Israel, a mosaic of aromas
28-03-2015
Israel can consider developing a haute cuisine, as we recalled here, counting also on a food sector offering excellent products. The markets in the main centres – Jerusalem, Haifa and Tel Aviv – are magical places overflowing with delicious food. If you happen to visit the latter city, a visit to Jaffa is a must. Here you should try and get lost among the full-of-life streets: it’s nice to walk between the Flea Market and the Suk A-Dir area, both to discover local street food and to visit some good restaurants, such as Obsays: the owner, originally from Libya, offers an excellent shawerma, Israel’s doner kebap. Not too far away there’s Rus Eell Hunt, with its vegetable pies, Dany Inn, where hummus is superb (though you will find the best at Abu Hassan and the one at Afloka is not bad either); it’s right in front of a man selling pita with falafel.
A couple more steps and in Levinsky 51 there’s Arama, specialised in infusions. Round the corner, Rehamim prepares a thousand things with fruits – the pomegranate juice is not to be missed – and a delicious malabi, a vegan cake made with corn flour and coconut milk, with vanilla, pomegranate and toasted coconut, all aromatised with rose water; in the past, they would use orchid water but it’s very expensive.
Finally, a couple of words on Jerusalem too. Here the place to visit is the Machane Yehuda market, overflowing with all kinds of delicious food. It also has lots of restaurants of various standards, of which we recommend two: Azura, connected with Slow Food Israel, where you can enjoy typical produce at its best; and the Machane Yehuda Restaurant, a good restaurant with contemporary cuisine.
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An outdoor trip or a journey to the other side of the planet? One thing is for sure: the destination is delicious, by Carlo Passera
by
journalist born in 1974, for many years he has covered politics, mostly, and food in his free time. Today he does exactly the opposite and this makes him very happy. As soon as he can, he dives into travels and good food. Identità Golose's editor in chief