Falafel review #8: Phoenician Shawarma & Grill, Worcester MA, August 5, 2026

As I write more of these, I’m reconsidering asking for a separate falafel ball. This sandwich was great but I didn’t get a good feel for the falafel proper because everything was so deliciously mixed together. It would be fun to have an array of single falafels. I’m struck by how varied these sandwiches are, mostly on the “I could eat this every day!” end of the scale, but each one different.

  • Falafel itself: Moist, not herby, cumin-forward. The outside wasn’t crunchy enough to really distinguish itself, but very good taste overall. 7/10
  • Bread: Very thin, savory, and well toasted. 8/10
  • Sandwich fixings, taste and texture: A harmonious blend of the typical ingredients: lettuce, tomato, pickled turnip, other pickles, and tahini sauce. Also a very healthy dose of parsley – although there were a few clumps with too much za’atar (I think). Everything blended together well. 8/10
  • Value for money: $9.99 before tax and tip for a hearty sandwich. 8/10
  • Eatability: The toasted bread welded the contents perfectly so it was easy to hold and eat – I think I could have unwrapped the whole thing and it wouldn’t have fallen apart or leaked, despite how juicy it was. 5/5
  • Bonus points: Very nice staff, pleasant interior. 1/5
  • Total: 37/50

Falafel review #7: Pita Pockets Amherst, Amherst MA, July 20, 2026

A sister shop to the Northampton one, but they have different menus. The staffer was making the falafels when I got there, buttering mix from a large bowl onto a former with a rod in the middle – like in this video (Syrian style) – interesting to watch, and guaranteed fresh. I need to come back to try the “Super,” with eggplant and walnuts.

  • Falafel itself: Not green, but very moist. The outside wasn’t quite as crunchy as I like, but overall delicious. 7/10
  • Bread: I think it’s the same supplier as the Northampton PP. Fresh and tasty, but toasting it would be nice. 7/10
  • Sandwich fixings, taste and texture: Big parsley leaves; very fresh lettuce, cucumber, and tomato; excellent variety of pickles; and a great garlicky white sauce. Overall juicy, well-balanced, delightful. 9/10
  • Value for money: $10 before tax & tip. 8/10
  • Eatability: Held together down to the last inch, but also dribbled out the bottom (most of the juicy ones seem to do that). 4/5
  • Bonus points: Very friendly staff; it was lunch after a long run in Amherst so extra-welcome. 2/5
  • Total: 37/50

Falafel review #6: Amanouz Cafe, Northampton MA, July 15, 2026

Another hometown falafel, which I may never have tried before, and won’t again. Nothing terrible but overall not an enjoyable experience, which defeats the purpose of a falafel sandwich! I wouldn’t have said it was too salty, but I was dehydrated the rest of the day and didn’t love the flavor it left on my palate. This one really shrank on me.

Burrito-style falafel pita
Inside of a falafel sandwich
  • Falafel itself: The outside was dark but not crunchy. Maybe they had been sitting out of the fryer? They call it a “burger” and it was a little oversized, resulting in a gummy interior, greenish but bland. 4/10
  • Bread: WAY too much pita to innards – it was fully wrapped like a burrito, as you can see in the first photo. An open end is more tempting and promises better proportions. The bread wasn’t great on its own – fine but a little dry, not toasted or anything. 3/10
  • Sandwich fixings, taste and texture: As usual I asked for no onion. The counter person asked about a pico de gallo type thing and I said that would be great, but it didn’t make it into the sandwich. We had good green lettuce, big chunks of cucumber (too big), tahini and I think hummus. I’m realizing how much pickles matter. 4/10
  • Value for money: $9.95 before tax & tip; very good if I had liked it more! 6/10
  • Eatability: The extra bread was a drawback (the first bit was ALL dry pita), but it held together well. 4/5
  • Bonus points: I love the font on their website – Berkshire Swash. Gorgeously over-the-top (especially the M!) but still legible. The signs in the restaurant are quirky and cool too, and the service was quick. 2/5
  • Total: 23/50

Falafel review #5: Pita Pockets, Northampton MA, July 2, 2026

My favorite hometown falafel, as good as I remembered!

