Perspectives
So yesterday we went for dinner at The French Laundry, an upscale restaurant located in Yountville in Napa valley. It is widely considered to be one of the best restaurants in the world, and definitively the best in the bay area. It was an exquisite dinner, with great company, good wine*, and excellent food.
And the most interesting dish just happened to be on the Vegetable Tasting menu. Very interesting indeed.
Hmmm. Delectable meal. Hmmm.
It was a dish labelled: Chickpea “Croquette” – Sweet Peppers, English Cucumbers, Sesame Seed Yogurt and Eggplant Confit. Now Larousse Gastronomique defines a croquette as a “small savoury or sweet preparation…… Croquettes are shaped into corks, sticks, balls or rechtangles. They are usually coated with breadcrumbs, plunged into very hot oil and fried until they are crisp and golden…”.
So why is a Chickpea “Croquette” interesting to a group of Israelis eating at the French Laundry?
Well, because most people from Mediterranean states have another name for it. We call it “Falafel”. And whatever the disputed origin of this dish - it is THE fast food choice in Israel.
Hmmm. Falafel. (I apologize for the dark picture, I didn't want to disturb the other diners with a flash)
This was a great Falafel, on par with that served at the best Falafel stands in Israel, but for me it was a mere ball of Falafel. At any Falafel stand you’ll get 5-6 balls for about 5 bucks. Was this going to be a McDonald’s like “fast food” experience (and thus the disappointment of the meal), or was this another epitomy of world cuisine where the recognition of quality just happened to be masked by mere abundance, and thus serving as the East Mediterranean equivalent of Joel Robuchon’s famous Mashed Potatoes?
And I was immediately reminded of Dima, an Army buddy who had originally been from one of the Russian cities directly situated on the Caspian sea. In one of our discussions my mention of just how great Sturgeon Caviar can be and how lucky he was to have lived on the shores of the Caspian sea, was greeted with a shrug and the remark that he despised Caviar. Caviar for them was just plain Caviar. They had lots of it. In large jars. Everywhere. Growing up he got fed up with Caviar. Having left Russia he became surprised at just how revered the stuff actually was by Westerners. In Dima’s perspective, Caviar was farmer food. It was not the stuff you serve at restaurants awarded 3 stars by the prestigious Michelin ”Red Guide”.
It is a matter of perspective. For me, falafel is fast food. Great fast food, but still fast food. However, there are too few good falafel places in the US (unfortunately in the US, most so called “mediterranean” places serve soggy, microwave reheated falafel balls), so a really good falafel can and should be served at 3 star Michelin rated place. In fact, it seemed right-at-home with the “salsify croquant” and other eclectic, world dishes.
Perhaps, one day, the ancient chickpea and it’s dishes will become popular in the US. At that point it will join the other successful imports from countries such as Germany (e.g. Frankfurter and Hamburger) and France (double fried “French” fries) and Italy (Pizza). It will also join the original American dishes such as Burrito, Taco, Popcorn, Tomatoes, Chocolate, Potatoes, Corn and many more. We look the those staples of fast food and forget just how good they can be when done right. Abundance makes us ignore the greatness of these dishes.
Returning to falafel: And like everything else around the Mediterranean Sea, falafel is way too old to have a clear history. And as can be expected, falafel has it’s place in providing fodder for the animosities between the inhabitants of the levant. So it seems the Lebanese have decided to explore suing it’s neighbor to the South claiming falafel is somehow a “controlled appelation” like Feta.
Luckily for us, in the odd chance that Lebanon succeeds, we now have a new name for falafel. We can now call it Chickpea “Croquette”. As in “Te’n li bevakasha mana Chickpea “Croquette” be’ pita, im thina, salat, veksat hamutsim. Meh-at zhug. Toda” (Translation from Hebrew: “Please give me a portion of Chickpea “Croquette” in pita bread with tahini sauce, salad and few pickles. A little hot sauce. Thanks”).
Life is like data security: One simply cannot have a sense of security without backup plans.
Thank you Thomas Keller (owner/chef) for an amazing meal and for saving the Israeli falafel. Now that I know that my favorite fast food is safe I can rest easy and concentrate on computer and data security.
/al
* Not to be a wine bore, the wines we had were excellent: a white Mas De Daumas Gassac 2007 and Nuit St. George 1er Cru Clos de L’Arlot 2004