Cafe Liz

Hatikva market — the other side of Tel Aviv

I don't usually feel like a stranger in my own city. I observe minute changes in the scenery as they occur, and I probably could get around with my eyes closed, that is, if I weren't afraid of walking into a tree or getting hit by a car. Yet there are neighborhoods I don't know very well, and even some where I've never been. Hatikva was one of them.

The neighborhood happens to have a great market, and countless restaurants. It also happens to be the Tel Aviv neighborhood with the worst reputation, one of crime and poverty. But not surprisingly, it's not a bad place at all. In fact, it's a pretty decent place. I could think of at least one Tel Aviv neighborhood that is way grosser than the wrongly defamed Hatikva quarter (ahem, central bus station).

This may be part of the reason that the prices in Hatikva are so reasonable -- to the residents' dismay, the area doesn't have the same draw as yuppified Neve Tzekek, or even the Carmel market and the many Yemenite restaurants nearby.

In fact, the Hatikva market is wider and cleaner than Tel Aviv's more popular Carmel market, thanks to a 2005 renovation. Huh. Continue reading Hatikva market — the other side of Tel Aviv...

Grape leaves stuffed with mozzarella and sheep cheese

Why restrict your grape leaf stuffing to rice alone? Rice or other grains are traditionally the base for many a stuffed grape leaf, perhaps because they swell up during cooking to make the leaf dumpling round, fat and firm. But that’s no reason not to expand into more unusual territory. Cheese, for instance.

I got the initial idea for this recipe — if you could call two ingredients a recipe — from a restaurant in Bat Shlomo, which serves cold grape leaves wrapped around a firm labaneh. Call me immodest, but I have to say that my version is way better — there’s no cold cheese that can compare to warm, gooey mozzarella. I’d know, since I probably ate about half of my grape leaves while photographing them. Continue reading Grape leaves stuffed with mozzarella and sheep cheese…

Pasta sauce with mallow and sheep cheese

It doesn't sound like the most unusual dish -- tomato sauce with greens and cheese, pretty standard, right? Well, it is and it isn't. My greens happened to be mallow and wild beet, and my cheese was a traditional Arab sheep cheese known as "jibneh," which, quite creatively, means "cheese" in Arabic. Ingredients you wouldn't usually find in pasta sauce, yet it's the basic mix of greens and cheese. It works.

Wild beet and mallow are among the many wild greens that happen to be in season right now. They can be found in abundance in parks, Arab markets and possibly even your yard. Mallow is called halamit in Hebrew, but is known more popularly by its Arabic name, hubezah. The mallow plant gave its name to the marshmallow, and also the color mauve -- mauve is the French name for the plant, whose flowers happen to be, well, mauve. Continue reading Pasta sauce with mallow and sheep cheese...

Ravioli with Jerusalem artichoke and roasted garlic

It’s not really an artichoke, but we call it that anyway — Jerusalem artichoke, or sunchoke, is a root vegetable that happens to have an artichoke-like taste. It doesn’t have any real connection to Jerusalem, either, for that matter; it’s actually native to the United States.

Despite its deceptively being a foreigner, Jerusalem artichoke is quite common in markets here. As a tubor, it’s easier to prepare than artichoke, in my opinion — just skin it and cook, as opposed to the laborious artichoke, which hides its meat inside layers upon layers of thorny greens and thistle (smart). Continue reading Ravioli with Jerusalem artichoke and roasted garlic…

A culinary spin through Wadi Nisnas

Wadi Nisnas is more than a small Christian Arab neighborhood in the northern coastal city of Haifa -- it's a place full of culinary wonders. When I lived in Haifa seven years ago, I would make regular pilgrimages to Conditory Oriental for knafeh, a pastry of oozy goat cheese topped with crispy, bright orange noodles and rosewater syrup. Once, when I was at one of the neighborhood's most famous falafel shops, a Knesset member parked his car in the middle of the one-lane street in order to buy hummus. Honking ensued.

The tiny neighborhood, whose name means "mongoose valley" in Arabic, is home to many churches and a great deal of public art, and is the site of Haifa's annual winter Holiday of Holidays festival, a celebration of Hannukah, Christmas and Ramadan. During the rest of the year, however, the neighborhood is still a pleasant place for a stroll, especially for the hungry.

In the neighborhood's central market, you won't find purple carrots and the other gourmet oddities that appear in the markets of Tel Aviv. You will find all sorts of indigenous greens that feature in Arab cooking, including hubeizeh (mallow), olesh (chicory), mustard stems (apparently, you pickle them), green beet leaves, 10-centimeter-tall lentil sprouts and bags of cyclamen leaves for stuffing. Who knew you can eat cyclamen? Continue reading A culinary spin through Wadi Nisnas...

Israeli blogger meet-up

Last week, I had the fortune to meet another two dozen English-language bloggers in Israel. Here’s my belated wrap-up. The event, hosted by fellow food blogger Sarah Melamed of Foodbridge, was the second by this group, and was organized by Miriam Kresh of Israeli Kitchen (another food blog!) and Hannah Katsman of Cooking Manager (cooking for large families) and A Mother in Israel (commentary, politics, life in general).

Since the food bloggers are clearly closest to my heart — during the break, we inspected some weird green vegetable in Sarah’s kitchen — I’ll name them first Continue reading Israeli blogger meet-up…

Do-it-yourself coffee roasting

Forever on a quest to make extra work for myself, I’ve taken to roasting my own coffee. Why? Well, there are a few reasons. First off, it’s fascinating to take the raw material — green coffee beans — and in less than 10 minutes, turn it into what we’re used to seeing in stores. Second, freshly roasted coffee has a taste that just can’t be beat. If you were to compare top-quality beans that were roasted with the most professional equipment a month or two ago with average-quality beans that were roasted yesterday in a pan, well, the latter would win.

Simply put, freshness is key. Unless you’re buying your coffee straight from the roaster, and using it all immediately, those beans you bought probably aren’t the freshest. Plus, when you’re roasting your own coffee, you decide how much to prepare. It’s unlikely that your coffee guy will agree to sell you 30 grams of beans at a time, for instance.

In the photo is the before, middle and after — the small, unroasted beans on the right, the somewhat unevenly browned beans I stopped mid-roast in the center, and the dark, glossy final product on the left, because I like my coffee super-dark. So how do we get there? Continue reading Do-it-yourself coffee roasting…