Sahadi's

Blair: "Can I ask you something? What do you think about falafel?"

Blue Columbia pre-minion: "Ew. Isn't that the kind of food paralegals eat?"

-nymag.com, Gossip Girl recap

Indeed. As a former paralegal myself, I know that I ate a lot of falafel (as well as a lot of questionable street meat that induced bowel-clenching stomach pain as I racked up charges on Westlaw). But this chickpea fetish is not limited to paralegals, as I discovered on my first day of summer internship training. As the group broke for lunch, the director of training (also one of the staff attorneys) detained us to share the most interesting thing she had said all morning: "Try Sahadi's. They have wonderful falafel sandwiches. They're amazing!," she chirped.

Amazing? Well, alright. Sahadi's sounded promising enough. A Middle Eastern market in Brooklyn (outer borough always lends a certain amount of street cred) stocking everything from tea to olives to dried fruit and spices, with a hot and cold food counter in the back. I made my way down to Atlantic Ave. for what I hoped would be a deliciously authentic lunch.

Falafel sandwich with babaghanoush: All I have to say is this. The last time I had falafel this bad, it was at Pret a Manger (which was also, incidentally, on my first day of work as a paralegal. Perhaps a bad Middle Eastern lunch is a rite of passage upon entering the legal profession). The falafel balls clearly had not been fried to order; rather, they tasted as if they had been sitting around, degenerating into the slightly soggy, leaden clumps that they were. The texture of the interior was dry and crumbly, like bad cornbread. The babaghanoush was passable, but nothing mindblowing. To make matters worse, the entire sandwich had been constructed rather poorly. The falafel balls sat at the very bottom of the pita, drowned in babaghanoush. On top of this mess was enough lettuce and tomato to keep Peter Rabbit satisfied for a month. Tahini sauce topped off all the veggies. The end result: I munched through what seemed like hundreds of mouthfuls of pita, lettuce and tahini before reaching any of the babaghanoush or falafel (and before being able to take a decent picture of the thing). The only upside was that it only cost me about $3.

Mini spanakopita: I had much better luck with the spanakopita. These little phyllo-wrapped spinach and cheese pastries were quite satisfying, although they would have been even better if the ladies at the Sahadi's counter had heated them up before serving them.

Bottom line: The next time you want a falafel, ask a paralegal.

Sahadi's7 A

187 Atlantic Ave.

(between Clinton St & Court St)

Brooklyn, NY 11201