Shawafel Absolutely not-awafel eats on H Street

Just because the US doesn’t have the best relationship with a country doesn’t mean you should miss out on their top exports, like smoking a great Cuban, or in the case of Aroldis Chapman, watching one smoke everybody else. Now make sure you don't miss the boat (!) on some authentic Lebanese, at Shawafel.

Run by a Lebanese expat trained under Jose Andres, Shawafel (shawarma + falafel) serves traditional eats in a quick-service pit stop dressed with wood paneling, metallic stools & chairs, and the glow of meat rotating on multiple spits, aka what a camel does at the shawarma guys trying to hunt it down (jk, they don't serve that here). Signature sandwiches include:

Shawafel: The eponymous handheld combines choice shawarma (chicken/ beef/ lamb) and “chickpea fritters”, not to be confused with the chick pee jitters, which a nervous Lindsay Lohan gets whenever she has a drug test.

Meat Shawarma: Lebanese pita bread is packed with parsley, pickles, mint, tahini, and lamb or beef that’s been “spit-roasted”, aka what happens when they get the aforementioned camel to sub in for Jeffrey Ross on Comedy Central.

French Fries Sandwich While not technically "traditional Lebanese", or "in any way Lebanese", this bad boy sandwiches the chef's “crispy fries” with coleslaw, ketchup, and pickles, and was made to please “late-night goers”, even though it's not clear how it cures BPH.

They’ve also got a series of meat and veggie platters with housemade hummus and tabouleh should you be looking to sit down, something also inevitably achieved by trying to face one of The Cuban Missile's fastballs.