LA Trip Restaurant Roundup

We just got back from a fun trip to Los Angeles, which by definition means a lot of great eats. I don't have it in me to do individual reviews for each of these restaurants, but I thought I'd at least post a roundup. Obviously you could eat for a lifetime in LA and not go to every good restaurant, but we were really happy with our choices. D.M., who is a frequent commenter on the blog and one of Sarina's dear friends did a lot of research and pointed us in great directions, and my old pals Nic and Lorna showed us some of the best Middle Eastern food we've had outside of Israel.

The address and phone info for all of the restaurants is at the very end of the post.

Our first night in town we had an early reservation at Osteria Mozza, the upscale Italian restaurant from the powerhouse trio of Nancy Silverton, Mario Batali and Joseph Bastianich on Melrose Ave. We shared a starter of magnicifiently fresh burrata with leeks. My entree was a giant ravioli filled with ricotta and a sunny-side egg that spilled into the brown butter sauce when cut. It was quite spectacular but maybe a bit underseasoned. For dessert we had bombolini (little fried donuts) with vanilla gelato, and grappa. This is definitely a treat and a dining event, but well worth the splurge.

Bookending our trip, our last meal before leaving town was right next door at Pizzeria Mozza. The pizzeria is considerably less formal and expensive than the Osteria, but man oh man the pizza. It was really a revelation. The crust was cracker thin, but somehow crispy and chewy at the same time, with not the slightest hint of sogginess. The outer rim of the crust puffed up about an inch high, but was light as a feather, filled with enormous holes like you find in great artisan bread. Which is of course the explanation - Nancy SIlverton knows a thing or two about flour, water and yeast and she's used her decades of experience to design a pizza dough unlike any other. Gotta have it. You need reservations here even for lunch, but if you go 15 minutes before they open and wait in line you could get a first-come seat at the counter.

Brunch at Cafe Vida in Pacific Palisades was pleasing. The Cafe has a light, happy neighborhood feel and the food was fresh and tasty. If you go on the weekend you'll probably have to wait a bit and arm wrestle dogs and babies for a seat, but  it will be worth it.

If you find yourself in the San Fernando Valley and in need of lunch, check out Villa Piacere. The decor was somewhat dated, but all of us were really happy with our big entree salads. LA really gets big salads in general, much more than Seattle. Probably because of all the diet nuts down here, but for whatever reason it is nice to lay into a big bowl of lettuce and veggies that look alive and carefully arranged. That is all we ate, so I can't speak to the rest of the menu. The hostess was really sweet too, obviously very proud of her restaurant.

Ok, let's talk about Middle Eastern, specifically Lebanese food. Sunnin, over on Westwood just north of Santa Monica was outrageously good. We're talking paper plates and flourescent lights here, so not much ambiance but the waiters are nice (and gruff at the same time). But man alive the food. We liked it so much we went back a second time. Hummus, tabbouleh, foul muddamas, rekakat, yogurt salad, fried cauliflower, and fatayer (a pastry filled with bitter greens and pine nuts) were all deep soul food for me. I wasn't as crazy about the mujadarah (kinda goopy) and the fried potatoes. The falafel was really decent but not world class. That fried cauliflower in particular was really something special. It wasn't battered at all, just fried to a deep golden brown and served with tahini for dipping. I would be so damn happy if a place this good opened up in Seattle. How about a glass of Jallab (date syrup and rose water on ice, topped with pine nuts)?

Chaya Venice is a hopping spot on Main Street. Wall-to-wall busy with a lot of beautiful people, and a menu that spans the globe from sushi to pasta. I was frankly a little skeptical, but I have to admit that my gnocchi was really well prepared, rich and flavorful.

Later in the week, Sarina's Dad took me to M Cafe de Chaya on Melrose, the casual dine-in or takeout place with the same owners as Chaya Venice. M Cafe's concept is modern macrobiotic food and they are doing a great job. We had a bright red quinoa and beet salad, a sweet potato salad with wasabi, a chickpea salad, a few pieces of sushi, and a tasty dairy-free chocolate pudding. Everything had a lot of flavor, and the restaurant itself has a good, high energy vibe about it. Even though I was looking out on LA traffic, it felt like a spot on the beach.

Back in Venice, make your way over to Abbot Kinney and stop at Jin Patisserie for remarkable modern Japanese pastries, tea service, and beauteous chocolates. They have a pretty little courtyard to enjoy them in. Stop in at Tortoise Life next door for a killer collection of high-design housewares, stationary, idiosyncractic bits of clothing, and fabric that looks like wood veneer.

