Eating out - Mediterranean lunch

On Friday, we decided to have a team lunch at a restaurant called 'Pita Inn'. This is a Mediterranean restaurant. And I never knew it was Mediterranean till I saw it on the net (and that too after I had had my lunch there). The name is interesting - "Pita Inn". But sirf khane ke liye hi hai. There is hardly anything on their beverage menu. I think the name "Khata Inn" would have been better. This is where I think - what's in a name???

Coming back to lunch - I had to rely on a colleague who is a shudh shakahari just like me. He mentioned about Vegetable Falafel Plate and some other guys mentioned Falafel sandwich. Now I know for sure that sandwich will not be a filling lunch. I mean, you might feel full, but you will also feel hungry again. So sandwich was out for me. There was another veg speciality called Vegetarian Combination Plate.

Since I had never tried Mediterranean food earlier, I was not sure what it will taste like. And for me, when I am trying something new, I prefer to try it one at a time rather than trying a lot of new things together. The name 'Combination Plate' hinted that it was a combination of many food items and all of them untried. So I decided to opt for Vegetarian Falafel Plate instead of Vegetarian Combination Plate.

By the way, here is the menu. The names sound so simple, but the ingredients of these dishes are something that I have never heard of. Here you go-
1. Vegetarian Falafel Plate
Seasoned ground chick peas and vegetables, formed into six patties and deep fried to a flavorful crispness served with salad, our homemade tahini sauce, hot sauce, lettuce, tomato and our homemade pita bread.

2. Vegetarian Combination Plate
Combination of falafel, stuffed grape leaves, hummus, baba ghannoug, Jerusalem salad and tabouleh salad, served with our homemade pita bread.

Whatever it is, it sounds interesting. Waise, I was not having any expectations. Jo bhi khane ko mila, its good. As long as it is shudh shakahari. When I got my order, I couldn't believe my eyes. I got 6 wadas (they were actually falafels), salad (which was lettuce, onion [ya phir woh different colour ka lettuce tha] and 2 half slices of tomato). Oh yes, I forgot to mention - pita bread was there too. I am sure you must be knowing how big a personal pizza or a pan pizza is. and how the crust looks like without toppings. Well one pita bread is half of a pan pizza. and it has a slitin the soft part i.e. along the diameter of the semi pan pizza crust. I am calling it pan pizza crust so that I can convey it to you. Now with this slit, pita bread looks like a pouch. You stuff the wada (na na, i am not calling it falafel - it was a wada to the core) in the pita bread and add as much lettuce / tomato as you want, as long as you have it on your plate. Add some sauce, maybe white sauce or hot sauce. And trust me the hot sauce was hardly hot. The firangs can't handle hot and spicy food. So even I enjoyed the hot sauce. But just changing the name does not change anything, right. The falafels seemed like dal wada though with a lot less besan and a lot more filling. I started calling it dal vada pav. And I ate it imagining that I am eating vada-pav. Just that my vada-pav was something like a dal vada with a bread pouch, some green leaves and some hot sauce. And if your curiosity has got the better of you, here is what a Vegetarian Falafel Plate looks like.




(Image Courtesy : Pita Inn)

But the question remains - why Pita Inn and why not Khata Inn? One more random thought - why not Mata inn?