Insights into various aspects of the local food scene.
Once there were none. Now, cupcake boutiques are popping up on nearly every major street in Tel Aviv, like mushrooms after the rain (or, if you will, cupcakes at a child’s birthday party). It all began not long ago, in late 2008, when this blog was still in its infancy.
Limonana is the quintessential drink of the Israeli summer. Simple and ubiquitous, there’s nothing more refreshing than freshly squeezed lemons and ground sprigs of mint, whether served on ice or blended into a smoothie. In the summer, limonada becomes my social drink of choice — the drink that captures the …
Traveling through Thailand in 2008, we fell in love with the cuisine -- fresh vibrant vegetables prepared with an exotic array of spices. So exotic, in fact, that you couldn't find them all here. Determined, I asked a few random Thai women at the Carmel Market where they found fresh …
The winter rains bring with them an explosion of green growth, much of which filters its way into our markets -- well, some of them, at least. For whatever reason -- wealth? -- many of the wild greens do not play a role in most people's diets. And it's a …
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 …
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 …
Brunch is beyond a tradition in Tel Aviv -- it's a culture. Every self-respecting restaurant offers a breakfast menu, which invariably includes "Israeli breakfast" -- generally speaking, some form of eggs, a leafy or chopped vegetable salad, assorted white cheeses, a few other spreads, some bread, coffee and/or fresh juice. …
For the past few weeks I’ve been working on a side project, and it’s finally been published. The whole thing started after I noticed a few lonely bunches of white asparagus at the Carmel market, as if the sellers were testing the waters to see if anyone would buy. This …
I'm off to the United States for the rest of the month, so what better time to write about an herb that grows primarily in the Galilee?
Black coffee in Israel gets its distinctive taste from cardamom, that spice you put in pie. It can be either ground with the beans, or added as an afterthought. Coffee with cardamom (cafe im hel) is also known in Hebrew as "mud coffee" (cafe botz). It's the type of thing …