We stayed at the Huntley Hotel in Santa Monica. The Penthouse bar on the top floor of the hotel is a fancy-pants night club when the sun sets, but in the morning it is an incredibly pretty (and rather spendy) place to have breakfast. Windows run all the way around, giving you a clear view from the Valley, all along the beach, and over to the airport and downtown. The room is painted stark white, so when you ascend the elevator before your first cup of coffee and the sun is streaming in, you kind of feel like you entered heaven. It wouldn't be surprising if Morgan Freeman showed you to your table. And the food was surprisingly tasty, what with organic eggs and carefully cut fruit plates.

So you can see we had a terrific time! Whether you love LA or love to hate it, you can definitely eat well. Here are all the details:

Review: Good Karma in Park City, Utah

My brother and I were recently in Park City for a few days of skiing. Opting for "cheap" on President's Day Weekend, we stayed well off Main St. and the resorts, over in the Prospector Square area. The hotel was kind of a dump, but it turned out we had the good fortune to be only a short walk from a really good restaurant.

I saw Good Karma on the list of nearby chow at the hotel, and thought we should try it, based solely on the name and a hunch. I figured at worst we'd be in for some hippie vegetarian food, and maybe luck would turn up something better. Luck was on our side; in fact we liked it so much we had two breakfasts and a dinner there.

When I first walked in, I was immediately struck by the good vibe of the space. It is simple and light, with a few well-placed pieces of art from India, and a stencil of the word "imagine" on a brick wall. Things just look clean and in the right place, including a view into an immaculate kitchen. Even the bathroom is cool, with a wall covered in striking close-up photos of people from around the world.

My breakfast of Huevos Rancheros confirmed the initial assessment that we were somewhere that cared what they were doing. The homemade ranchero sauce was lively and just what I wanted before a day on the hill. My brother was equally happy with his quiche.

When we returned for dinner, we had the good fortune to be waited on by co-owner Howard Moffett, so we got to learn a bit more about the restaurant's history while eating a really enjoyable meal. Howard told us that my expectation of a hippie veg place wasn't wrong, it was just a year or so late: the previous incarnation of the restaurant was right downtown in two old quonset huts, with counter service, a very laid back vibe, and food run between buildings on dim sum carts! They have come a very long way with the new space.

My favorite dishes were an amuse-bouche of butternut squash soup with chai foam, a little spicy beet salad, and the Key lime sorbet. The curries were also very tasty. We didn't even get to delve into the Japanese or Persian portions of the menu.

If I had to pick one small nit with the food, I think the dal would be a bit better if it was pureed smoother and a little thinner, so that it had more of a contrast with the curries.

Good Karma is by no means a vegetarian restaurant, but there are extensive vegetarian and vegan items on the menu so that makes it especially good for mixed groups. If you are in Park City, you gotta check it out - I promise it will be a fun and tasty experience.

Hummus Showdown - Abu Shukri vs. Taami

Hummus with Chickpeas and Falafel at Taami in Jerusalem

One of my very favorite days on our recent trip to Israel was the day that Sarina and I had stupendous hummus for a late breakfast and equally astounding hummus for lunch. In the morning we visited the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem and walked around the outside the Dome of The Rock and Al-Aksa mosque, then walked out through the Muslim quarter. Right by the fifth station of the cross we found Abu Shukri, and though it was a bit early we weren't about to miss this legendary experience. We weren't disappointed. You can see in the bottom picture, incredibly creamy chickpea puree topped with a few whole chickpeas and a puddle of fruity olive oil. The garnish tray included pickles and a few balls of falafel.

Then after a tour of the Israel Museum and a flustered circle through mad traffic with a sleepy toddler and an expensive parking ticket, we made our way to Taami, which Hillel had told me about. We waited a few minutes for a seat in the tiny place at the top of Shamai street and once again stuffed ourselves silly, stopping only to top each other with adjectival glee.

Those of you only familiar with hummus (which can also be spelled humus or hummous) outside of the Middle East are probably thinking: (1) a whole restaurant devoted mainly to hummus? (2) even if so, why would anyone care? Answers: (a) yep, all over, and everyone has their favorite place (b) because most of the hummus in the rest of the world would be better suited to mortaring bricks or caulking bathroom fixtures than eating. The real thing is a velvety smooth, silky puree of chickpeas, sesame tahini, lemon juice, garlic and salt. Certainly not Thai Pepper Hummus or any other absurd flavor. You can often have it garnished with more chickpeas, falafel, pine nuts, tomatoes, or other tasty bits, and there is usually a side tray of pickles and olives, but the main event is that puree.

