We Have Falafel

There's an Israeli song, about what each nation eats, you know, the french eat frogs, the Italian pasta, the Chinese eat rice.... AND WE HAVE FALAFEL. I know I've been really bad with my "BLOG-ual engagements" and haven't written anything in a while. Today Im making as you might have guessed, Falafel! Non of those prepacked mix bags that you just add water. It's all from scratch.

















A few different items come together to make a "manat falafel", a serving of falafel. You have the falafel balls, the salad, the Tahini and the pita bread that hold all that good stuff together.
the salad is a basic tomato, cucumber, onion and pickle salad with a bit of olive oil drizzled on.























As for the Tahini, I buy raw Tahini from an israeli shop down the road. I find it very ironic that the Tahini they sell is from Lebanon! Only in America. Or England. Well, I guess only anywhere that isn't Israel. Or Lebanon. Anyway, I mix the Tahini with some chopped garlic, lemon juice, a bit of water (according to preference) and some salt, all mixed in really well till you get a smooth consistency.
















For the Falafel itself we use a special spoon that Resembles an ice cream scoop but is specially for Falafel. This time I tried something new, I made lots of pre-fried balls in advance and froze them for a few minutes, to speed up the time it takes to dispense and fry sooooooo many balls. It worked great, and "only" took around two hours to fry all the mix. After the Falafel is ready, put a few balls in a pita, followed by some salad and tahini, then more falafel, salad and repeat.

















For the Falafel mix:

1/2 kg chickpeas

2 cups chopped parsley

1 cup chopped coriander (cilantro)

1 large onion chopped

5 garlic cloves crushed

Fresh Green chili (to taste)

1 table spoon baking soda (bi carbonate of soda)

1/2 table spoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cumin

Oil for deep frying

Method of preparation:

Rinse chickpeas and soak over night with 1/2 of the baking soda

Rinse chickpeas after soaking and drain all water from them

Mince in blender or food processor (uncooked chickpeas) with onion parsley, coriander, garlic and green chili.

Add salt cumin and rest of baking soda, mix well until uniform mixture is formed

Leave to stand for at least an hour (can be left for a day in refrigerator)

Heat oil for deep frying form balls and fry until deep tan. (Watch oil temperature so it's not too hot so that outside burns before

Center is cooked, and not too cold so the balls get soaked in oil and soggy)

Serve in pita bread, with tehini sauce, cut tomatoes and cucumbers, pickles and relishes

Florida Keys - YES PLEASE!

A few days ago, we drove down to the Florida keys for the day. The keys are famous for a lot of things, two of them are Key Lime pie and Conch. Conch is a type of sea snail and is eaten a lot in the keys. Of course, I just HAD to try both dishes. Adam, my brother in law found a grrrrreat place called Calypso's Seafood grille. The Conch came served deep fried in batter with a side of fries, and was soooooooooooo good.


















After lunch, we went out on a boat to do some snorkeling out on the reef, which was pretty nice. When we came back I just had to try real Key lime pie, so again Adam found the Key Largo Conch house, an award winning establishment, famous for thier key lime pies.
I can't say it was the best pie I've had (key lime or other), but it had a really special flavor, and you could really feel the limes.

When the cosmos pays for lunch - YOU EAT

Yesterday my wife and I went to Del Ray beach again. As we walked on the beach, smelling those oh so good smells from the nearby tourist restaurants, the discussion automatically shifted to food. "what can we have for lunch?", "I dont know, what can we have?". Only a discussion we have EVERY DAY. We decided to first check out a "pinball Palooza" display at the local museum, when lo and behold, is that a 20$ note sitting in the wet grass??!? Why, YES IT IS! Lunch, anybody?















Right across the street from the museum (which we decided to skip in the end, I mean, who really wants to pay to look at pinball machines), is Doc's All American.
After some hesitation, I went for a Patty melt burger- grilled onions, grilled mushrooms, American cheese on Texas toast, with a side of chilli cheese fries and some root beer.
Thanks for lunch universe!!!!

It IS a FAST food blog (just not only FAST FOOD)

After my last post, I got some people saying the name was good, but I wasnt "about fast food".
Today, we're gonna change that with the first "FAST FOOD" post. I had lunch in Del ray beach, specifically at Big Al's Steaks. I had a 9" Philly cheese steak "WIT" (as they say) fried onions. The cheese of choice? CHEEZ WHIZ , a cancerous yellow processed cheese sauce. Why, you ask? Well, it just meeeeeeeeeeeelts into the sandwhich and just has that really creamy feel. How was it? It was Grrrrrrrrrreat!! A side of french fries, with a Cherry Fanta (cancerous red for contrast) and some Dill pickles. Only when I got home, did I find out I could have (should have would have) asked for mushrooms and peppers inside. Well, next time. That's the stuff obese dreams are made of. Oh, and by the way, IT WAS FAST.