The Falafel Recession

I was reminded by "anonymous" today that I have somewhat completely strayed from the original intent of the 80% blog. This is true. It's not that things have improved locally to say 82%, it's more that I'm such a naturally upbeat person that whining on about 80% is unnaturally tiring (if you believe this you probably believe Bibi). But, the criticism, while it smarts, is well deserved. I will resume my mission. I will seek out the 80% and revel in it.

One thing that is definitely a little above 80% is Haim's falafel. I have waxed poetic about this previously. Yesterday, I had enough of the squints and the whining. So I bunked out of work before lunch (it's good to be the king) and took a long walk home. The weather had improved and the little rain we received was over. I walked through the center of Herzliya and seeing at it had just gone noon, I stopped off at Haim's for a falafel. The line wasn't too terrible and I got my pita filled to bursting with soft, hot balls and fresh salad. The fried potato wedgie thingie on top was not cooked through (lost a few percentage points here), but besides that there was little to complain about on the eating front.

If you examine the picture above closely, ignore Menash and his assistant and look at the salads on the counter. There are two squeeze bottles of Tehina as there should be, the Harif (hot sauce) is plentiful, the amber (that strange yellow stuff in the bowl nearest the tehina) is easily avoided but where are the pickles? Yep friends, they had run out. This will not do. They had also run out of the usual smearers they pass off as napkins (so called because they merely smear the falafel juice in a thin layer on your face) and all they had were pieces of newsprint cut into squares. This is a bad sign, it seems the recession has hit full force - I can only hope the law of 80% is only temporarily visiting Haim's (perhaps it needed a falafel). This is serious, I will keep you posted.