Cafe Liz

Late Thursday night, I received an e-mail from cookbook author Joan Nathan, telling me she’d canceled her plans for Friday. Would I like to visit the Tel Aviv farmer’s market and Bnei Brak with her? Geez, what a question! Of course I would. But there was a catch. There’s always a catch. She gave me a call the following morning, and we made plans to meet in half an hour. Did I know where we could find good Ashkenazi food [...]

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.

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. [...]

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 [...]

Every so often, us city dwellers get a craving for a little bit of country, and go scouring the countryside for a place that meets our bucolic idyll. One such place is the Schwartzman family dairy on Moshav Bat Shlomo, a few kilometers north of Zichron Yaakov. The dairy sits in an 100-year-old stone house on South Bat Shlomo’s only street (one street!). You walk beneath the canopy of trees and enter an unassuming yard full of bric-a-brac, clay pots, [...]

We happened upon this restaurant while strolling through Zichron Yaakov, looking for a place to eat brunch. It turned out to be an excellent deal in a very pleasant setting — about a dozen mezes, alongside fresh-baked bread, coffee and an omelet/shakshuka of your choosing, for 56 shekels a person (about $13). Fresh vegetables and local herbs played a large role in the mezes, of which all but one (the smoked salmon) were vegetarian. Lots of tahini sauces, and lots [...]