a little culinary normality
eating, drinking & a lot of food talking...
In the challenging times of such culinary instability in the north of the country, it was both refreshing and rather delicious to experience the normality of busy food markets, cafes and restaurants of Tel Aviv, in what has undoubtedly become known as the foodie’s capital of Israel.
With steamy temperatures of 30+ degrees, I started my day with a long drink of iced coffee, before browsing the overcrowded shelves of gourmet delights, fine wines and hand crafted crockery, glassware and linens in Épicerie Fine, a little gastronomic haven off the beaten track.
Following a short walk, I arrived at the heart of Shuk HaCarmel (Carmel Market), the largest food market in Tel Aviv, famed for its cacophony of smells and tastes, and the sweet dulcet tones of the traders. Wandering through the crowded alleyways filled with stalls piled high of seasonal fruits and vegetables, colourful fragrant spices and freshly baked pretzels and bagels, I was reminded of the stark contrast from my recent visit to the equally famous Akko market, empty of people and whose vendors pray for the bustle and flavour to return.
Shuk HaCarmel heaves on a Friday morning as the weekend shoppers push past one another clambering to fulfil their shopping lists, all hoping for the best price and the freshest produce they can bargain for, while munching on the freshly cooked stuffed vine leaves, kibbeh (ground meat and bulghul fried patties) and baklava, that are being sold in the sidewalks. Queues of people stretch around every corner of this ambling market waiting for tables in the cafes and bars, as friends and families meet for the ubiquitous Friday morning breakfast. Yet I arrived on a Sunday morning, the first day of the working week and there was undeniably a flurry of chaotic activity in the shops, cafes and stalls, and certainly no shortage of food to taste and buy.
My meanderings then took me behind the market, to a little Ethiopian restaurant called Balinjera run by chef patron Fanta Prada, situated in the Yemenite quarter of Tel Aviv. Serving traditional Ethiopian food in a humble refuge with hand painted murals covering the walls, Fanta delights in cooking the healthy, colourful and flavoursome soul food of her Jewish heritage, in a homely, welcoming setting.
I was introduced to Fanta through Vegan Jewish Instagram chef Ben Rebuck who gave us his plant based chopped liver to break the Yom Kippur fast on BBC Celebration Kitchen last year. He raved to me not only about her food, but the warmth and friendliness she and her staff extended to every person that walked into the bistro.
A play on words, Balinjera was born out of the culinary culture of Ethiopia’s traditional bread and the Amharic word for ‘eating together’. Injera is a large fluffy, slightly sour tasting pita, full of tiny little holes, and made from gluten free teff flour and served at every meal. Using one’s clean hands to eat with (there is a sink at the entrance to the restaurant), injera is the perfect vehicle to mop up the accompaniments of meat, chicken, vegetables and legumes, that is a feast for both the eyes and the palate.
As we ate and drank the delicious spread in front of us, we talked incessantly about our culinary heritage, the diversity of fusion cooking that is considered Israeli food, cookbooks and the plight of the food industry in the north. Fanta talked to me not only about the flavours, aromas and textures of her food that we were eating, but also of the culinary traditions of the Sabbath and festive foods. The Friday night meal was the main meat meal of the week, with slowed cooked beef, similar to the Ashkenazi cholent and the Sephardi hamin, always eaten with dabo, Ethiopian challah bread. We discussed tea drinking and its symbolic cup of hospitality, and laughed how the English and Ethiopian tea drinking culture hadn’t rubbed off on Israeli society, most of whom are incapable of making a strong, flavoursome cup of tea…
Satiated on every level, I wandered slowly back to my car, taking a slight detour to walk along the beach promenade whilst gathering my thoughts on the normality of this indulgent culinary experience. For many months now, the challenges for the agriculture, food and wine producers, and many food businesses have had devastating consequences for the population and livelihoods of Northern Israel; yet in Tel Aviv, situated in the centre of the country, has the familiarity of culinary unity that delights in providing nourishment to all, and offers a glimmer of hope that one day soon, it will return to the lush landscape of the north.
Fascinating. Frequently visited Tel Aviv in another life - El Al airlines was a client of my late first husband’s advertising agency