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A Stop for Falafel - Weekend Jaunt

Falafel is like a Mediterranean Wada.  For the Anglic community it can be described as a deep fried mouthful of ground beans (usually chickpea aka garbanzo aka Kabuli Chana) mixed with some herbs and spices to create a fluffy yet crisp ball of palate pleasing goodness.  Think hush puppies from the other side of the planet.

We met with some friends on a cold and cloudy Saturday to try a place in the Silicon Valley that touted to make great falafels and pita (flat bread native to the Mediterranean) along with some varieties of food native to that region of the world.

I chose to get Shawarma, where the spice seasoned meat (chicken, lamb, beef or whatever the chef can get their hand on) spins on a spit against hot flames for a long period of time till it gets shaved off and served in a bread or over rice.
My version was ensconced in a flat bread - the pita - made on site- with pickled radish, carrot and other veggies, along with a sour cream and chickpea and sesame seed based puree, and some hot chilli peppers based sauce.

I prefer my meat more spicy (with the marinade doing the job) whereas this version was not as much. Not to confuse spicy with heat the richness of well cooked and spiced meat was best enjoyed when I tried Doner Kababs in Germany last year.

I also stole a bite of the falafel sandwich from my wife's plate to see how it compared with another of our favorite falafel joint in the valley.

While the dish was melt in your mouth great it was not as amazing as the one where we usually end up (few miles down the road and run by a Syrian ex-pat vs. the new one apparently run by an Israeli family).  The quality of pita bread took the family and friends by surprise and they got some more 'to go' with after we were done.  While pita made 'on site' would taste amazingly good the overall package lacked the flavor profile I had come to enjoy at my usual Falafel place.

I prefer the darker falafel with whatever recipe the other restaurant uses vs. this one that produced golden brown lighter balls.  Also adding cucumber and more of the Tahini (a paste or sauce made from sesame seeds) in my falafel sandwich makes it more filling.  The new place added neither to its sandwich.

After taking care of business (a happy gut) we headed out for some cliched photo stops - had not been since being in the valley over a decade) -

1. To see the home where Steve Jobs (born of a Syrian father) tinkered with computers (where the Jobs family moved after his adoption) and brought Apple Computer to life.

2. We later also visited the present day Apple HQ in nearby Cupertino to round out an outing to the valley.  Apple became the world's most valuable company by market capitalization (perceived value of its shares based on the folks that own them) in 2015 largely due to its ability to innovate and successfully market handheld computers to an audience that did not know they could not live without it.

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