When I was in Delhi a few years ago, I was struck by the fact that the top-shelf Bukhara restaurant at the Maurya Sheraton was known far and wide for their dal, basically a simple lentil soup. (It was damn good, with a lot of kidney beans and ultra buttery.) I was seated about 10 feet from Rahul Gandhi, considered likely to be a future Prime Minister of India. In America, a restaurant that caters routinely to future presidents isn't going to be famous for lentil soup, or chickpea puree. It made me feel proud as a vegetarian to see folks so passionate about humble, delicious dishes.

One thing is for sure, if you want to get an Israeli talking, just ask them where to find a good hummus restaurant.

As far as these two places go, I think you should visit both. I'd give a slight edge to Abu Shukri for the hummus itself, but I liked the lively atmosphere at Taami more (of course we were there at a better time of day).

If I ever manage to make hummus this good at home, I'll definitely pass on the recipe to all of you. My first attempt was a bit too grainy. Current theory is that I need to find true Middle Eastern chickpeas instead of Mexican garbanzos. There are so many recipes on the web and in cookbooks it is a bit mind boggling to know where to start. Feel free to add comments below if you have an opinion!

Details:
Taami
3 Shamai St
Jerusalem 94631 Israel
+972 2 561 9265

Abu Shukri
63 Al Wad Rd. at Via Dolorosa
Old City, Jerusalem, Israel

Hummus with Chickpeas at Abu Shukri in the Old City of Jerusalem

Strudel from Forno Marco Roscioli in Rome, Italy

Strudel from Antico Forno Marco Roscioli

I have been to the mountaintop, and there I found strudel. Antico Forno Marco Roscioli has been making beautiful breads, pizza and pastries for only 35 years. Which I guess makes them a bit of an upstart on the Roman scene. I found them after a morning of strolling around Campo dei Fiori and my only regret was I only had room for the stellar pine-nut and raisin strudel with deliciously moist breadcrumb filling. Dang!

Details:
Via dei Chiavari, 34
Rome, Italy
39 06 6875287

See sign, prepare to salivate

Campo dei Fiori Market, Rome, Italy

Arugula

For today's post I'm just going to let the pictures do most of the talking. Sorry for those of you on slow connections. These are all images from a morning stroll through the Campo dei Fiori market in Rome. Unfortunately we didn't have a kitchen at this point in our trip, so other than fruit, I had to eat this bounty with my Nikon!

The arugula above is used in many ways including as an uncooked pizza topping, and is much better than we normally get in the US. It is crisp and just slightly bitter. It adds a nice strong flavor component to many vegetarian dishes.

Blueberries, blackberries, white currants, and strawberries

Those strawberries were so delicate and flavorful. You could tell they weren't bred just to travel 2000 miles.

The white currants come in for their close-up

I came home with these peal-like, slightly tart white currants, and Mini-Me scarfed them all up.

Zucchini Blossoms

Man was I jealous of the zucchini blossoms that Italian cooks get. Even at farmer's markets in the US they usually seem like an afterthought of whoever is growing the squash, and are always terribly expensive and usually about to wither. In Rome there were huge baskets of them that looked like they were picked an hour earlier. Even average places would have whole pizzas covered with them. You could taste them more that way than you can with the typical treatment of stuffing the with cheese, battering, and deep frying.

Trimming vegetables for sale

The market itself had a nice vibe, and isn't that huge. Above you can see some of the folks that work there getting watercress and green beans ready to display.

Hot Peppers, Eggplant and Borlotti Beans

The best advice for choosing many types of vegetables is to find ones that feel heavy for their size. These eggplant were like little cannonballs.

I love that we have so many great farmer's markets in Seattle (and many places in America) now. I only hope that they get more frequent and closer to home. It would be awesome to be able to cook with ingredients this fresh every day. On the plus side, most of our farmer's market produce is certified organic or at least unsprayed, while in Israel and Italy I didn't see a whole lot of labeling.

You might also want to check out Heidi's post about her favorite Roman market - turns out she was there at the same time as us!

How To Find A Good Restaurant on Short Notice

I imagine many of us have intentions of doing lots of research before we visit a new place to find out the restaurants we really want to try. However, sometimes we don't do enough planning, or the place we want to visit is closed, or we're simply out and about when suddenly the need to eat strikes. How to quickly pick a restaurant that stands a good chance of being delicious? I've developed a few tricks over the years. None of them are perfectly reliable of course, but I think they do improve your odds.

