Middle Eastern Food on the Food Network Redux

I recently saw Bobby Flay do a falafel “Throwdown” on the food network. This time, however, they actually featured authentic dishes, and did not give a bad name to one of the world’s greatest cuisines.

For those of you unfamiliar with “Throwdown“, the concept is pretty simple. Bobby Flay (a pretty well-known chef) goes around the country challenging restaurant owners to see who makes the best of whatever that particular restaurant’s specialty happens to be. It’s a pretty good combination of travel and food preparation, with some competition throw in.

From what I hear, Falafel is rather difficult to make. For the poor uninitiated, falafel is a deep-fried hummus, of sorts, served of course with tahini, various salatim, and well, hummus – often served in a pita. I have been making my own hummus for some time, but one of these days I’m going to have to take the next step.

Next step... falafel

This time Flay challenged a former employee of his, Einat Admoni, at Taim Falafel in New York City to a falafel throwdown. Each of them made a falafel, hummus, and salad platter. During the competition Einat playfully criticized Flay’s method of blanching the falafel before frying them all the way through, and for making the falafel balls by hand (which apparently result in a very dense consistency).

All in all, though, he did a far better job than the last time I saw a Food Network host try his hand at Middle Eastern food. What did bother me was his “white bean hummus.” I’m pretty picky about my hummus, and I’m not a fan of foreign variations. In fact, even calling his product hummus is a stretch, considering his dip substitutes white beans for chickpeas. The Semitic root of “chickpea” is the origin of the very name of the dish. (Arabic: حمص, Hebrew: חמ”צ), and no chickpeas – no hummus.

In the end, the judges ruled for Bobby Flay. Einat was clearly trying to hide the fact that she was upset, saying she appreciates Flay’s work, but that her falafel is much better. Nevertheless, Flay’s own assistants were disappointed with the decision, one of them saying, “I think, objectively, she had a [sic] much, much better falafel… this time the judges just got it wrong.”

Here’s a link for the entire episode.

Coming very soon: hummus and falafel reviews of New York restaurants.