Milk and Honey Jerusalem Market and Grill 420 N. Coit Road, Richardson 972-404-0704
Try: The falafel sandwich Don't try: Thinking too hard about what makes the girlie mags kosher
I went to Milk and Honey because I heard the Richardson café put pickles and French fries in its falafel sandwiches, an Israeli quirk that few restaurants outside of major metropolitan areas replicate. I hadn't expected to find a well-stocked market I could browse while waiting for my lunch (I only knew about the pickles, not the establishment's official name.)
For anyone who's lived near a grocery where the staffers respond to a request for matzah by pointing toward the cheese section, just finding a strictly kosher shop is reason enough to do the hora. But what makes Milk and Honey especially interesting is its Mediterranean bent: The store's two aisles are lined with olives, halvah and all kinds of tahini. The overall inventory is more schwarma than schmaltz. Still, I found quite a few items that weren't exactly Israeli, including frozen egg rolls and spicy Szechuan noodles sold under the cheeky brand "Luck Chen," a homonym for the Yiddish word for noodles.
The freezer case was stocked with Raskin's gefilte fish, the first sighting I've had of a Raskin's product since I married into the name. When I first met my future husband, my mother asked whether he was of the horseradish Raskins. Unfortunately, he's not.
My falafel sandwich was served just as I discovered the impressive selection of Israeli porn near the front counter, including magazines marked "last month." It's nice to know some men are so punctilious about completing their porn collections.
The falafel sandwich was, as promised, excellent. The chickpeas, shaped into discs the size of an air hockey puck, were flecked with red peppers and lightly fried. The tahini, wound up by a splash of hot sauce, was lively. But what I liked best was the warm, pillowy pita that had the just the right amount of chewiness to contrast with the fillings' snap. The pita would make a lovely snack on its own -- or a perfect accompaniment to Raskin's gefilte fish.