1. Look where all the tourists are going - and then run the other way. Almost any restaurant that caters mainly to tourists just doesn't have the motivation to do a great job. They don't have many repeat customers, and most of the people they serve are only interested in having a fake "authentic" experience and getting out cheap.


2. Look where locals are eating. For example, I was strolling through Rome with my daughter, getting a bit desperate for lunch and despairing of all of the obvious tourist traps. I happened to spot a restaurant in an alley where there were obvious locals eating. The men were in nicely tailored suits and an older woman was having a panini and a glass of white wine, all speaking Italian. The meal was nothing spectacular but it was quiet and quite decent and the proprietress was personable and took great care of the bambina.


3. Ask a local, but be skeptical. Remember that a lot of people don't have great taste, and others, especially in tourist areas, will simply send you to their cousin's great uncle's place. That is especially true when asking at your hotel - they might even get a cut.


4. Grab a free paper. Especially in the US, one of the local "free papers" you find at a cafe or street stand can be an excellent source of independent reviews. You can also study the ads to figure out what the more promising areas of town are for your preferred type of venue.


5. Surf menus. Many restaurants put a menu outside, and you can learn a lot from them. Check out whether what is offered sounds good and whether the price is right. Of course as a vegetarian, I'm specifically looking to see if they have at least one entree that meets my needs. If the vegetarian options sound like an afterthought, I'll move on.


6. Also look at the seasonality. If they are offering asparagus in June or a fresh tomato salad in December, you are asking for trouble. Also, if the menu has a hundred different items, ask yourself whether they can possibly do that many things well.


7. If there is no menu posted, so much the better. Now you can walk in and ask to see one, and get a better look at the inside of the place. Don't be the least bit ashamed to walk away if it isn't what you want.


8. Try to get a look at the food. If you can peek in a window or see someone already eating on the patio, often a quick glance will tell you whether it looks good.


9. Take advantage of technology. If you have a laptop with you, find a place with wireless and spend 10 minutes doing some quick searches for recommendations. Try chowhound or citysearch, or just google the neighborhood plus the word "restaurant" and read a few reviews. If you are savvy with your mobile phone, you can do it that way too.


10. Trust your instincts. Take a second to just feel the overall vibe of the place. If you sense there might be some love of food here, trust your gut and wander in. If not... hey, is that another menu I see down at the end of the block?

If you have other tricks that have worked for you, please add them as a comment!

Review: "Jovani" Restaurant, Tiberias, Israel

Delicious ravioli at "Jovani" TIberias, Israel

We're on our way from Jerusalem up to Vered Hagalil. No GPS, but this looks easy on the map. We just need to pass through Tiberias, stay on the same road headed north around the Sea of Galilee (Kinerret), and we should be there in half an hour. Pretty much follow the coast. Hmm, the road is turning inland. We must have missed the turn. Let's try again. Hmm, no obvious main road headed up the coast. All these side streets dead end. Maybe the turn was earlier. Argh! Three tries later we are punchy and very hungry and worried about a nap for Mini-Me.

Tiberias is one of those resort towns that I would normally avoid, especially for eating. But since we are desperate, we just park the car and pick the first place that looks half decent and hope they can give us directions along with lunch. The sign in English said "Jovani" and "Espresso Bar", but in Hebrew it is something closer to "Giovanni".

Boy were we glad we got lost! I'd been avoiding ordering pasta since we were headed shortly to Italy, but I broke down here. The ravioli in the picture above was simple but stellar, with a homemade tomato sauce that was practically vibrating with fresh flavors. We all shared that along with huge, beautiful Greek and Israeli salads.

And thus my continued amazement with food in this tiny country. Nothing fancy - in fact, ultra casual. The owner's daughter is chilling with her friends at the next table and the tab was maybe $40 for the four of us. It is just that the ingredients are insanely fresh and flavorful, and prepared with simple care, an experience that seems so infrequent in the US but the norm here. Like most Israeli restaurants (either kosher-dairy or non-kosher), it is a vegetarian paradise with lots of options and no stealth meat.

And the owner, who spoke excellent English, gave us directions too. We simply needed to follow that road that was headed inland for 7 Km, and it would head north again, have faith. Mmm. Not... so... much. We ended up making a huge box, going an hour out of our way and swearing that after we got settled we'd have to drive back south and figure out where the road really was just to satisfy our curiosity!

