Cafe Liz

I’m back from my visit to the United States, back to the land of good, cheap vegetables. The first thing I did on the morning after we landed was to visit our neighborhood vegetable shop, the Ibn Gvirol Shook, where they had indeed noticed our absence (it’s nice to be missed, no?). In any case, I came home with an armful of fresh vegetables, for about half of what it would have cost me at that lovely grocery store on [...]

This is a nice, sunny yellow soup for dreary days. A roommate of mine in Haifa used to make something similar. I should note that what we call “kishu” (קישוא) here isn’t actually what the rest of the world considers zucchini — it’s a pale, light green, squash shaped like a miniature baseball bat.

When my mother talked about the foods of her childhood, this was always on the list, but for some reason, I never recall eating it at home. I got the general gist of it when we went to Greek restaurants and all my older relatives would coo over the green beans, however. Even though these green beans were soft and overcooked (some would say well cooked), much like the green beans I recall eating in Greece, I prefer to stir-fry [...]

This soup was a hit at our Thanksgiving dinner in Jerusalem. It’s a good way to prepare pumpkin left over from Halloween or Thanksgiving, but then again, it’s also a good excuse just to go out and buy pumpkin.

This recipe is inspired by the ali oli potato tapas they serve in Spain. I made this potato salad to bring to a party, and the real reason I chose this dish is that it’s completely homemade (and looks it), but takes only 10-15 minutes to make. I used about 1 kilo of potatoes (unpeeled), 1/2 cup mayonnaise (would have used more, but I ran out), 3 fat garlic cloves, a splash of white wine vinegar (say, a teaspoon or [...]