A taste of Israel

By : Vaishali Sengupta | 8 Comments | On : October 23, 2013 | Category : Reviews

Last week me and a few other bloggers were invited to the Bevis Marks Restaurant, to attend an event called ‘ The Taste of Israel’, an initiative to foster links between different cultures in Israel.

The event was organised by WIZO UK, a charity for the vulnerable children in Israel .

Tucked away safely behind the Bevis Marks Synagogue, the oldest synagogue in Britain, the Bevis Marks restaurant itself is highly acclaimed as London’s best Kosher restaurant.

Honestly, I was quite intrigued. I am not new to Jewish culture. I had lovely Jewish neighbours back in India, who often got me many goodies to eat. They later migrated to Israel and then I lost touch with them. So yes, I was curious.

The big attraction was that three of the most promising chefs from Tel Aviv were there at the event to wow us with their creations .

The chefs included an Arab Israeli, Khaled Tawafra, who had overcome severe ADHD and dyslexia to become a successful young chef; Yaniv Gur-Arye a former member of the Israeli army who went on to found a cookery school and Eliezer Kimyagrova, from Tajikistan, now head sous chef at Rokach73 and a recent graduate from WIZO’s vocational school in Jerusalem.

So what do three brilliant chefs from such differing cultural backgrounds cook for us?

They created a feast, a traditional feast dish of pickled mullet with tomato nectar, gourmet lamb kebabs, and duck pastia and a very unusual dessert. But more about that, later.

As we entered , we saw a board displaying a very interesting menu.

Followed by another board with a list of wines that had been paired with each course of the menu.

Interesting.

These Israeli wines, we were told, were specially selected by John Weiss, the chief sommelier at Kedem Europe, to pair with the food.

Kedem Europe is the largest importer and distributor of kosher wine in the UK.

And now to the dishes themselves.

What can I say? They were deliciously different.

We started off with the fish. It was excellent to taste and very beautifully presented. I loved the way it was set off by the lemon.

Then we had some lamb cutlets. These were quite unique not only because it had a medley of cuisines, the zatar reminiscent of Middle Eastern cuisine, but what I like most as that it was served with hummus. Quite an unusual combination for me , quite unexpected, but really really nice.

I loved it.

Not only did they taste good together, but the fact that the hummus was not the usual bland mess, was great.The hummus was nicely spiced, I suspect with the zatar..

It was so good, I promised myself that I will be making it very soon.

Then came in something that looked suspiciously like Chinese springrolls.

But one bite of this divinely delicious Pastia of duck, proved that they were no way similar to the ubiquitous spring roll. I liked the Pastia so much that I actually did not refuse the seconds that I was offered.

To be completely honest, I don’t always like duck, I think it has quite a strong flavour. But the chefs had managed to disguise the duck so well in this dish that I could not detect it at all. Fabulous!

Of course the dessert, Halva Cream with strawberries, elegantly served in cocktail glasses, was the star of the show. It was simply brilliant.

The wines were in a word, terrific. Well paired with each of the courses, they lent their own magic to the dish.

My favourite was the dessert wine, the Har Sinai, sweet and fruity. Excellently paired with the Halwa and strawberries.

I am sure I am going to buy plenty of that in future.

After the dessert, the chefs were invited to meet the guests and they were soon surrounded by the guests.

We had a long talk with one of them complimenting his food, only to find out later, that he did not speak any English. Embarassing!

We made sure the compliments were translated by the main chef and conveyed right away 🙂

Truly, one cannot commend WIZO UK enough.

Not only do they support the cause of the vulnerable children, but they also provide vocational training to the disadvantaged and challenged people.

I think the evening was a great success for WIZO UK (the Women’s International Zionist Organisation) as they were able to showcase not just the diverse and delicious cuisine of Israel but effectively convey how important it is to give every child a chance that he/she deserves to turn their future around. This was highlighted by the presence and performance of the young Arab Israeli chef, Khaled Tawafra, who had overcome severe ADHD and dyslexia to become a successful young chef.

WIZO runs vocational cookery courses as part of their programme of 800 social welfare and educational projects in Israel which are open to all, regardless of background.

We left not just with happy tummies, but with a goody bag that had some lovely Israeli recipes and a bottle of the amazing red wine!

And a promise to try and recreate some of the delicious food that the chefs had cooked for us that night.