So I can't give you exact directions to Jovani, but if you enter town from the south it is one block left of the main street, in what seems to be the older downtown area filled with normal shops. I can't find anything about it on the web, though maybe someone who does Hebrew on their keyboard can track it down for us and add a comment? I've included a picture of the exterior below, and I'm sure a local could point you to it easily.

"Jovani" Restaurant in Tiberias, Israel

A Happy Welcome Home

Burekas, Bulemas, Pumpkin Filas, and Sweet Rosh Hashanah Rolls from Noni Sophie

We got home last night from our month-long trip to Italy and Israel. It was an exhausting 24 hours of travel but everyone held up well, and it was a joy to see Sarina's Dad waiting for us at the Seattle airport, ready to scoop our bleary little traveling family up into the minivan and home to bed. Her folks had thoughtfully made egg salad and picked up groceries for us, and Noni Sophie, Sarina's grandmother on her Mom's side, had sent along a beautiful package of Sephardic goodies to tide us over. You can see them in the picture above: burekas (the crescent shaped ones with a flaky dough), pumpkin filas (the triangles on the right), sweet rolls for Rosh Hashanah at the top, and the king of all savory pastries, the bulemas at the bottom.

Bulemas are filled with a mixture of feta and spinach, coiled up like snails, topped with grated romano, and sort of bake-fried. The dough is made lean initially but then you use a lot of oil as you shape them and more on the pan, so it ends up becoming very crispy and delicious. I have a tape of raw video of Noni Sophie teaching us how to make them. Some day I'll edit it down and give you all a video recipe.

So you can see we had a warm welcome and I feel very grateful to come back to such a wonderful family. I think the best trips both make you appreciate other cultures and leave you happy to be back home.

We went shopping at Whole Foods today to restock the house, and it was a definite culture shock. After a month of walking around incredible street markets with small individual purveyors, it was somewhat disturbing to be in a corporate behemoth.

I've got a few more posts to do about Israel and quite a few about Italy, some new cookbooks, and lots of recipe ideas to try, plus I'm getting ready to nail down my cooking internship for the next few months, so stay tuned - much blogging is about to ensue!

Review: Obika Mozzarella Bar, Rome, Italy

So the review in our travel guide (and most of the online listings) gushed about Obika Mozzarella Bar in Rome, and it wasn't hard to seduce me. A restaurant entirely devoted to artisinal Mozzarella Di Bufala, each with the DOP seal of approval? Are you kidding me? I practically had to be restrained from clawing my way down there the minute we arrived in the city.

I need not have rushed.

And really, part of me knew. I liked the schtick of using great ingredients from all over Italy, but fresh mozzarella simply doesn't travel like that. All three varieties that we tasted were ok but not earth-shatteringly good, without that amazing sweet milk flavor I was expecting. Actually the smoked one was most interesting. I'm sure they were terrific when they left the caseificio, but nothing special when they landed on our plates. And they were served on beds of the saddest, oldest, most pock-marked, thick ribbed spinach I've ever seen served in a restaurant. Popeye wouldn't have touched it if Olive Oyl was tied to the railroad tracks.

Then came our entrees. The only two that were both vegetarian and could be done without nuts (because Snacky Pants is severely allergic) were eggplant based. She ordered an eggplant parmigiana and I got a mozarella bomba di risa with grilled eggplant. The bomba was excellent, but served with pesto containing nuts so SP couldn't even try it.

The parmigiana was inedible because the eggplant was barely cooked, not even penetrable with a fork. Mind you, this isn't some special Italian style. Eggplant isn't served al dente. When SP informed the waitress, she said "oh, yes, that is because our eggplants are maybe a little hard", and walked away!

The Obika website claims they are a "a research project based on Italian high-quality products". My suggestion: don't volunteer as a lab rat.

Breakfast In Israel - So Amazing! (including Reviews of the Dan Panorama Jerusalem, Metropolitan Suites Tel Aviv, Vered Hagalil, and Yotvata)

Breakfast at Yotvata Kosher (Dairy) Restaurant in Tel Aviv

Breakfast in Israel is kind of an amazing thing, and a vegetarian's paradise.

