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Falafel (Arabic: فلافل falaafil (help·info), Hebrew: פָלָאפֶל‎; also known in Egypt and Sudan as ta'meya, Arabic طعمية), is a fried ball or patty made from spiced fava beans and/or chickpeas. It is a popular form of fast food in the Middle East, where it is also served as a mezze (snack or tapas). The word "falafel" is the plural of the Arabic word فلفل (filfil), meaning pepper.^[1] Variant spellings in English include felafel and filafil.

Falafel is usually served as a sandwich wrapped in pita bread, and outside the Middle East, the term "falafel" commonly refers to this sandwich—falafel in a pita is typical street food or fast food. Along with the falafel balls, which may be crushed onto the bread or added whole, topping variations are usually included. Falafel balls may also be eaten alone as a snack or served as part of a mezze. During Ramadan they are sometimes eaten as part of an iftar, the meal which breaks the daily fast after sunset.

Falafel has been part of the diet of Mizrahi Jews for centuries and is a staple of the Israeli diet. It has become the national dish of Israel.^[2]

Falafel is now seen as a uniting, pan-Middle-Eastern dish. In recent years, immigration from the Middle East to Western countries has brought with it a broader availability of Middle Eastern cuisine, and the falafel sandwich has become a popular and iconic food within alternative fast food or slow food movements, and indeed has spread worldwide.

They are also used as a vegan alternative filler to a Döner kebab in many countries.

Contents 1 Ingredients 1.1 Variations 2 Related dishes 3 Cultural and literary references 4 References 5 See also 6 Bibliography

Falafel is made from fava beans or chickpeas or a combination of the two. The Egyptian variation uses exclusively fava beans, while other variations may only use chickpeas. Unlike many other bean patties, in falafel the beans are not cooked prior to use. Instead they are soaked, possibly skinned, then ground with the addition of a small quantity of onion, parsley, spices (including cumin), and bicarbonate of soda, and deep fried at a high temperature. Sesame seeds may be added to the balls before they are fried; this is particularly common when falafel is served as a dish on its own rather than as a sandwich filling.

Recent culinary trends have seen the triumph of the chickpea falafel over the fava bean falafel. Chickpea falafels are served across the Middle East, and have been popularized by expatriates of those countries living abroad.

Outside the Middle East a Greek-style pita bread is often used as a pocket and stuffed with the different ingredients; in Arab countries a round khubz bread, 'eish' in Egypt, is halved, and the two resulting round pieces are used to create a cigar-shaped wrap. In Arab countries, hummus (chickpeas pureed with tahini) is rarely an ingredient. The usual sauce is tahini (sesame seed paste) thinned with water and lemon. The most common salad ingredients are tomato and parsley. In Lebanon parsley is mixed with chopped mint leaves. It is also common in Syria and Lebanon to add pickles; the two canonical ones are pickled turnip, colored pink with beetroot, and pickled cucumber. Recently, there has been a new "filled" falafel, its center usually consisting of ground meat or minced onions. These fillings are wrapped by the uncooked falafel mixture, and then deep fried.

The salads or the pita itself may be seasoned with sumac or salt; alternatively, these may be sprinkled on top. In Syria, sumac is widely used.

• In Indian cuisine, ambode is a fried ball of soaked chickpeas. It is usually flattened and pan-fried, and served with chutney. Alternatively, in the South Indian cuisine, paruppu vadai is used to refer to flattened, fried balls (or fritters) of a mix of lentils and chickpeas.

• In Italian cuisine, there is a chickpea fritter called frittata di ceci; other similar Italian dishes include panelle and farinata.

• Acarajé, an Afro-Brazilian street food from the northeastern state of Bahia, are pureed black-eyed peas formed into a ball and then deep-fried in palm oil.

• TV personality Bill O'Reilly is nicknamed the Falafel Guy, after mistakenly referring to the loofah sponge as a "falafel" midway through an alleged phone conversation with Andrea Mackris.
• In the popular TV series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, a character portrayed by the actor Paul Norell is known as Falafel, because he is a Falafel vendor.
• In the hit TV series Friends, Rachel's sister Amy, the character portrayed by the actress Christina Applegate mistakes Ross played by David Schwimmer as a Falafel vendor in episode number 224, season 10.
• John Birmingham wrote the 1994 novel He Died with a Felafel in His Hand, subsequently produced as a play and a film.

• Arab cuisine
• Sabich
• Jewish cuisine

• Jodi Kantor, "A History of the Mideast in the Humble Chickpea".[1]
• Yael Raviv, "Falafel: A National Icon", Gastronomica, Summer 2003, 3:3:20-25. Discusses how an Arab dish became "the national food of Israel".