we’d go to this place on Thayer St that had really good falafels. I don’t know what the meat was, but I loved how crunchy it was. I loved the wax paper and then aluminum foil that they put it in. There was something about the bread, too. It was thin, but had an herby taste to it. And garlic. There was lots and lots of garlic. It’d give me such bad breath. Wow, now that it’s been brought up, I’m starting to crave one!

@dxs Loved all the food places on Thayer Street when I used to go there.

There is a Muslim restaurant in a town I visit and they have falafel on the buffet. Very hard and dry, and the only pita bread is cut in wedges. They look exactly like the picture on wiki. Typical of what I’ve found in the American Midwest, even if the cook is Arabic. But, then again, the falafel pictured at Mamoun’s looks the same, and apparently is much different.

@janbb‘s sandwich looks delicious.

The food at Mamoun’s looks great, @David_Achilles. Have you tried the falafel mixes, and are they any good?

I love tzatziki, @jerv. We’ve eaten it as dip, with chips. “String-cut garlic-feta fries on the side” deserves a link, if not a recipe.

Care to comment on falafel texture and consistency, @zenvelo? Is it just the crunchy contrast, or a delicious inside too?

There was no meat, @dxs. When you say “falafels” are you meaning a sandwich?

@ibstubro It was a wrap. I don’t remember more than that since I was pretty young.

Now I really want one!

I’m googling it now. Tomorrow’s a falafel day!

The best falafel experience I have had, I had at ‘The Falafel King’ in Jerusalem. Their falafel is presented with a host of different choices to accompany it. Various types of bread, salads, condiments, sauces.

The best falafel itself I had in Jeddah, around the corner of our house. On a pita bread with tahina sauce.

All this talk of falafel has made me crave it! I was looking at how other people’s recipes compare to how I was taught to make it. So I’m tweaking my recipe a bit. If it turns out well I’ll share my newest secrets to making falafel. I usually use canned chickpeas but this time I’m going to used dried since they (the experts) say it is better.

The sauce is another thing people differ on. I still like my sauce which is a composite sauce. It’s not Tsaziki and it’s not tahini.

I have never tried Mamoun’s but my friend lived a couple blocks away from there and said it was great. It is a really small hole in the wall place, but legendary in New York City. I don’t think mixes are any good. They use powdered chick peas so the texture is all off. I won’t even try them. Waste of time IMHO. I have seen recipes that recommend using a wooden spoon to smash the chick peas, those that say to use a meat grinder (not something most people have) and those that say to pulse in the food processor. The mix should be crumbly, not a paste.

As far as crunchiness is concerned I read that it can be caused by using chickpeas that are too old.

Interesting historical factoid: originally falafel was made from fava beans but because Isreali people have a dietary condition that makes it hard for them to digest fava beans (it’s an enzyme they are missing) now it is more common to use chickpeas in most places. Fava beans are still used sometimes and some places even use a combination of both.

Me? I’ll stick with chickpeas thank you.

Like I said…to be updated.

Now I’m wondering if the Arabic restaurant I visit has a falafel sandwich – I’ve only eaten off the buffet of ordered an app. Ah, I just checked online and someone posted ” great location.. amazing food: lots of options. falafil sandwich is to die for.” Hopefully I’ll make it there within the week. :)

I’ve only tried fava beans once, @David_Achilles, and I was unimpressed. I supposed them to be related to lima beans (which I love) because of the shape, but they are not. Thanks, I learned something there.

I’ll share something else I learned that is interesting and has no practical use:
Vegetarianism was greatly influenced by Pythagoreanism, where The Pythagorean code prohibited the consumption or even touching of any sort of bean. (see ‘other uses’ in link.)

@dxs Falafel is a vegetarian dish, it doesn’t have meat in it. Not sure what you ate, but I’m guessing it might have been Gyros

@ibstubro I’ve eaten lots of falafel in my life. Sometimes they’re served sitting alone (not in a sandwich) as part of a vegetarian combo. In that case they can be a little bit dry, although they are almost always served with a side or a smattering of either Tzatziki or Tahini Dip. The combo usually has falafel balls, Greek salad, rice pilaf and possibly spanakopita.