  • Falafel itself: Not as green as I like, but very crunchy, moist, and tasty. 8/10
  • Bread: Flavorful wrapper, fresh, good texture, but toasting would improve it. 7/10
  • Sandwich fixings, taste and texture: Excellent. Pita Pockets has a huge array of additions, but this time I asked for traditional-but-hold-the-onions. The lettuce was dark green and crunchy; the pickled turnips are very thinly sliced; the falafel balls are well distributed and the proportions all work. Delicious but it feels healthy, not indulgent. 9/10.
  • Value for money: $9.50 for a sizeable sandwich. 9/10
  • Eatability: Very good. The last inch was a little messy. 4/5
  • Bonus points: The owners are nice (George is a character); love the variety of potential ingredients; it’s local! The only reason I don’t get falafel here more often is that the fried cauliflower sandwich is even better, and hard to find elsewhere. 4/5
  • Total: 41/50

Falafel review #4: Yalla Vermont, Brattleboro VT, June 25, 2026

First time eating my favorite falafel with a review in mind – and it did not disappoint, on the contrary! Everything about this sandwich is top-notch.

  • Falafel itself: Just about perfect. Very crunchy on the outside; soft, moist, and green on the inside; the ideal size. 9/10
  • Bread: Yalla is justly famous for their fluffy, pillowy pita which they now distribute to stores. It doesn’t have a natural pocket from what I can tell – they slice it open to fill it – but maybe that’s what helps it stand up to the fillings. It’s delicious on its own as well. 10/10
  • Sandwich fixings, taste and texture: Wow, so many ingredients to enhance the sandwich: hummus, fried eggplant, chopped salad (lettuce, tomato, and cucumber with olive oil), herbs with cilantro, green cabbage, red cabbage, pickles, “a 3 to 12 hour hard-boiled egg for creamy texture and smoky flavor.” (They smush it into the bottom of the sandwich). Plus self-serve tahini, onions with sumac and cilantro, tatbila (SO good!), fermented vegetables. Sounds like too much, but they all sing together. I skipped the spicy skhug but asked for everything else, and they volunteered the egg, which I didn’t see on the menu board (but I’ve had it before, and it’s great). 10/10
  • Value for money: $12.84, a bargain for an amazing sandwich that’s quite huge! (You can get a half for ~$9, but I always get the full and enjoy every morsel.) 9/10
  • Eatability: Remarkably high for this style of pita. They carefully butter the inside of the pita with the hummus, which helps its integrity, and it held up to the last bite. You do need both hands and full attention, and it’s a bit of a nosebag situation – I’ve had to wipe tahini off my face multiple times. 4/5
  • Bonus points: The people are so nice! A child behind me in line was offered a teeny pita, slightly bigger than a golf ball, which kept them entertained. Free stickers. The help-yourself fixings are nice and a kind staffer encouraged me to serve myself extra tahini in a cup. Great view of Main Street Brattleboro. I’d take away a point for the long, awkward line, but there are toys to look at and they are in the bonus zone already with the bonus points! 5/5
  • Total: 47/50

Falafel review #3: Basha Eatery, Pittsford NY, June 15, 2026

Part of a family take-out order so it had travelled and cooled a bit, but I don’t think that made much of a difference.

  • Falafel itself: outside not very crunchy, kind of dry, pale (no herbs), but tasty. 5/10
  • Bread: thin wrapper, just OK but the toasting helped. 4/10
  • Sandwich fixings, taste and texture: pretty good pickled turnip, other pickles fine, bland tomato, good but salty tahini sauce. 6/10
  • Value for money: $12 before tax & tip; a little pricey for the quality. 5/10
  • Eatability: tidy, held together quite well. 4/5
  • No bonus points for this one – I won’t do negative points, but it was too salty overall.
  • Total: 24/50

Falafel review #2: cart outside AMNH, May 25, 2026

I was trying to cram in as much of the American Museum of Natural History as possible before an appointment back on the Upper East Side, couldn’t find any food there without long lines, was super-hungry, and saw falafel on the digital top banner of one of the many food carts lined up on Central Park West. My expectations were low, but nobody was in line and I took a chance.

