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.

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.

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.

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

Caravan Inn

Often when we visit Jerusalem we make our way to Abu Gosh for some simple no-nonsense local food. By local food we mean, hummus, pita and all the yummy stuff on the menu that comes in between like kubbeh (a fried croquette made from a bulgur shell stuffed with minced beef or lamb), and siniya (a tehihi and ground meat casserole). Every Israeli has their favorite place to go for hummus etc. and ours (in Jerusalem) is Carvan Inn. Tom's father has been eating there since the 1960's and it has become family custom to meet there for dinner whenever some of us are in the neighborhood. They have delicious kebabs and stuffed vegetables and Turkish coffee and baklava are on the house.

Kubbeh

Grilled Pita with Zatar

Hummus and Kubbeh

Siniya

Meat Kebabs and Majadera (rice and lentils)

Caravan Inn
27 Derech Hashalom
Abu Gosh
Jerusalem
tel 02 5342744

Nanuchka

For many years, Nanuchka has been one of Tel-Aviv's much celebrated restaurant-bars. The hazy atmosphere, beautifully eclectic/quirky interior, electronic music, together with excellent Georgian dishes (and Georgian wine!), made us all feel proud of the Great Bubble in which we live. Unfortunately, they moved and their new location just doesn't live up to the former charm.

As another turn-of-the-century building made way for a glass tower, Nanuchka was forced to relocate. Going to Nanauchka's used to feel like eating at Grandma's, albeit a super-cool Grandma. Now it doesn't feel like much at all. Let's just say, Grandma's furniture doesn't really go in the new living room... The place suffers from bad spacial planning, destructive lighting and boring back garden. Add this to the suburban family crowd, who only recently heard yesterday's news and we were not pleased.
On the other hand, the food is still delicious. After passing the noisy "food court" we were seated to our overly lit table at the back garden. For starters we ordered the Pkhali, a large and delicious dish of Georgian antipasti (walnut salads, pickles, and stuffed vine leaves). We also ordered a Farmer's Salad with a warm and mouth-watering cornbread filled with salty cheese. The main dish of Lamb Ossobuco in White Bean Stew, was not to fatty, and had a wonderful tangy-ness, and the Eggplant with Goat Cheese, Yogurt and Tomato Sauce was simple but flavorful. An all time favorite desert, the Churchkhela, walnuts wrapped in hard grape jelly, was fabulous and as tasty as you find it on the sideways outside of Tbilisi (we know because we've been there).
It was VERY hard for us to ignore the poor aesthetic choices of the new location. This made it difficult for us to enjoy our meal. But as we are big suckers for Georgian food we'll just have to return and keep our eyes closed.

Pkhali

Lamb Ossobuco

Eggplant with Goat Cheese

Churchkhela

Nanuchka
28 Lilenbloom street
Tel Aviv
tel 03 5162254

Elkali

Another morning coffee (with a side of work).

Elkali
Elkali 1 (off of Basel Square)
tel 03 5440795

Pistachio Cherry Trifle

It's CHERRY SEASON! We were invited to a small dinner party where the guests all cooked a number of small dishes each. We thought it best to make a smaller dessert, since we could not imagine having enough room in our stomachs to eat an entire tart after the feast (or maybe we could, so it's best we did this instead). Dorie Greenspan had us salivating over Pierre Herme's Streusel Tart with Pistachios and Cherries from The Cook's Book. This served as our inspiration as we decided to deconstruct the dessert and turn a tart recipe into a trifle recipe.

Well, the original recipe called for a pastry tart filled with almond pistachio cream and cherries and topped with an almond streusel. We applied our architects' mind, developed over many years of intense study and carefully crafted individual pistachio cherry trifles.

See the recipe after the jump.

Cafe Michal

Went out to brunch with R and I to Cafe Michal, a local cafe in our neighborhood. They always have the prettiest flowers, but their location is a bit noisy.

Cafe Michal
230 Dizengoff st. (corner of Jabotinsky)
Tel Aviv
tel 03 5230236

Breakfast at Pua

Pua
Rabbi Yochanan 3
Shuk Hapishpeshim, Jaffa-Tel Aviv
tel 03 6823821

Homemade Granola

Found some photos of some granola we made a while back. Can't seem to remember the ingredients... but thought to post anyway.