A wrap at Cafe Benedict, a cafe in Cotati, California.
out of 100 · legendary
Legendary. Every gate clear, the board clean.
Reads as a fully realized falafel pita, six of six roles on the board.
Each bar is one pillar of the score, 0 to 100. The tick marks what a sandwich at the summit needs; an amber bar is the one holding this sandwich back.
warm lavash bread, toasted: homemade falafel (house-made); hummus; pickles; tomatoes; eggplant; seasoned cabbage; tahini sauce.
Worth a look: house-made: Falafel.
Balance
| Axis | Value | Catalog percentile |
|---|---|---|
| salt | 1.2 | 63rd |
| acid | 1.0 | 71st |
| fat | 1.7 | 33rd |
| sweet | 0.3 | 36th |
| umami | 1.0 | 30th |
| heat | 0.2 | 64th |
| bitter | 0.4 | 86th |
93 Balance, out of 100
The seven flavor axes of the whole sandwich, each summed across its layers. The shaded ring is the catalog's middle 80%; the small number under each axis is where this sandwich falls in the catalog. A shape that sits inside the ring is in the range most sandwiches live in; a spike past it is where this one stands apart.
What each layer brings
| Layer | Role | Flavor and texture | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| warm lavash breadscored as Pita | bread | soft chewy | the frame |
| homemade falafel (house-made)scored as Falafel | protein | fat 3 salt 2 umami 2 crunchy crispy fried | +13 |
| hummus | sauce | fat 3 creamy | −3 |
| picklesscored as Pickle (cucumber) | acid | acid 5 salt 4 crunchy juicy pickled | +10 |
| tomatoesscored as Tomato | texture | acid 3 umami 3 sweet 2 juicy soft fresh | 0 |
| eggplant | bulk | umami 2 soft | 0 |
| seasoned cabbagescored as Cabbage | bulk | crunchy fresh raw | 0 |
| tahini saucescored as Tahini | sauce | fat 4 bitter 2 creamy silky saucy | +3 |
Points: what the Sandwich Score would lose if that one layer were left out, everything else the same. A negative number means the sandwich scores higher without it. Flavor runs 0 to 5 on each axis.
Pairings
- Falafel + Hummus: falafel on hummus, the pita standard
- Falafel + Pickle (cucumber): pickle bite against fried chickpea
- Falafel + Tahini: tahini is falafel's stated sauce
- Hummus + Pickle (cucumber): cool crunch over nutty hummus
All the sandwiches at Cafe Benedict · The menu this was read from · Build your own in the Sandwich Builder