  • Falafel itself: Crunchy shell, fairly moist interior. A little cumin-heavy, and a not-unpleasant sour tinge (not exactly lemony). 6/10
  • Bread: Pillowy, warm, tasty. 8/10
  • Sandwich fixings, taste and texture: Just iceberg lettuce and hard tomato, but fresh; white sauce decently tangy, and I managed to say “not too much” in time. 5/10
  • Value for money: $14 (tax included) before tip, expensive for a fairly small sandwich but not out of line for the location. 5/10
  • Eatability: Given the fork, which I did not request, they expect it to be messy. But it wasn’t overfilled so I managed pretty well. 3/5
  • Bonus points: Fast, exceeded my expectations, and I was grateful because I was SO hungry! 2/5
  • Total: 29/50

Falafel review #1: Syriana Cuisine, New Britain CT, May 17, 2026

I stopped adding “treats” posts a while back… ran out of steam and motivation. But I’m glad I did them, especially since not a single one of those items is still available. I absolutely love falafel sandwiches and I’ve been on a quest to find good ones wherever I travel. And they vary so much – the falafel itself, but also the bread, the fixings, and the overall eating experience (is it a tidy bundle or a freaking mess that drips all over and falls apart?) We are lucky to have excellent falafel right here in Northampton (Pita Pockets!) although so far my very favorite is Yalla Vermont in Brattleboro.

So I’m starting another writing experiment which may or may not last. I searched for other falafel rankings and found a couple (both regional – wait, here’s a US list, and a short global list). Getting at least one falafel on the side to see them in their native state seems like a good idea, but also a bit of a hassle. I skip onions and don’t want it spicy, but otherwise I’m into whatever the shop offers to put on, from pickled turnips to Yalla’s 3-hour boiled egg. I’m going to score up to 10 points on five categories, for a perfect score (very unlikely, I’m picky) of 50 – but Jonathan made an excellent point that eatability isn’t as important as the others, so I’ll reduce that to 5 possible points and add bonus points.

When I’m out on a day trip, typically I’m visiting a museum, running some streets, and looking for other interesting things to do. I use Google Maps looking for “falafel near me” and pick a high-rated one. Sunday, May 17 was Syriana Cuisine, a large but quite empty restaurant in a strip mall in New Britain, CT.

  • Falafel itself: Well-cooked crunchy outsite, decently moist on the inside. Not as green as I prefer, but good. 7/10
  • Bread: Thin, not greasy, savory, great for wrapping, well-toasted. A little tough but that helps it hold up to the fillings. 7/10
  • Sandwich fixings, taste and texture: Excellent additions include lemon zest and mint. Tahini and also pickled vegetables on the side, very nice. 9/10
  • Value for money: $10 before tax & tip, decent for a fairly small sandwich. 7/10
  • Eatability: Excellent! Tightly-rolled, held together until the next-to-last bite, hands stayed clean, ingredients well-distributed. 4/5
  • Bonus points: a well-lit, spacious restaurant with comfortable booths, a very nice greeter/cook/server (just 1 staffer running the place!), and the side pickles. 4/5
  • Total: 38/50

The Pyramid and the Black Box – Peter Caws

This lecture was given at a symposium held at the Library of Congress on April 2-3 1965, called The Little Magazine and Contemporary Literature, when my father was an officer of the Carnegie Corporation. It was published by the Modern Language Association in 1965. The collection doesn’t fit the scope of PhilPapers so I’m posting the PDF here. It does touch on educational philosophy and describes a Carnegie idea to buy bulk subscriptions of literary magazines and distribute them to public schools (which didn’t come to pass, alas).

The Map of Knowlege – Peter Caws

I have very slowly been working my way through my dad’s papers, digitizing what’s not already out there and mostly uploading to PhilPapers. This undated essay and syllabus represents the project of his that I most vividly remember and admire. There is a longer manuscript proposal to be scanned down the road, but this brief overview captures the core. He taught a course based on this at Hunter College in 1977, as the intro mentions, and at least one instance of a seminar at George Washington in 2013. – HCE 7/7/2025

THE MAP OF KNOWLEDGE

Peter Caws, The George Washington University

Jump to the syllabus

“The Map of Knowledge” is the name of a course that I introduced at Hunter College of the City University of New York in 1977, as part of a curriculum development project funded by a grant to the College from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The idea of the course went back to an earlier period when, as an officer of a major foundation (Carnegie Corporation of New York), I had had an opportunity to study at close quarters the curricula of a large number of American colleges and univer­sities, and had come to certain conclusions about their deficiencies. Its title was borrowed from the English philosopher R. G. Collingwood, who wrote a book entitled Speculum Mentis, or the Map of Knowledge, although my use of the metaphor differs somewhat from his. Also its conception no doubt owed something to two books that strongly influenced my own intel­lectual formation: William Rose’s An Outline of Modern Knowledge (London, Victor Gollancz, 1931) and Alan Pryce-Jones’s A New Outline of Modern Knowledge (London, Victor Gollancz, 1956), though the internal structure of these works to some extent shares the deficiencies in question.

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