Week 9 (2023) - Palestinian

This one is a tough one to write, given current events. Back in 2022, the cooking challenge had a Ukraine theme (partially written, still haven't posted yet somehow). I think it was in direct response to the war with Russia and to support Ukrainian culture and cooking. In 2023, the Week 9 theme was Palestinian. At the time I made this, I was excited, because we have some Palestinian restaurants in the area that we love, I had a couple of cookbooks and websites bookmarked that focused on Palestinian cuisine, and it would be fun to try out something new. Week 9 of 2023 was the end of February, beginning of March, and while the region has never really been free from conflict, the world looked a lot different than it does now. Making Palestinian food now seems a lot more like the Ukraine challenge than it did at the time.

For the challenge, I decided to make a recipe called sayadieh from the cookbook, Dine in Palestine. The internet seems to mostly associate this dish with Lebanon, sometimes Syria, but the recipe intro in the cookbook said that the author was introduced to this dish while traveling in Jordan and Palestine, so that worked for me. Sayadieh is a cumin-spiced cod dish served with caramelized onions and rice, which this cookbook paired with a tahini salad, and that sounded to us like a delicious dinner.

We had already tried one recipe from this cookbook previously, za'atar spiced tilapia with lentil salad, that was amazing, so we had a feeling the sayadieh was going to be good too. I'm going to briefly mention that one here rather than making a separate post, so for the AtWCC, it'll just be one post about both Palestinian fish dishes. Za'atar is a common spice in Palestinian dishes (and the one we have is actually Palestinian from Z&Z with Palestinian-sourced wild thyme, sumac, and toasted sesame seeds) that we absolutely love. Here, the tilapia was seasoned with salt and pepper, and then baked in a sauce mix of za'atar, olive oil, butter, lemon juice, and garlic. The lentils were mixed with green onions, tomato, fresh parsley, garlic, olive oil, and lemon juice, and even without the fish, that was a great salad. Everything together was delicious and just worked really well. This dish immediately went onto our list of things we needed to make again sometime.

On to the sayadieh. The tahini salad came first so it could chill in the fridge, and that was about what you would expect - tomatoes, parsley, and garlic in a tahini-lemon dressing. Next up was caramelizing onions (can't remember if I did 2 or 3), which always tastes good but makes me think about just how little you get for how many onions you've used. Most of the onions went into the rice, along with olive oil, cumin, turmeric, and some bouillon, which made the rice really flavorful and yellow. The last component was the cod itself, which was seasoned with cumin, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper. The final garnishes were the remaining caramelized onions, slivered almonds, and parsley. A bunch of elements but a really nicely composed plate.

Overall, both fish dishes were good, but I think I preferred the za'atar fish with lentil salad a little bit more because it was a lighter plate. I'm very glad we tried both of them, and I'm looking forward to going through more of that cookbook another time.

King of Falafel and Shawarma

One of our favorite vendors at the Vendy Awards in past years was the King of Falafel and Shawarma, which won the Vendy Cup and People's Choice Awards at the Vendys in 2010. (We never had a chance to write about it but we voted for them!) The cart has been located in Astoria and run by Freddy, who is one of the nicest, friendliest vendors we have met and very passionate about serving excellent food. (To see more about the original Astoria cart and Freddy's food, here's the video the Vendy people did before the 2010 awards.)

Since we don't live in Astoria, we don't get to see Freddy very often. But recently he announced that he was putting together a second cart and heading to Manhattan, which we were really excited about. Today was their first day in midtown - at 53rd and Park - and there was a long line for most of the lunch rush. Everyone loves the King of Falafel! I knew what I wanted to do for lunch today...


I decided to take a late lunch and ventured over after 2, when the line was much shorter but the shawarma was almost gone. I got a shawarma platter which came with salad (lettuce, tomato, red onion, pickles, pickled turnips) and a piece of falafel. They were running out of chicken so I got the last of that plus some of the lamb. (I usually just get chicken.) The cart was so busy the whole time. Freddy kept making falafel and tossing them into the fryer inbetween serving customers. As exhausting as it must have been, it must also have been nice knowing that so many midtowners love their food! What a welcome!


The falafel was as good as I remembered. It's an oblong shape instead of a round ball which keeps the outside crispy and the inside soft and not dry. It's a unique falafel and so good. The white and hot sauces on top of the shawarma and salad were also delicious. The last time we had the chicken shawarma at the Vendys, we went early in the day, so I think the shawarma that time was better than what I had today, which was the end of the batch. That said, it was still really tasty and has such a good blend of spices. I think next time (whenever I can find the time to trek over again and wait in line) I might go for a falafel platter (especially if they're running low on shawarma). The falafel is really that good. Welcome to midtown, King of Falafel!