The best way to eat falafel, IMO, is in a sandwich. The bread should be really good, fresh, warm, soft pita bread (dry pita bread, like the kind you buy at the store is OK, but will give the whole sandwich a much drier texture). Fresh, restaurant pita bread is not flat. It’s kind of spongy and thick, more like Indian naan bread.

Instead of those flat dry pitas you get at the store, which you split open and put the sandwich ingredients inside, good restaurant pitas will be whole (not split, because they’re not hollow inside) and will be rolled around the falafel and other ingredients. They’re usually grilled with a little bit of olive oil just before making the sandwiches. It makes all the difference. This is what good, fresh Grilled Pita Bread looks like, as opposed to store bought, flat, hollow, dry Pita Bread

Falafel balls are usually made with Chickpeas, but they can also be made with Fava Beans, which is the traditional Egyptian legume of choice for making them, and they’re a pretty green color on the inside. See them here.

I think the ones made with fava beans, especially fresh beans, as opposed to soaked dried beans, are much better.They still get crispy on the outside, but they are nice and moist on the inside. Good falafel should be like that, they should not be dry on the inside (whether they’re made from chickpeas or fava beans) and they should most definitely be crispy on the outside. Part of making that crispy texture happen is using oil that is hot enough to cook the falafel quickly so that it fries and seals the outside, making it crispy, while keeping the inside moist and not greasy.

Falafels can be shallow pan fried, but according to everything that I’ve read, deep frying them (properly) is the better method. I have read recipes for baking them, but I’ve never tried it, and it seems like it would defeat the purpose of giving them a crispy outside. I’ve also heard of using boxed mixes, which I’ve never tried (I’ve never made falafel at home) but I’m guessing that the falafels would be super dry with a mix. If anyone has tried a good, non-dry mix, I’d like to know which brand you used.

A good falafel sandwich starts with a warm, soft, fresh pita, split open and loaded up with 3 to 4 balls, chopped romaine lettuce, chopped, red ripe tomatoes (no pink mealy tomatoes) sliced onion, and either or both tzatziki sauce and tahini sauce, and possibly sliced or diced fresh cucumber. Lebanese falafel sandwiches often come with pickles instead of fresh cucumbers. At the table you can also add Pepperoncini Peppers, Lebanese Turnip Pickles, or a vinegar based hot sauce like Tabasco or Frank’s Red Hot Sauce.

The unknown “meat” was probably the falafel.
I found a place at Central that had them. It was falawesome (sorry)! The ones I used to get in the east side seemed bigger, but then again, I was smaller.
http://s32.photobucket.com/user/dxsdxsdxs/media/get-attachment_zpsbh63ocat.jpeg.html?sort=3&o=0

@dxs I like falawesome!

I am making my new falafel recipe tonight. I used the dried beans instead of canned. I am not really convinced it will be better. Maybe I’m just used to my own “bad” falafel???

The best falafel I ever had was in Stuttgart, Germany. Yes, believe it or not! There are a lot of Turks in Germany and these Turks knew how to do falafel very well. Was it the sauce? Was it the bread? Not sure, except that it was delicious.
Their name? Vegi Voodoo King. You can’t make this stuff up!
http://www.yelp.com/biz/vegi-voodoo-king-stuttgart-2

Let us know, @David_Achilles, how the new batch comes out.

Ok, so this is my latest in the falafel quest for greatness, lol.
I used the dried chickpeas (2 cups dry soaked overnight, well drained and blotted dry) and I had to add a lot of flour plus 2 eggs to get it to hold together. I also use ¼ cup bulgar wheat soaked in water 20 minutes and drained. (my original recipe source used bulgar. Some recipes say to roll the balls in bulgar, but he soaks it and adds it to the chick pea mash, which I think is better) I didn’t have time to chill the mix like many recipes recommend. I chilled it for only a half hour.
I used cumin, cardamom and turmeric for spices. I added a good bit of parsley and cilantro. I added 6 cloves of garlic, 4 scallions (including the green part) and 1 shallot (I didn’t have any onions). I decided to throw in a couple tablespoons of olive oil because it seemed dry. I rolled the balls in flour after forming.
I used peanut oil to pan fry it turning once to get both sides well browned. (350 degrees was perfect)
My sauce came out really great. I used 8 oz Dannon yogurt, about 2 tbsp of lemon juice and 2 tbsp of tahini and just a bit of sea salt.
I chopped tomatoes and cucumbers and left out the lettuce.
This is critical-I took @Kardamom‘s advice and bought the soft pita without the split in the middle. It was Toufayan whole wheat and it really made a difference. Thank you @Kardamom!
It was really really good! I don’t know why I never thought of using better bread before. Dah!!

