(near the) Marketplace Monday

EDIT on 19th October: This place now calls itself Shawerma and Falafel on Facebook, which implies it now sells meat or will shortly start doing so. I also received an anonymous comment earlier today which I briefly approved, but have decided to un-approve because I’m not sure what the libel laws are for blogs, however my reply to the comment stands, that I would probably not go back to this place now they are selling meat, when there are a lot of veggie small businesses nearby who I would like to support.

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I was a bit doubtful about daily themes, and today I’ve really come unstuck. There just wasn’t anything I really fancied at the market. Okay, I could have had 12 fresh figs for £1, but I have dried figs at home that need eating, and although I was after avocados the only ones I could find were relatively expensive and didn’t look very promising.

Although I generally eat home-made stuff while I’m trying to save money, I was rather pleased to discover a new hole-in-the-wall eatery called Zee Juice just around the corner from the market place. I was instantly attracted by the promise of fresh falafel, and when the first sentence in response to “what’s in the wrap?” was “it’s 100% vegetarian” (followed up with assurances that it was dairy free too) I was sold!

£3.50 for a freshly made falafel wrap and a freshly squeezed juice drink seems like a pretty great deal to me! I really liked their home-made decorations too –

As well as the pineapple they also had various other fruit dangling, and lots of home-made signs. I felt like it showed love for their surroundings and found it kind of endearing.

The juice I had was a mint, orange and lemon juice drink. I think they’d previously juiced and iced the lemon and mint, and then they freshly squeezed 2 oranges into the glass. It was really refreshing, with a great hit of mint, and nice and tart from the citrus.

after I got my drink, I was given an unexpected ‘starter’ of a bowl of perfectly crispy fried cracker-type-things, hummus, a marinaded tomato slice and a slice of aubergine, garnished with a sprig of mint, which tided me over while waiting for the falafel.

While I was waiting I also took a picture of some random strangers who were waiting for their wrap as well and said they wouldn’t mind appearing on a stranger’s blog, because why not? Note the netted melon at the top left!

As they were cooking everything in a dinky deep-fat fryer each wrap is apparently made separately, so there was a bit of a wait, but here’s the result – 

Nice hot falafel in a freshly warmed wrap, with salad leaves and (a nice touch) a sprinkling of sesame seeds inside. Not sure what herbs they used, there was something unfamiliar in there. My only regret is that there wasn’t any of the excellent hummus that had come with the starter also inside the wrap. If (or more likely when) I visit again I will make sure I either ask for extra hummus or keep some aside from the appetiser.

In general, I would say £3.50 very well spent!