Cafe Liz

Pasta fonduta is a little-known Italian dish, but if it were from the Levant, it might be something like this. It comes by way of my cousins, who were here for a short visit that involved lots of communal cooking. The original dish, which comes via a recipe by Jamie Oliver, calls for creme fraiche, Fontina cheese and an herb such as marjoram. These cheese products aren’t readily available here (woman at the cheese counter: “Fontina? Never heard of it. [...]

This brunch looks complicated, but it’s actually quite quick and simple to pull together: You pack the kadaif noodles into bowls and stick them in the toaster, toss the asparagus (or vegetable of choice) into a pan to grill, and let the eggs boil for a minute or two in the meanwhile. Then you assemble it. That’s all. As a bonus, it tastes good and looks nice — the nest comes out crunchy and buttery, and soaks up the liquid [...]

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. The main variation is in the creativity of the spreads, the quality of the ingredients and the price. (In the photo: Breakfast at the Brasserie. A review of my favorite [...]

I’m not entirely sure this merits a recipe, but it certainly merits a photo. So I might as well explain how I made it. We’ve been buying purple vegetables since we discovered them at the Friday farmer’s market in the Tel Aviv port. They definitely liven up any meal. And yes, it seems the color of the cauliflower bled slightly onto the egg.

This burst of cold weather we’ve been having is making me want heavy, sweet foods for breakfast, which we eat at an hour that others would consider lunch. Hence, brunch. I recently bought a bottle of amaretto, and I’ve been looking for ways to use it — I bought it with baking in mind, far be it from us to actually drink liquor. So I added a bit to my french toast. By adding amaretto and milk, I came up [...]

Our kitchen floor is covered with bags of vegetables — I hadn’t been to the Carmel Market in weeks, due to our trip to the U.S., and the attempt to empty the fridge that preceded it, so when we went this Friday, I got a little overexcited. The advantage to this is that everything is in plain sight, which means I’m more likely to use all the fresh vegetables. So this Saturday, we wound up with a spinach shakshuka for [...]

This Saturday brunch included fresh-baked lahoh, a purple salad with ginger-dill dressing, a cheese-herb omelet and a random assortment of roasted purple vegetables. The lahoh was great, and is noteworthy because I don't think many recipes for this Yemenite pita appear in English

This Saturday brunch included a personal-sized baked spinach shakshuka, an Italian-style chopped salad, chocolate chip cookies made with the New York Times’ recipe, and more. Brunch is always a pleasure.

Today’s version of our weekly ritual included oatmeal-whole wheat waffles, a spinach-cheese omelet, a nice fresh mixed-green salad, a few of our homemade olives, and, of course, coffee from David’s Coffee at 49 Levinsky, my favorite coffee roaster.