Thanks for sharing, @David_Achilles!
Your recipe/experience, if not your falafel.

@ibstubro Your welcome! I’d love to hear everyones recipes also if they try making it.

You might try using naan instead of pita, if you can’t find it soft. You can buy naan at Walmart now.

@ibstubro Yes, I love naan. They have it at Fairway also. I’m going to try it next time. Sounds good!

I just had some homemade naan, and it was delicious. I dislike the pita pocket bread as being too dry, so that’s made me leery of pita, generally. I might ask the woman to make me some naan, as I’ve found a very good canned babaganoush.

@ibstubro Yes, you will appreciate your falafel much more with either naan, or really good fresh, well made pita (not the hollow dry stuff).

There’s a Mediterranean market in our town that has several different canned baba ganoush products. I have some and they’re very good. You wouldn’t expect something that tasty to come out of a can. The neat thing about cans is that you can take the stuff on camping trips. Same with the canned, and delicious, stuffed grape leaves.

Next I’m in the city, I’m going to buy some more canned baba ganoush. Today I quartered a frozen bread similar to pita that was made for gyros and put it in the toaster. Worked great for dipping the b.g.
Years and years ago I was eating canned dolma because they were available at Big Lots. I’ll buy and sample pretty much anything that’s meat free. If it’s nasty I just throw it away. If it’s good, I go back for a couple more.

@ibstubro Ha ha, me too about the sampling anything that’s vegetarian at Big Lots.

My super Dollar Tree has Samosa appetizers (about the size of a walnut), 8 in a box, frozen, @Kardamom. They’re good. IMO, if not nuked. Rice rather than potato. I think the box said they were made in India.

Since we’re in social and traffic is slow, I’ll tell you about my samosa experience today.

Small, Midwestern, Mississippi River town. Storefront in a mostly deserted block of Broadway named “Palermo Pizza and Subs.” The owners are from India, and offer gyros, as well. Samosa is the only Indian dish, and an appetizer.
I had samosa and an small antipasto salad. With ranch dressing (ranch, french, or V/O were the choices.)
Cripes. I feel like I ate a food court! lol

@ibstubro I do love me some samosas. I haven’t seen those frozen ones, but I’ll be on the lookout for them. I just went to Dollar Tree today and got a package of sundried tomatoes and a can of Planters cocoa peanuts, and some coconut yogurt. Yum.

A “Super” Dollar tree will have a frozen and refrigerated section. Mine were frozen and clearly marked “Vegetarian”, @Kardamom.

@Kardamom Dollar tree has coconut yogurt? Is it dairy-free yogurt made out of coconut milk??

@ibstubro Ours does have a frozen and fridge section. I guess they just haven’t had those samosas out here yet. They do have these “deep fried” battered green beans though. Those are really tasty. You just heat them up in the toaster oven and they’re nice and crispy.

@Cupcake No, the yogurt was regular dairy yogurt. I also got butterscotch. I put both of them in the freezer because I’m going to be gone for a week and won’t have time to eat them. I’ve had the coconut yogurt before and it was delicious.

Today I had a falafel sandwich, and it was very good. The falafel itself was better than what they put on the buffet – flattened into patties and moister inside. I don’t recall the sandwich having any lettuce on it, but there were lots of very small pickles. Mainly falafel, cukes, onions, tahini and a white sauce that appeared to be yogurt based in a fresh, soft pita pocket. He let me have a ½ order if baba ganoush in place of fries. More than I could eat, and very tasty!