Our first venue was the Dan Panorama Hotel in Jerusalem where we were treated to an unbelievable buffet that is included in the room price. Five enormous tables had perhaps fifty or more choices including cheeses, yogurts, and labnehs, breads of all sorts, sweet and savory pastries such as borekas, half a dozen fresh salads that changed daily, an omelette and pancake station, fresh fruit, fresh squeezed orange and grapefruit juice, great mounds of halvah, and I'm surely forgetting some things! Most everything was impeccably fresh and the amazing Israeli produce and dairy products made it unforgettable. The biggest problem I had was not to stuff myself so much that I couldn't eat falafel at a reasonable lunch hour.

When we moved to the Vered Hagalil Guest Ranch in the northern part of the country near the Sea of Galilee, there was again a buffet though of more modest proportions, appropriate to the small and rustic resort. Still all of those superb salads and dairy products to die for, and much needed espresso too.

Breakfast Buffet At Vered Hagalil Guest Ranch near the Sea of Galilee

In Tel Aviv, the buffet at the Metropolitan Hotel and Suites was shockingly bad. It was fairly large, maybe half the size of the Dan Panorama, but everything was sad looking and dirty and tasteless. It was like finding myself at a Residence Inn in the States trying to eke out a breakfast from reconstituted waffle strips and imitation egg curds. We didn't go back after the first day.

Instead we started breakfasting at Yotvata, a kibbutz-run, kosher dairy, diner-style restaurant with several locations. The plate in the pictures at the top of this post costs  all of 42 shekels (about $10), and that includes also a huge pitcher of an absolutely fresh fruit smoothie of your choice (get the mango!), and warm bread.  Served on a patio across the street from the Mediterranean no less. Incredible. I don't think the $10 would even cover the food cost for a restaurant in the US. Denny's should take one look at that picture and lock its doors in shame.

And of course if you have been out partying all night in Tel Aviv, a plate of salads might not sound so good. This fellow below opted for fries and a snooze, then dined-and-dashed after the security guard woke him up!

Asleep in the French Fries After A Long Night of Rosh Hashanah Partying in Tel Aviv

Spice Stalls at Mahane Yehuda Market In Jerusalem, Israel (What Kind of Harissa Is This?)

One of the things I look forward to most when touring other countries is to see the spice markets. In Delhi, my driver / guide and I braved one hour of traffic to go about 1.5 Km from where we were to Khari Baoli market and then we had to park in an underground garage that was so crowded that the attendants had to move cars around like a puzzle to fit each new one in!

By comparison the spice stalls at Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem are pretty laid back, just the usual shoving and good natured shouting. I only bought a couple of things, some super-fresh green zatar (above) that tastes most strongly of thyme and sesame, and incredible dry harissa:

I've only been familiar with harissa in the sauce form, but we are pretty sure that is what the man called it. I don't know if it is intended to be soaked to make a harissa sauce or used as a rub or garnish, but in any case it is delicious. It is quite hot and has an intense flavor of roasted dry chilis, with strong herbal undertones, and very beautiful to look at. If anyone can correct me on the name of this mixture or its uses, please add a comment!

Review: The Legendary Abulafia Bakery in Jaffa, Israel (near Tel Aviv)

Sambusac Stuffed with Potato, Mushroom, Cheese and Hardboiled Egg

Here are your directions. (1) Board plane for Tel Aviv (2) Clear immigration and customs (3) Ask taxi driver to take you to Abulafia. You could tell him that it is in Jaffa, but he already knows.

SP's dad, you mention anything related to the Middle East and his eyes glaze over with desire as he tells you about how you have to make it to Abulafia.

Do you get what I'm trying to say here? This 24-hour streetside bakery has been located at the same corner in Jaffa since 1879. They pretty well have the recipes tweaked out at this point. That turnover, calzone looking item you see above is called a sambusac, and this one was filled with silky smooth mashed potatoes, onions, mushrooms, and cheese. Big deal right? When you order it, they put it on the grill for a minute, then cut it open and add a sliced hardboiled egg. The warm, creamy potatoes, the rich egg and cheese, slightly chewy but tender dough, lots of black pepper. Dang! Suddenly I understand what all the other pastries I've ever eaten filled with cold, dry mashed potatoes were referring to.

Just up the street, Abulafia has another location that serves sit down meals and apparently has unbelievable hummus, according to Hillel. I didn't have room for it today.

If you are doing any more web research about the bakery, be sure and check multiple spellings. Even on their own sign they have both Abuelafia and Abouelafia, and I've also seen Aboulafia.

While you are in Jaffa, you can stroll up to beautiful overlooks of Tel Aviv and the Mediterranean, and walk through one of the nicer, cleaner Old City areas I've seen, with some high quality, not so touristy art dealers.

