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| Falafel at La Mia in Laurel |
(Update: Sorry. La Mia closed.)
The new La Mia restaurant on Main Street in Laurel kicks out a nice falafel sandwich. It's certainly the rival of anything that I have found inside Howard County, so it's worth a quick drive into Laurel, especially if you want to nose around the Aladdin Food Market next door or pick up something from the Laurel Meat Market.
La Mia is a new takeout following the trend of serving pizza and an ethnic food. At La Mia, the ethnic food is mostly Middle Eastern, including a few special-order items like masakhan, ka'ik, and maoul that looked new to me and that Wikipedia says are Palestinian dishes.
I want La Mia to be terrific because they're really nice. For now, I recommend the falafel sandwich. The falafel comes out hot and flavorful -- right in that "Goldilocks" moistness where it isn't too greasy and it isn't too dry. The sandwich had lettuce, mildly hot peppers, some hot sauce and a really nice sauce. I suggest that you request pita bread because they wrapped mine once in a tortilla, which was all kinds of "American fusion" wonderful but not nearly as delicious.
I'm going to go back and try the schwarma again. We ordered it with high hopes because La Mia has real meat turning on a spit in the open kitchen. But our order didn't work. The restaurant was freezing cold, and we got an aluminum takeout tray with lettuce and a few ounces of shaved, unremarkable meat. They were so nice, and we were too cold to argue. I'm going to try again.
Where do you go for falafel or schwarma? I don't have a place in Howard County, maybe because I have a few amazing sandwiches in my memory that set the standard. I don't want just a pile of lettuce, a pita from the bag, and the main item dumped on top. A few people have mentioned Turkshish Kebap in Columbia.
La Mia
310 Main Street
Laurel, MD 20707
301-725-9600
NEAR: This is on Main Street in Laurel a few doors west of U.S. 1. You can park on Main Street anywhere between U.S. 1 and Laurel Meat Market. The Aladdin market next to La Mia sells Middle Eastern groceries and breads. Laurel Meat Market butchers its own steaks, ground beef and sausage.
