Hungrygrrl

Truck food is religion in other cities, especially where I went to college in West Philadelphia. There were mexican trucks, vegetarian trucks and of course–a falafel truck. I loved that falafel truck. Seattle finally has a falafel truck of its own.

The location isn’t quite where you’d expect. Parked in front of the Corson Building, Hallava Falfel stands alone, a bright yellow beacon. I’ve been wanting to go to there for ages, but their hours were fluid. One week they’d be there, the next week I’d find a lonely street corner.

But finally last week–success. A bright yellow truck on Corson street just off Airport way. They even have a sign on the main street pointing you in their direction. Their hours are still meager: 11-2pm during the week, but at 1:30pm the guy was sitting outside grabbing a smoke, no customers in sight so I didn’t have to wait.

The menu is simple: two sandwiches and three beverages. Falafel or schwarma with your choice of coke, gingerale or something called “vimto” which is actually a british berry soda, but for some reason has arabic writing on the can.

I ended up deciding on falafel as I figured if they can’t make falafel they shouldn’t put it in the name. The sandwich was huge, but well packaged so that it didn’t squirt all over the sidewalk, and they used good thick freshly griddled pita.

But it’s the sauces that really made this sandwich—beet paste, tzatziki, hotsauce, and pickles. Beet paste especially was a welcome addition. The hot sauce was also more liberally applied, and the pickles were a new thing to me in falafel.

Sadly the falafel themselves were not so ingenious. They were a bit too floury for my taste, not as chickpea-y as they should be. I would hazard a guess they were made from mix. I did see a deep fryer in there and perhaps if I’d been there at noon mine would have come out fresh, but these were reheated.

Still, it was pretty damn good. I just think if if you’re going to go to all the trouble, cook up some chickpeas and make real falafel. I didn’t try the schwarma as I was wary of schwarma from a truck. Hard to roast lamb on a spit in a truck.

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Hallava Falafel
Airport Way S And S Corson St
Seattle, WA 98108
(206) 667-4663
http://www.myspace.com/hallava