Finding Falafel in Japan

I love falafel.  It isn't something you see too often in Japan, and in fact, where we live, you won't find it at all.  When we came home from Thailand (where there was surprisingly a lot more falafel than I would have expected) Ryan had a craving for more falafel.  Obviously the best option is make it.  But I have never done that before and if I were to make my own, I want my stepfather's mom's recipe (because that is a traditional food she cooks since they are from the Middle East.  Plus, I worry my seasonings will not work out and it will taste bad.  So I need a good, traditional recipe. 

Then a miracle happened.  Yeah, I'm going to call this a miracle.  My sister is coming to visit me soon so I was in contact with a tour guide for when we were in Kyoto.  I mentioned we wanted vegetarian food for lunch and she emailed me with this suggestion: Falafel Garden.  Perfect, in Kyoto we can get falafel.  But then I noticed something on the website: We Deliver!  That's right.  They deliver falafel and pita anywhere in Japan.

I emailed the owner and within 3 days frozen falafel and pita were delivered to my door.  Awesome!

We got some pita.

Here are the frozen falafel.

We cut up some lettuce and tomato to go in the pita sandwiches.

I did make the hummus to go with it.

Ryan did a great job frying up our falafel balls.

Oh yeah!  This was amazing!

In fact, the falafel was so good that we immediately ordered more falafel to keep stocked in our freezer. It was so awesome to discover this and have it delivered to my house.  YUM!

Just a few random pictures to get caught up on.  We bought these fruit wines as we were leaving Thailand.  Curious to see how they taste.

We grilled one night after we got home from Thailand.  This salmon "burger" was amazing.

We also grilled corn.  It always turns out so nice when grilled.

These next pictures are from an Italian restaurant just off base.  I love this place.  We started of with tomatoes and mozzarella.

Then I had the pasta with scallops and cream sauce.  I love that the portion was the right size.  It was a reasonable amount of food and the focus was on quality rather than quantity.  The scallops were awesome.  Where we live in Japan there are lots of scallops.  In fact, this is a top "agricultural" product up here.  Most scallops in Japan will come from this region (and squid too).

Ryan also had pasta.

The last thing to share is my first Conscious Box.  Another dietitian told me about this so I thought I would try it.

Looks good on the outside, although I don't need all of these things to like a product.  I think most of this comes down to marketing and this is the "in" trend right now.  I just wanted to see some new and interesting products on the market.

The goal is easy to read on the inside of the box.

Here are my samples inside.  Some look good and some I am not sure I will use, but I am still glad I checked this product out.  I have 2 more coming, so I will keep everyone posted on future inclusions.  I haven't tried much of what is in here yet, but I will, I promise.  I have just been busy and have an upcoming trip to the US.

QUESTIONS:  Have you ever made falafel?  Have you tried Conscious Box?