ChowTown.ca

Beyond Merely Sustaining Life

Let’s be completely forthright with each other. A meal brought to you by a gig worker in compostable containers with plastic cutlery is highly unlikely to ever be memorable in any positive way. Given my current situation, I at least am someone to whom this type of meal is, in point of fact, a noticeable upgrade from what would generally be dropped on my likely eighties-era overbed table. And as this is the case, the not-very-numerous occasions upon which such deliveries take place are joyous indeed.

Now, the food I’ve received in the three different locations in which I’ve been housed has varied wildly in its quality, flavor, texture, and at times, identifiability. Still, close to half the time, it has been at a level approaching good. Of course, we all know the stories of hospital food. While these most certainly apocryphal tales often assault our sense of what is right and good in the world, we can all agree that very nearly any other food would be preferable.

I have, on a number of occasions, either desired to order a delivered meal or been forced to out of need or the simple desire to have something beyond that which merely sustains life. Tonight, it was the last of these reasons, and I indulged in some of the flavors and textures of my home for the past three years. I wanted falafel in a deep and unsettling way, and with it, I wanted meat, something with Middle Eastern spices. After scrolling through the Uber Eats app, I decided on Shawarma Palace, the 17th Ave SW store, to be specific. My choice was partially the result of my predisposition towards laziness combined with an opioid-induced lack of energy, and also, more importantly, the fact that I’d eaten their food on more than one occasion and from more than one location as I was “hot-potatoed” between care facilities over the last few months.

Tonight it was easy. The falafel was a given, and a good salad topped with meat is always the correct choice. The in-app menu isn’t a showstopper, but it has the basic fare expected of a Middle Eastern takeaway. There are the aforementioned falafel, shawarma, and donair wraps, and the spin-offs from these staples: the platters and bowls. The former features donair meat, beef, chicken, or lamb, plus combinations of these with veggies, sauce, rice, potatoes, and pita bread. The latter features the same selection of meats and combinations thereof, with the veggies as a base. The selection of vegetables, either on the side or in the bowl, is good. These include for example: pickled turnips, peppers, and parsley, all of which are necessary in my mind. Not extensive, but passable. Likewise, the sauce choices are fine. Garlic sauce, tahini, hummus, sweet donair sauce, spicy garlic, and hot sauce are all available together, or in any combination your overworked heart desires. I do, however, question the choice of the hot sauce being Sriracha.

The rest of the menu consists of a surprising number of more niche items, such as Yalanji (meatless grape leaf rolls), which lend a more definite Turkish vibe to the direction of the food which is very similar in multiple countries. There are also garlic potatoes and rice. The dessert options are limited to baklava. Interestingly, they list Shamsane and Lezzet baklava, which, rather than a type, are actually brand names—the former being a Canadian company while the latter is out of Turkey itself. Oddly, given this, they also offer just “Turkish baklava.” The drink selection includes something familiar to me or anyone living in the Middle East or Central Asia: the yogurt drink Ayran. It’s salty and somewhat reminiscent of a salted lassi. Additionally, aside from the usual canned pop, fruit drinks, and water, they oddly sell four flavors of the fizzy and fruity Mexican staple Jarritos.

Given the definite Turkish lean to the menu, I’d have most certainly added a few pieces of lokum (Turkish delight) or some Elma Çayı (Apple Tea) if they were offered as options.

My order tonight consisted of the required falafel, of which I indulged in four balls. In spite of the thirty minutes they spent steaming in the “sauna” on the trip to me, these were—on this occasion, as well as my previous times ordering from Shawarma Palace—still pleasantly crispy outside with a near-perfect interior. They are currently my favorite falafel. The balls are large, of the Levantine style which uses chickpea, uniform, and have just the right texture while balancing flavors nicely. I prefer this type of falafel slightly drier inside without being crumbly. These match the brief. They’re even crispy after being reheated in a microwave the following day—a feat that defies both logic and the laws of nature.

UPDATE: This unearthly ability to retain their crispiness was pushed beyond its limit when my nurse reheated the two remaining falafels and brought them to me. The moment I saw the deformed lid of the microwave-safe container and the delicate way it was handled, I knew things had not gone well. I was warned that it was “hot.” However, that warning fell short of preparing me for the near-molten, formerly spherical blobs that greeted me upon removing the ruined lid. What lay inside, making odd ticking noises, were no longer crispy balls of chickpea and spice. The outsides of these misshapen abominations were –before my eyes– shrinking into leathery folds and completely separating from the violently steaming interiors. In spite of the immense damage done by what I assume was several minutes on high, the insides were actually edible. I delicately ate the remaining third of each. In truth, the unyieldingly hard outer shells were, in fact, still “crispy”… in their own way.

In addition to the falafel, I ordered the trio bowl, which contains donair meat as well as lamb and beef shawarma meats. I chose to have all the veggies offered, topped with tahini, garlic sauce, and the Sriracha for some heat. I found the meats to be drier than on previous occasions, and the sauces were in much smaller quantities than on those other bowls. The mix was otherwise good, and the ratio of meat to veggies was high—almost enough to question calling it a salad. Luckily, Shawarma Palace doesn’t do that. It’s a “bowl,” so it sloughs off any pretense of a healthy, veggie-forward meal.

On the whole, this was not as good of a meal as those I’ve had from Shawarma Palace in the recent past. With the exception of the falafel, which has remarkably been exactly the same on all three of my orders in the past few months, this was on the low end of the scale and didn’t quite match what I’d come to expect from this highly rated spot.