The Night is Still Young - Chef Laura in Israel Part 2

Although I've spent 4 days in Tel Aviv already, I haven't experienced too much of it outside from evenings. The Israelis give the phrase "The night is still young" another meaning. Not having realized that, I was surprisingly amazed at how un-crowded the restaurant scene was the first 2 days I was here having dinner at 7-8pm.

On Sunday, I went to Raphael, a Mediterranean style restaurant in the Dan Hotel. I arrived in time to watch the Sunset along with eating my dinner, and the view was just awesome. Not wanting to extend my gluttony over two evenings, I opted for only two courses - both appetizer portions (I know, can you believe it?).





To start, the charred aubergine, which honestly is the best roasted aubergine I have ever had. Roasted aubergine may sound simple, but a perfect one is quite hard to do. You need to make sure that the vegetable cooks without steaming on the inside which can make the result somewhat bitter and bland. At Raphael, the aubergine was roasted so that the the flesh was tender and the smokey flavor was brilliantly contrasted with an herb (that I could not identify but they call it "girelle") which had a tangy aftertaste.



Lamb ribs from crusted with white pepper followed, and was served with pommes puree mixed in with olives for that Mediterranean touch. They made the pommes puree as I make mine - with more butter than potato!



The following evening, in proper Israeli fashion of starting everything late, I had dinner (9:30pm) at Pinxos, a Tapas bar in the funky artist neighborhood of Nahalat Binyamin. Tapas is popular in Israel as a style of food, but not necessarily with Spanish flavors (influence maybe). I think the appeal comes from the traditional mezze cuisine, which is small samples of many different things. Actually come think of it, all the older cuisines of the world have a very similar philosophy towards food (read my post on Korea, although it's much younger).

Since there were two of us, I was able to sample a variety of items of the menu, including the fattiest sweetbreads, and an egg yolk ravioli which was my favorite item.





The most unusual dish was bulghur stuffed baby calamari, a la plancha.



The no-fail method to styling up a dish is very simple - add a drizzle of truffle oil on the plate, and you have instant success. Even the blahest food gets some sass from truffle oil. At Pinxos, almost ever dish came with truffle oil, which was a pity, because most of the dishes could hold their own! So, remember this trick, but use with discretion!


Scallop Carpaccio


Finishing off with the best ice cream in Tel Aviv



My awesome Israeli hosts took me out for my first Tel Aviv nightlife experience, starting at an American Style restaurant/bar called Dixies, and then finishing off at Shesek, a small bar tucked away on Lilinblum street. Although it was a Tuesday night, the crowds only started to trickle in around 11pm, and the streets were packed even when I was on my way home at 2am, which is, as they say, when the night is still young.


American Food at it's best - Beef ribs in Hoisin sauce


Seared beef carpaccio



In line with conquering my Israeli cuisine chase, I woke up the next morning at 7:30am, in time to have breakfast in a small restaurant tucked away in the Yemenite Quarter. The joint is only open from 7am through to 12pm, and only one item is served here, Syrian hummus with a fava bean paste, hard boiled egg, parsley, spices and olive oil. I could never go back to American hummus, although I just heard about a really great Israeli Hummus place in ... Cupertino!




Condiments for Hummus - Pita bread, onions, peppers & sweet mint tea

The hard core breakfast rendered me full till Israeli dinner time (10pm), which leaves me in search of a restaurant on the eve of the commemoration of the Fall of Jerusalem, where all establishments are supposed to be closed.

Wish me luck!