There are two different kinds of falafel in
Israel - the
Jewish kind and the
Arab kind, for a complete lack of a better definition. You can of course come across either of the varieties anywhere in the country, but this is something of a
traditional division, at least in Jerusalem.
Jewish falafel:
These are little balls (smaller than a golf ball) of ground, spiced, deep fried chick peas, stuffed in a pitta together with hummus, some salad, tahini sauce, pickles (the better eateries have a huge stand with a vast selection of pickled and salted vegetables free of charge), chilli sauce of at least one variety, and often chips (don't ask me why).
Pitta-falafel, as it is somewhat archaically known, can come in two different varieties of pitta bread. One is the smaller round kind that forms a pouch when you cut it open - you generally get about 6 falafels in one of those. The other kind, the "Iraqi" pitta, is a large flat stone oven bread which is used to form a wrap for all the food to go in. It's bigger, contains more falafels and hence more expensive, but worth it. When I was in the army and stretched for both time and money, one of the Iraqi pitta falafels would often serve as my daily sustenance. Yum.
Incidentally, Iraqi pitta is Jerusalem speak, in other parts of the country they're known as "laffa" or "ash-tanur". See, no country is too tiny to have dialects!
Arab falafel:
These are much larger and kind of flat - imagine a tennis ball that was squashed between two flat surfaces. They are also more spicy and the chick peas are usually ground a bit finer, giving the whole thing a powdery, dry consistency.
They don't come in pitta bread but are sold separately as units, often off of pitta carts driven around the streets by Palestinian teenagers. You can buy several of these, a few fresh, warm pittas straight from the oven, a couple of hard boiled eggs and a pinch of za'atar (powdered, salted sage) for the equivalent of less than £2 in the Old City in Jerusalem. It's the best holiday lunch in the world, so don't miss the opportunity to have it if you're ever in the neighbourhood.
If, like me, you happen to be too lazy to make your own falafel from scratch, don't despair! Falafel can be made from a mix - and though that will never be as nice as sneff's version below, it wil be fresher and better than anything you can get in the UK (which has usually been lying around for a few hours on the counter of your local vegan eatery - no disrespect, but those places rarely get a bustling walk-in trade!).
The places to look for the mix packets, depending on the cultural blend in your area, would be Kosher/Jewish shops, very broad-spectrum international delis, vegan and health shops, or corner shops run by Jordanian, Lebanese, Turkish or Palestinian people. The default Israeli brands are Osem or Telma (the latter also do a good vegetarian chicken stock), but I'm sure any other varieties you can find will still be good - just make sure there are cooking instructions in English on the back!