Just to whet your appetite further, here's a picture of Abulafia's pita with zatar, if you don't mind looking through the glass.

Pita Bread Covered in Zatar

Foraging Tour of The Sea of Galilee (Kinneret) And The Golan Heights

Freshly liberated mango near the Sea of Galilee

SP has just about got me convinced that these private guided tours are the way to go when in an unfamiliar place with a lot to see and limited time. Along with Mini-Me and SP's Mom, we just spent two nights at the Vered Hagalil Guest Ranch just north of the Sea of Galilee, otherwise known as Lake Kinneret. (I have to say that when I first saw the water, I said "you call that a sea? At home that wouldn't even be a Great Lake! :)".

You probably are most familiar with Sea of Galilee because it is where Jesus is said to have walked on water, and the neighboring Golan Heights because it is periodically in the news when Syria and Israel are shooting at each other. While Mini-Me had her afternoon nap, we got to see a whole different side of the region.

The Kinneret area is the source of much of the fresh water for Israel, and the area around it is incredibly fertile, but I wasn't expecting to write a blog entry about this tour.  I thought we'd be hiking, maybe swimming, and see some ruins and great views. I never figured we'd be having an impromptu tasting of blackberries, a wild variety of mint, fennel, the fruit used to make the crown of thorns, and farmed pomelo, lemon, and by far the best mango I've ever had in my life, pictured above. Oh man, that mango (pictured above) was incredible. Not at all stringy, very large and intensely perfumed, sweet almost rich, and much more complex than any I've ever had in the states.

Our guide, Igal Volitzky, has been taking folks around this region for 20 years and really knows it cold, including the geography, the history, the plants and animals, and of course the people. In three hours we covered everything from the wet plains near the lake to the ruins of the ancient synagogue at Kanaf in upper reaches of the Golan. Igal really can handle his Range Rover, taking us up roads that I would never have dared myself. Here's the view from up there:

View of the Sea of Galilee (Kinneret) from the Golan Heights

When I told him of my interest in food, Igal mentioned that he can also arrange actual tasting tours, where you stop and have traditional food at the houses of several local folks. I only wish we'd had time!  He didn't give me an email address, but you can call him. From the US you would dial 011-972-4-6938071. If for some reason that doesn't work, the folks at Vered Hagalil should know how to get in touch with him.

Vered Hagalil itself was also very nice. It is a rustic collection of stone cottages with extensive stables for horseback riding, a restaurant with a very nice breakfast included in your stay, swimming pool, a couple of small playgrounds, and lots of space to just relax and look down at the water, away from the tourist bustle of Tiberias, and a short drive to the holy city of Safed (also spelled Safad, Zefat, or Tzfat). 

Halvah at Mahane Yehuda Market, Jerusalem, Israel

Continuuing on with our previous theme of the amazing goods at Mahaneh Yehuda Market in Jerusalem, here are a couple more pictures that capture the flavor. The first (above) is of dozens of varieties of ultra-fresh halvah, sesame candy flavored mostly with various nuts, chocolate, and sometimes lemon or rose water.

The shouks (the Hebrew word) or souks (also spelled sooks, the Arabic word) are pedestrian only areas, and so all of the produce and other goods for sale have to be brought in on handcarts. In Delhi I saw very large ones that took two men to push. Here in Jerusalem the preferred vehicle seems to be a smaller single-man cart. For some of the streets in the Old City that are steeply sloped, they have a clever adaptation - on the back is a single tire dragging from a chain. To brake the cart, the "driver" steps on that tire.

In the picture below, back at Mahaneh Yehuda, you see some enormous gourds and the harried fellow whose job it is to move them.

Ok, and I can't resist since we talked about them recently, here's one more picture, of Dragonfruit (aka Dragon Fruit or Pitaya) at the same market. They were less than half the price I found them for in the US, but still fairly expensive by Israeli standards.

Dairy Products at Mahane Yehuda Market, Jerusalem, Israel

I think this one speaks for itself. The fresh dairy products in Israel are outstanding. In this picture, at a tiny dairy stall in the Mahane Yehuda market (the Jewish shouk), you can see yogurt, labneh (yogurt cheese, foreground with the basket texture), feta, and several flavored cheeses including zatar spice and olive. There is also often fresh mozzarella style cheeses but they are too rubbery, I don't think the knowledge or preference has come over from Italy yet.  The flavor of the yogurt is smooth and deep, without the sharp edges of most unsweetened American varieties.

