In this blog I will not only cover the foods we encounter but places, things and whatever finds my interest. My wife and I both love food and love to find new places and cuisines to try. We don't look for a vegetarian restaurant or "healthy food" specifically. In fact I think she would say I am the most UNHEALTHY EATING vegetarian she knows. I believe food should taste good, even if it's vegetarian. I don't really care how much FAT, or CALORIES something has as long as it tastes good.
So for my first post I want to cover falafel. Yes falafel, I know there are a million blogs, lists, sites that have and will cover this but thats what I ate for lunch so here goes.
Today my friend and I ate at Taim Mobile a food truck in the midtown area. They have a store front to in the Village. They stand at a different location everyday for lunch and diner. Today they were on 40th and 6th Ave. just a few stores down from Crisp my current favorite.
I got the basic falafel sandwich, even though today's special was Roasted Red Pepper falafel. I wanted to know what their basic was to make an even comparison. The basic sandwich is what they call "green" falafel with hummus, Israeli salad, pickled cabbage and tahini. I am not a big fan of pickled cabbage so I left that off. Overall impressions were I think positive, even though my friend didn't think it was worth the walk in the cold. It's of course not as good as Crisp but it is much better then the typical fare you find in midtown and way better then Maoz just a few blocks down from where they were standing today. I like to taste different spices whole or ground in my falafel not just ground up chickpeas. On that front they were successful. The falafel's were crunchy without being overly greasy, and I could see chunks of chickpeas and whole spices, and yes it was green, very green. I also enjoyed their tahini, it's not just something they got out of a can and added water to. You can tell they made some effort, by including some seasonings and herbs in it. They have a hot sauce, not the typical red one, I personally like that and miss it when I eat at Crisp. In fact their hot sauce was very similar to Crisp's. They call it "Srug", I call it cilantro chutney, something very close to what my father makes, chopped cilantro with some green peppers, garlic and spices. They also have "Amba" sauce a pickled mango thing. I personally like the ginger carrot sauce from Crisp for something different, but I did like it for that something extra. But it's not something I would miss if I didn't have it. It kind of tasted like a Indian mango chutney if it was blended to make a sauce. Over all I would say on warmer day if I didn't want to spend the Crisp kind of money on lunch and I wanted a falafel I would definitely go again. I like the guys on the truck everyone was very friendly and when I asked for extra sauces on the side I wasn't made to feel like they had just paid off my house mortgage. Almost forgot I got their fries which comes with a saffron aioli (sauce). They have the thin almost shoe string kind of fries, not very oily but crisp, not like the fat mushy kind at Maoz. I didn't much care for the saffron aioli, that could just be me because I think saffron is very strong and unless used in the right place over powers everything. Next time I will try their special whatever it is and the ginger lemonade which looked to be very popular. Also next time I will have pics, I forgot to take some today, maybe because I was hungry......
