Disappointed, and Not So Much

I was having a heck of a time trying to decide what to get today for lunch with only a handful of trucks tweeting they'd be nearby, but I hadn't had Red Hook since just before Thanksgiving so I figured that would be a good choice.  Hopefully today was just an off day because I'm sure hoping things haven't changed so drastically (for the worse) in the last two months.  Typically my roll is gone long before all the lobster, not just because it is well moistened by the butter poaching liquid, but because there is just so much lobster.  Today I practically had half a roll left and the substantially smaller quantity of crustacean was quite dry.  Really a let down.

On the flip side, I also decided to give House of Falafel another whirl now that the menu appears mostly "stabilized", not expecting much.  At first I ordered a beef shawarma, but noticed a couscous selection instead, offered with the same beef as the sandwich.  My plan was to sample while hot, then eat later, however I was still very much hungry after the weak Connecticut roll.  Since my expectations were low, I ended up reasonably surprised.  The beef by itself was well seasoned although a tad dry on its own.  But when eaten in a mouthful of all that was served, you're unlikely to be bothered by the lack of moisture in the meat for nestled between the beef and the couscous was, what I'm going to call, a middle-eastern style ratatouille.  I distinctly was able to identify at least zucchini, garbanzo & lima beans, peas, carrots, potatoes, onion, and tomatoes.  It could have used some more seasoning, and the couscous could be a little less mushy, but the combination of everything came off pretty well. 

The owner seemed crankier than I remember, and appears to not have figured out yet his business would do better if he leveraged social media like the rest of his truck brethren.  Not that there's a site to speak of up yet, at least www.thehouseoffalafel.com is no longer getting a '404' error.  Sticking with 3 honks.