Insights into various aspects of the local food scene.
After a few wrong turns that led us up and down the bleached stone staircases of Jerusalem’s Old City, we’d found ourselves standing outside what looked like a small convenience store. There were no other storefronts in the immediate vicinity. The nutty smell of sesame was everywhere. But where was …
If you’re going to eat okra, you’ll be eating it stewed in a tomato sauce. For some reason that dictate is observed as if it were religiously mandated. Why is that? It tastes good, of course. But right now is okra season, these itty bitty green nibs are being sold …
Once so often you encounter a dish that’s really stellar and memorable. This eggplant was one such dish. The setting: A stormy winter night at a seaside restaurant. Low lighting. Dark decor with black leather chairs. An eye-level view of the raging Mediterranean sea, waves the height of a small …
To market, to market. It’s been a busy few months, and not because we’ve been up to anything in particular — mostly just due to life. Raising a toddler, working, toddler, work, and then the day is over. It’s not that I haven’t been cooking — cooking has become even …
Kubbeh got a brief blast of attention when a pop-up kubbeh restaurant briefly appeared in New York City last month. Reading about it from afar, I was pleased that kubbeh was getting some much-deserved focus — kubbeh is quite popular in Israel, but nearly entirely unknown in the United States. …
Leek dumplings are a traditional Passover food for many people of Turkish and Balkan descent, my family included, though I couldn’t tell you what makes this specifically Passover food. To be honest, it’s not really a dish that my family makes anymore — at this point, the koftes de prasa …
One day when I was feeling particularly stir-crazy, I packed the baby into the carrier and took a bus down to the Levinsky Street market. There, we made our way through the narrow, crowded streets to Salimi, arguably the area’s best little restaurant for Persian food. Just the two of …
Could a book entitled “Jerusalem” really not be political — even if that book is a cookbook? That was the main question in my mind as I waited to receive a review copy of Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi’s latest book, named after the city where both chefs were born …
I’m going to admit it — I’m not into Roladin donuts. We may have another week to go until Hanukkah begins, but the Roladin donuts have been out in force for a while now, due to popular demand (and marketing). I must be the only person in the country who …
It’s vacation month. Daycares are on break, Yeshivas are on break, we’re on break — the end of my husband’s paternity leave, to be precise. I’m already back at work, actually.* But with this scorching summer heat, all we really want to do most days is sit out our vacation …
