Meat Lover's Pizza @ Fresco, Haifa

Last Thursday I visited the city of Haifa, to attend a show by local band Ke$$ef, opening for the Italian trio Psychofagist.

After the sound-check we got quite hungry so we went about town, searching for a place to dine.

Since time was scarce, we stopped at the first open venue - a pizzeria called Fresco. 

Meat Lover's Pizza @ Fresco, Haifa : pepperoni. ham, bacon

Most of the other diners were vegetarian, however I really wanted the taste of death on my tongue so I ordered a pizza all for myself.

A pizza named "sausage pizza" caught my eye, bacon, ham and pepperoni seemed like a great idea for toppings so the choice wasn't difficult for me.

The pizza was quite greasy - but in an amazing pork-fat and bacon-juice way. This actually made up for the lacking tomato \ pizza sauce which I like so much, but as I said, it was juicy and delicious enough for me to not care.

The pizza itself was quite basic, simplistic even, by far not the most impressive I've had but still, somehow it was pretty good - must have been the hunger.

Bottom line:

Price: 38nis

Location: clean, well lit, nicely designed

Staff: courteous

Improvement points: not enough beverage options

Verdict: will gladly return

Click here to read this post in Hebrew

Habima Neighborhood Café | Round three

So I took a day off; always a good idea.

I made (begged) my girlfriend come with me to a David Claerbout exhibition, and in return she made me go to Habima Neighborhood Café which is nearby - can't say I complained much as I wanted to explore it further.

This tiny place is a one story structure, four walls with several windows and one display wall with lots and lots of sandwiches.

Sliced hard-boiled egg, asparagus and arugula; herring, sour cream and green onions, egg salad, truffles and spinach, grilled cheese with tomatoes and butter, grilled cheese with artichoke, grilled emmental cheese with ham, butter and tomato slices; several cold cut variations and a wonderful combo of spicy turkey and cheese with sun dried tomato paste along with fresh pesto.
Also, don't forget the jambon sandwich I covered earlier.

The missus ordered  the hot turkey and cheese (with pesto and sun-dried tomato paste). It was pretty good, I know cos I helped her finish it. The tomato paste was rich and very sweet, the pesto was very fresh and did not lose its flavors after the heating of the sandwich. The stringy cheese and the moist turkey were a great combo.

My grilled cheese with ham and and butter (and a few tomato slices) wasn't that bad either, but it lacked some depth.

The side of olives wasn't much help as I hate most olives (too bitter) and these weren't exceptional.
The fact they use string and paper to prevent the sandwich from falling apart and later to protect it while grilling it was a nice touch to both preparation and decoration.

All and all it was really a great experience; such mad variety of sandwiches is always appreciated and I was told that they're experimenting with more new sandwiches, depending on the ingredients, mood and day of the week. Such an approach can't be bad.

Also great: hot pretzels.
We took several to go - we had a long day ahead of us (we actually took several bites when they were still warm - delicious!).