The first time I ever heard about Falafel was in a Batman movie, and I had no idea what it was. Then I ate a bad, horribly dry falafel burger in the cafeteria of the Art Institute of Chicago. Imagine my surprise when I finally tried good, fresh cooked falafel from Two Apple Food Truck on the way to the Mall in Washington, DC. Its logo depicted two cubic apples, which was odd, but also beside the point.

Fresh grilled balls of chickpea that broke apart when you bit them were surrounded by tzatziki, shredded lettuce, and tomatoes, and wrapped in flatbread. The crunchiness of the lettuce and falafel shell balanced nicely with the smooth tzatziki and the chewy wrapping. I ended up with quite a bit of it on my hands, as the whole thing had a tendency to deconstruct as I ate it, because the tinfoil it was wrapped in was not big enough to go all the way around the sandwich.

As the falafel in Batman had been off a food cart, it feels appropriate that my first good falafel was too. I wish I could have eaten more than one sandwich from it, but the next day it had moved on. Sadly, that is the nature of food carts.