mmmm… falafel….

so today i had hoped to have lunch with mr. h-s, but due to a crisis at his work around lunchtime, he was unable to accompany me. since i already had my heart set on eating out, i decided to take the opportunity to eat somewhere new that wouldn’t be all that exciting to mr. h-s. if you’ve been reading the blog for any length of time, you’ve probably caught on to the fact that i’m a “new experience” junkie. i’ll take (almost) any opportunity to try something new if it sounds good (or interesting or at least mildly intriguing). there’s a restaurant downtown called “king of falafel” that i’d been wanting to try and which mr. happy stuff was not so interested in, so i biked over to try it out. i located the entrance, parked my bike and went in. my first impressions were a bit sketchy. the entrance looked like someone’s back hallway with tables stacked on top of each other and a walk-up counter to order from. there were three tables covered with plastic yellow tablecloths that would seat two people, scrunched up along the walls of this passageway. being the brave person that i am, i approached the counter and after glancing over the menu, taped to the counter, i quickly chose a falafel pita with hummus. the person taking my order was in training (possibly her first day. the guy training her had to prompt her with “ask her if she wants it for here or to go.”) and when she was done writing down my order, she asked me if i wanted to sit over here or over there. i glanced around and, well, honestly it didn’t look like it mattered much where i sat. no one was sitting at any of the tables, so i vaguely waved to the ones she had indicated as “over here” and she wrinkled her nose at me a little bit and said, “are you sure?” and i told her i wasn’t sure what was “over there” so she gave the order slip to the guy and then walked me through some swinging doors that were “over there” and we stepped into a (comparitively) luxurious dining room! ok, maybe luxurious is a stretch. there were still (clear) plastic tablecloths on the tables–but they were covering up fabric tablecloths! and the chairs were padded wood, not plastic, and there was paint on the walls and music to listen to instead of kitchen noise. the drop ceiling had been draped with fabric for a somewhat successful effect. i agreed that “over there” was much better than the original “over here” and sat down at a table. she brought me a glass of cold water and a small, gold-rimmed glass cup of hot tea with a tiny gold spoon and a matching saucer (no charge!). about a minute later, she walked over to my table with my falafel pita sandwich. two halves, wrapped in foil with a cup of cucumber yogurt sauce and a pile of surprisingly delicious fries*. wow! i thought i was just getting a half of a pita with some falafel stuck in it! it turned out to be a very enjoyable lunch. i think i’ll go back sometime and try one of the meat dishes…

*the surprise is because generally, i’m not a big fan of french fries. as a kid, i refused to eat them and as an adult, i’m still not fond of the mcdonald’s or wendy’s types of fries. i’ll sometimes eat a few at burger king or arby’s (on the rare occasion that we eat at one of those establishments) or at a fancier restaurant if they have seasoning or at least plenty of salt.