Moody's Falafel Palace
If you have been following books such as Food Inc and Fast Food Nation you may have heard that many Americans consume most of their calories in their car. As you can imagine this leads to a lot of compulsive, half unconscious eating in the most sedentary of positions. Personally I don’t drive, so I suggest that people learn to take a meal or two on their feet as a remedy. Growing up I did a lot of running around for my dad’s business and learned how to eat a plate of bean tacos while running to the bank or how to munch on chopped fruit with lime while pushing a cart full of construction supplies. Suddenly you become quite self-conscious about what you are eating, it becomes a challenge and odds are you will be full before you can finish it.
Right now my favorite spot for on the go meals is Moody’s Falafel Palace, offering a variety of Middle Eastern fare but specializing in kebabs, falafel, and tasty fresh salads. Sure, you can take a huge container of sliced meats, rice pilaf, raw onion, tart cucumber salad and Syrian bread to go and consume in your cubicle but what I think you really want to try are their grilled roll ups. They are packed tight with salad, pickles, tahini dressing, and your choice of filling; be it lamb, chicken, kafta kebob (a dense version of meatloaf), tabuli, hummus, grape leaves, baba ghanouj, or the obligatory falafels themselves. For me the two big stand-outs are the falafels and the lamb. The falafels are crisp, crunchy, warm, and mealy inside. You probably want to eat them quickly though, when ordered by themselves they come atop a salad that quickly soaks into the falafel making it cold and damp. Inside a roll up they are amazing, kind of like stuffing in a turkey wrap. The lamb is tender, salty, well toasted if you get a slice that has been baking in the heat and every once in a while you get a little piece of fat, which can be tough to chew but packs so much flavor it feels like the prize in the cereal box. This is the order I usually get on my way to work: a Lamb Wrap with hot sauce (a very earthy and strong variety) and they pack it so tight that it is easy to eat on the go. Just don’t take it entirely out of its wrapper, or that thing will start hemorrhaging tahini dressing all over the subway.
Other items on the menu include a refreshing cucumber and yogurt salad with a touch of mint, and some of the best lentil soup I have ever tried. They also have all the pastries you would expect from baklava to bird’s nests, and a healthy selection of retail drinks if you are afraid of Turkish coffee. Also it is nice to not have to deal with calling meals in; even when busy you will be in and out less than five minutes carrying something that certainly does not taste like fast food. And for those slaves of the overnight shift like me, they are open until 3 am and usually well stocked no matter how late you show up.
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