One of the (numerous) nice things i like about where we are living in Paris is the proximity to Rue Des Rosiers in the Marais, which is only a 5-10 minute leisurely stroll away. This street, in a Jewish corner of the Marais, contains a large number of very nice take away (and eat in) cafe/restaurants with a heavy eastern european influence.
L'as Du Fallafel is undoubtedly my a favourite eatery on Rue Des Rosiers, I've had a fallafel from there every week since arriving. There is always a queue of people on the street outside, with ticket in hand, waiting for their take away meal and on weekends I don't even bother, the queues are so huge, spilling all over the (virtualy pedestrian) street. I'm on holidays, so can go there any time during the week.
It is quite a culinary experience ... pita bread over-loaded with grated lightly pickled red cabbage, freshly deep fried garlicky chickpea balls (and lots of them), warm fried eggplant, creamy hummus ... and don't forget the sauce piquant. The pita is so full of these edible goodies that you are required to eat at least half of it with a plastic fork before attempting to eat the remainder with the bread. MMMMMM .... thinking about this makes me want one RIGHT NOW!!!
But I had already become a creature of habit, to only eat fallafel from the same eatery every week. So last week I decided to try fallafel from another cafe, Chez Marianne.
Chez Marianne is a well respected restaurant in the Marais which we intended visiting for a meal one evening. Everything looked the same as at L'as Du Fallafel, the grated salad, the eggplant, the chickpea balls ... but what went wrong??
To start with ... the service, which made the always brisk (but also always busy) service at L'as Du Fallafel seem Michelin-starred in comparison. Then everything including the fried eggplant and chickpea balls was COLD?! It all tasted wrong, the salad even seemed soggy and was so bad we both threw most of it away rather than eat it. It seemed like such a waste, but it was that bad!
Needless to say we no longer intend visiting the restaurant at Chez Marianne, if they can't even make fallafel I don't want to try any of their more adventurous dishes.
And next week I will be getting my fellafel fix where I know the food is good, L'as Du Fallafel.
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