!صحتين — To your health!

Believe it or not, when I left for the Middle East I didn’t like hummus. I could never quite stomach the texture. So when my roommates and I stumbled into our first falafel place in Amman, I didn’t have high hopes. We chose Mota’m Hashem, which calls itself the oldest restaurant in Amman and, despite…

Gaza — Congealed Gem of the Arab World

Between ideological differences, it is often those that are innocent that get hurt. The political ideologies of Palestine and Israel have clashed for decades and the resulting conflict has culminated itself into a backdrop of daily turmoil in Gaza, a microcosmic gem of the Arab world.  As I am learning about the conflict that is…

What’s wrong with Moroccan food?

Is it limited by the traditions of the past or has it lost touch with its roots? Check out Julia Moskin’s article in yesterday’s Times for a discussion of Morocco’s cuisine and how two cooks (young chef, Mourad Lahlou and esteemed cookbook author, Paula Wolfert) have come to understand its evolution in contrasting ways. Moskin…

Saad’s Halal: The Torpedo

I must admit that I have a bit of bias towards Saad’s, which is a large part of the reason I am addressing it first. I have to get it out of the way to ensure total objectivity, as I have a history with Saad’s, and reviewing their falafel during/after the rest of the series…

A New Series on Falafel

Memories of “place” are rooted in our senses, the filter through which our minds record and interact with the world. In particular, the sensory overload of food can jolt a person into remembering even the dullest minutiae from another life. The climactic scene of Pixar’s Ratatouille, for example, shows the insurmountably cantankerous food critic remembering…