{"id":12031,"date":"2015-01-12T16:13:11","date_gmt":"2015-01-13T00:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/?p=12031"},"modified":"2015-01-12T16:14:37","modified_gmt":"2015-01-13T00:14:37","slug":"crispy-delicious-flavorful-falafel-educator-amin-musa-from-ihsans-falafel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/crispy-delicious-flavorful-falafel-educator-amin-musa-from-ihsans-falafel\/","title":{"rendered":"Crispy, Delicious, Flavorful Falafel Educator Amin Musa From Ihsan\u2019s Falafel"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cWow this is a really good falafel!\u201d<\/p>\n

Crispy herb rich flavorful falafel slathered in tahini sauce with arugula wrapped in a collard green leaf. This is how I discovered\u00a0Ihsan\u2019s Falafel<\/a> and Amin Musa at Worldfest (now Vegfest), Los Angeles\u2019s largest vegan Earth Day (he was a vendor and I was a speaker). Ihsan\u2019s Falafel<\/a> is significantly amazing, and a very green, healthy falafel too. Ihsan\u2019s Falafel<\/a> is a mobile vegan falafel business and you\u00a0can find him at USC and many farmers markets around Los Angeles. Amin is\u00a0a wonderful, happy guy with excellent food.<\/p>\n

\"Crispy<\/a><\/p>\n

For folks from the Middle East, falafel (main ingredient garbanzo beans) is a staple food\u2014everyone loves and always eats falafel. Amin was born in Sudan, which is in Africa, but he told me that many people consider it the Middle East. He went to school in Dubai with more of a melting pot of Middle Eastern children. His recipe comes from his mother, who would make lots of falafel and freeze them, and then send him to school where he would eat 1-2 falafel each day. Other kids brought money to school to spend on chips and pop, though after they tried his falafel they became jealous! Amin would sell his falafels to the kids and then use the money he earned to\u00a0buy chips and pop!<\/p>\n

\"Crispy<\/a><\/p>\n

He came to North America and went to university in Canada. Later, Amin attended the famous Kushi Institute founded by Michio Kushi, a champion of the natural foods movement. In 2011, he shared his falafel recipe with his class there and everyone went crazy. He had such a favorable reaction, and that is how Ihsan\u2019s Falafel<\/a> started.<\/p>\n

Because most people from the Mediterranean make their own falafel at home, Amin\u00a0never ate falafel out. (I think I ate the first falafel in my life in the parking lot of a Grateful Dead show when I was a teenager, which was a super junk food falafel, but that\u2019s a different story.) Part of his work now is to educate Los Angelinos about falafel, and\u00a0also teach everyone to understand the difference between a junk food falafel and his falafel. During his market research, Amin\u00a0found that most Southern California falafel was:<\/p>\n