Photo Source: www.suzyeats.com |
Being a (mostly) Southern Gal, you would think I would love fried balls of food. And yes, I do like hush puppies on occasion. I just don't like falafels. They're dry and greasy (yes the two occur together!) and just don't taste good.
The other selling points are supposed to be the cheapness and ease: a falafel from a street vendor in Israel is just a few shekels. I'd still rather have shwarma.
First there's the balls of fried chick peas. Then there's the tahini sauce, various pickles and relishes (including, but not limited to, turnip and eggplant), onions, cabbage and french fries all stuffed inside a dry pita. I usually wind up eating the fries by themselves and wishing for more Fanta. (: And don't even ask me about the hot sauce...ugh.
Why do I even care about falafels? Josh and I would like to serve overseas as missionaries. With my Master's degree (and hopefully one day PhD) in Archaeology, we'd like to go to the Near East: Israel, Jordan, etc. We applied while in seminary but had too many student loans. So the plan was to work for a few years and pay them off. For those who know the story of our past four years, you know how well that plan has worked (: But, we still feel that calling and Lord willing, one day we will return to Israel for a much longer stay.
Until then, לשנה הבאה בירושלים!