(Alternate transliterated spellings for the market include Machane, Mahaneh, Machane, and Yehudah).

Tour of the Old City of Jerusalem (with More Falafel and Pomegranate Juice)

When we met our tour guide for the Old City of Jerusalem, Nurit Lessem, she was surprised to hear that we hadn't had lunch yet, but was more than happy to take us to one of her favorite falafel places for a break. I knew right away we'd found the right chaperone!

SP and I wouldn't normally go in for a guided tour, but the historical complexity of the Old City made it seem a shame to go around with our nose stuck in a  guidebook. Nurit wasn't the type of guide where you felt as if she was simply going through the same old script. She clearly has a passion for the history of Jerusalem and has learned about it from many angles. She shared her depth of knowledge everywhere we stopped and engaged with us in lots of fascinating discussion and speculation. She also knew well hidden viewpoints and out of the way nooks and crannies that we wouldn't have found ourselves. So I can highly recommend her services. You can reach her at 972-054-654-3006 or nurit_lessem@yahoo.com. She speaks fluent English, French, and of course Hebrew.

Now about that falafel. Nurit took us to the Fountain Coffee Shop, in Suq Afthemos, Dabbagha No. 62, which is right around the corner from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Just another incredible falafel sandwich with a few fries, pickled vegetables, and tahini. Man, eating in this country is tough!

Also on the way through the souk we stopped for a glass of fresh squeezed pomegranate juice. It was kind of phenomenal to watch the gentleman slice open and squish 5 or 6 of the fruits and squish them in a manual press, right into my glass. I guess I'm used to thinking of them as almost a luxury fruit, so it was eye opening to enjoy them this way. The flavor was nothing like the Pom brand juice in US stores. It was much lighter, and mildly sweet with little hits of the bitter pith. Awesome.

"Panzanella" Salad at Spaghettim, Jerusalem, Israel

For years, everyone I know that has gone to Israel has told me how incredible the produce and therefore the salads are. "The cucumbers taste like cucumbers". I didn't know whether to fully believe this or not given how great the farmer's market produce we get in Seattle is. Now I know what they were talking about. The average produce is really much better, maybe a shade shy of the best farmer's market for basic vegetables but way, way above typical American grocery store fare. Also, the standard for preparation of salads is so much higher. You never see just some sad lettuce and vegetables washed three days ago, thrown in a bowl, awash in dressing. Probably because of the hot climate and the good produce, and the seriousness which people in this part of the world apply to their dining, the salads are often superb even at pretty run-of-the-mill places. The picture above is of a so-called Panzanella at Spaghettim, which is  a small chain of Italian restaurants. It really only had a few pieces of bread, so it ate more like a good Greek Village salad. But it was incredibly refreshing and tasty, with lots of mint, and a bargain for around $10.

Details
35 Hillel St.
Jerusalem, Israel
02/623-5547

Falafel In The Old City, Jerusalem, Israel

This was our first falafel in Jerusalem. Of course it came in a sandwich, but we took one apart to give to Mini-Me, and that makes for a more descriptive picture than the whole sandwich. Falafel over here is so much better than you normally find in America. The falafel itself is always fried to order, not sitting around, and it is served with several kinds of pickled vegetables and salads, and often a few french fries. The crisp falafel, vinegary pickles, creamy tahini, spicy harissa and super-fresh pita combine to make something so perfect I could eat it every day. I have failed you as a correspondent and didn't write down the name of the restaurant, but it was on the Cardo (main street) in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, a little south from where you come up from the Western Wall of the Temple.

P.S. if any of you want to keep up with the family stories of our trip, check out Snacky Pants' Blog.

Where to Eat in Israel (Jerusalem, Tel Aviv) and Italy (Rome, Florence, near Sienna)

The long anticipated sixth month sabbatical is now upon your loyal author! Starting Sept. 1 we'll be traveling to Israel (Jerusalem, Tel Aviv) and Italy (Rome, Florence, and an agroturismo named Montesigliano near Sienna) for a month, and I plan to post lots of food pics from the road. I thought I'd interrupt our regularly scheduled blog to ask everyone out there for suggestions of food experiences we shouldn't miss. We are equally interested in fine dining and the best falafel or gelato stands, as well as markets, bakeries, wineries, and artisanal producers. And of course bonus points for places that you've had good vegetarian experiences at, or that will be nice to Mini-Me and tolerate the occasional screech of joy. If you have any suggestions, please add them as comments below, and thanks a million!