Fresh Produce (can make a girl very happy)

Yesterday we went shopping at the Carmel Market in preparation for Friday night dinner with friends. We barely food shop there since our move to north Tel Aviv, instead preferring to shop at our local grocer. We shopped, grabbed a quick lunch and walked home in the rain: the beginning of a perfect Friday.

HOLON DESIGN MUSEUM

We have meant to go to the Holon Design Museum for some time since it opened earlier this year, but somehow it took us until now to get there. So... we hit the road over the weekend to take a look at the Ron Arad designed structure. The orange-toned building really stood out in the gloomy Holon landscape and is quite impressive from afar. Alas, the moment we looked closely it was obvious that the building was poorly crafted and we imagined an overwhelmed construction crew who could barely piece together the architectural details. The exhibitions though were quite impressive and it's nice to know that there is a local museum interested in displaying the likes of Issey Miyake (love!) in an exhibition entitled, Mechanical Fashion. Our final thoughts: there's a new design museum in town only 20 minutes away from Tel Aviv and afterwards we can always stop for hummus in Yaffo. We'll be back...

Weekending around Tel Aviv

Saturday was a gorgeous day and we took some time to take a quick peek at the Tel Aviv port.

thanksgiving.

Earlier this week we finished the last of the Thanksgiving leftovers and were feeling grateful for the wonderful people we shared our holiday with.

A Foreign Beauty

This article, about unibrow appreciation in Tajikistan sent us on a stroll through memory lane to the August before last (2009), where we were trudging through enchanting Uzbekistan. While strolling through a morning market the charming lady below offered to enhance Rena's beauty by applying the must-have unibrow. Rena politely declined as she was not sure how she would remove it (we were traveling sans makeup remover). Throughout Central Asia the unibrow is considered tres chic. We think it's beautiful too. Next time we're offered a local beauty tip, we'll take it!

NY EAT TREATS

And a quick recount of some of the New York food related goodies we enjoyed: breakfast at Sarabeth's, some quick shopping at Citarella and Fairway, morning coffee at Sweetleaf Long Island City, hot chocolate at the City Bakery, afternoon coffee at the Ace Hotel, Jacques Torres spicy hot cocoa at the Chelsea Market, a yummy organic vegan lunch at Angelica Kitchen and (maybe the culinary highlight of our trip) pumpkin muffins at Van Leeuwen in Greenpoint.

Snapshots of our NY

A trip to our hometown was just what the doctor ordered after this never ending Tel Aviv summer. It was a much needed glimpse into the beginnings of winter and gave us a chance to catch up with some of our old favorite spots. We spent a rainy morning at the Morgan Library and did a proper museum catch-up at the Moma, Cooper Hewitt, PS1, the NY Public Library, etc... At some point we got museumed-out, and the shopping began. We visited the newly renovated Lincoln Center and spent an afternoon of wanderings around Chelsea which would be incomplete without a dip into the Chelsea Market and a stroll on the Highline. In short, it was divine. We will return...

And we're back.

So... it's been a while. We took a little blogging hiatus and we apologize, but we had to, we needed the break. But, we have returned, fresh off the plane from New York and we promise to catch you up on what we've been up to.

Things our nephew collects

Apparently Gogo's Crazy Bones (gogos) have been the craze since the 90's (where have we been?) and our nephew has recently become an adamant collector (see here). Aren't they pretty? We just might start a collection of our own...

Today's treats

An oatmeal cookie @ Bakery (wheat free!) and a coffee @ Cafe Marsand.

What We're Cooking @ The Royal Kitchen...

We made Kim Chi!

Northern Eats

Whenever we go up north, we find that there are really only two options for eating out. We ignore all those "wannabe-south-of-France-home-in-the-countryside-style" restaurants that usually serve sub-par uninspiring dishes with elaborate names and instead go for either local Arab restaurants or Uri Buri.

The first option can be found everywhere around the Carmel, Galilee and Golan mountains. In recent years the simple highway hummus/kebab joints have made some changes to their menus, and some now serve traditional vegetable and meat stews and incorporate local herbs and spices found in the mountains. Perhaps one of the best (and also the most famous) of these spots is El-Babur, a family owned restaurant from Um-el-Fahem, that now has a new and tacky branch in Yokneam. The food, unlike the decor, is absolutely amazing. They offer a large variety of traditional salads such as garlicky cauliflower in tahini, labane goat cheese with mustard grains, finely chopped tabulleh salad with pomegranate seeds, the list goes on... Their kubbeh is one of the best in the country, fresh, tasty and with a pinch of cardamon that really gives it an interesting kick. We also ordered delicious sauteed chicory and okra in tomato sauce. The El-Babur kebab is their specialty, made from ground lamb cutlets, baked in spicy tomato sauce in a hot oven covered in a lid of bread. Top it off with some sweet yet refined knaffe, some black Turkish coffee and you're good to go....

 
The kubbeh

Sauteed chicory and onion

El Babur
Star of Yokneam Mall
Yokneam Intersection
tel 04 9891619

If we don't want to stuff our faces with endless arab mezze, we head up to Akko (Acre), have a quick go through the historical sites and head straight to Uri Buri. Uri Yermias, a fisherman with a long white beard and mustache is a self taught chef who creates miracles in the kitchen with fish and seafood. The fish are seasonal and the dishes are precise. For starters, thai fish soup in a coconut milk base (pic here) was a favorite dish. It had just the right amount of spice but still maintained a delicate feel with seasonal fresh sea food. An appetizer of baby St. Peter's fish fillets (pic here) was the perfect blend of a sweet Asian flavoring and tangy pickled beetroot. The smoked forell was rich with smoky flavor and served with baked root vegetable and tangy sauce. The grilled amberjack was simple, but grilled exactly to make it crisp and tender at the same time. Even the gluten free bread, made of almonds, was fantastic. A stroll around Akko, with it's beautiful alleys and ancient monuments is always even better after a meal at Uri Buri, so far we think it's the best fish restaurant in the country.

Smoked forrel with baked rot vegetables

Grilled amberjack

Uri Buri
Ha'Hagana (Lighthouse square), in the old city
Akko
tel 04 9552212

Weekend #2

It was decided that we were to go away up North for the weekend, yet again (this is starting to become a pattern we can get used to). On Friday we spent some time in Akko. We wandered around the old city, saw the Khan El Umdan, entered the Templar Crusader Tunnel, visited the port and had an excellent seaside dinner at Uri Buri and bought his cookbook of course.

The clock tower above the Khan El Umdan.

Docked fishing boats at the port

Fishing

The top of St. John Church.

The next day we were joined by our dear friend N and traveled to Nazareth (we had such a great time the week before that we had to return). This time we came a little earlier on in the day so we could explore the market. There were all kinds of shops, many selling kitchen ware, but this perfume shop caught our eye.

Since a trip to Nazareth is never complete without indulging in some sweet oriental dessert we had to sample the divine knafeh at El Muchtar Sweets (we thought it was better than the knafeh at Mahroum Sweets that we tried last week). But to be fair, we don't think you can go wrong with knafeh anywhere in Nazareth, the capital of sweets.

We soaked in the landscapes...

... and drove around finally reaching Zichron Ya'akov. We decided to drop by the city cemetery and pay a visit N's grandfather, one of the founders of the city. Our weekend of northern indulgence culminated at dinner in El Babur and before we knew it we were on our way back to Tel Aviv.

El Muchtar Sweets
Toufik Ziad Road
tel 04 6556027
(there's another branch on Paulus the Sixth Street tel 04 646 1661/2)