The falafel

Due to the recent experience I had with a lamb kebab, the one that left me feeling about as satisfied as the wife of a serial premature ejaculator, I had a yearning deep down inside me that needed to be satisfied. It wasn’t the sort of feeling that could be extinguished with a new book, a tub of my favourite ice cream or maybe some sexy underwear. No, this was a flame that was fuelled by the bread wrapped treat that we call the kebab… and we all know the only way to fill the hole left by one kebab, is to ingest another kebab of more awesome character and social standing. That’s when my mind started to wander.

Maybe I had been barking up the wrong tree in my quest for kebab glory… well actually, I’d definitely been barking up the wrong tree. Apparently standing around, barking at trees isn’t really the done thing these days… and I have a $100 on the spot fine to prove it.

But aside from the literal, I think the proverbial can still be applied here.

Living on the outskirts of a popular little Eastern Australian hovel called Byron Bay, we get to experience a lot of hippy culture and associated products ie. hemp clothing shops, crystal stone body deodorant, dreadlocks, Mad Max type fashion and every current healthy eating trend out there, including of course, vegetarianism. So maybe this is something that is being done well in The Bay? I wondered if I should flip off my desires for a meaty kebab and try and satiate my needs with a… falafel? After all a falafel pocket does have all of the basic components of a kebab, it’s just that the shaved animal product is replaced with little falafel patties.

So I saddled up my carnie folk, put the kids into the cart and off we trot to the closest purveyor of this Arab treat, Orgasmic Food (yeah, that is their name), Byron Bay.

This falafel was some good shit. Ground up broad beans or chickpeas or both, herbs and spices formed into little faux nuggets and deep fried until crispy, packed into a pita pocket with salad, hummus, some kind of pickled chilli and cabbage, yoghurty stomething and za’atar. $7.50 for a half pocket or $11 for a full. Magic combo. Now I think I might head over to the hemp clothing shop and get myself some Thai fisherman’s pants…

Or not…