Grilled Cheese Sandwich @ QuickCafé Tel-Aviv

While going out for a much needed work brunch yesterday, a friend suggested we try the food at a nearby QuickCafé branch.

Surprised by the fact they offer actual food (a variety of noodles, rice based dishes, poultry, pasta and fish) and not just the sandwiches and pastry displayed on the counter, I decided a grilled cheese sandwich with tomatoes would suffice, especially since there was an additional salad.

Grilled cheese sandwich, and a freshly chopped cucumber, tomato, cabbage and carrot salad

The food was delicious, and there was an additional mini-dipping-bowl of mustard based vinaigrette that suited both the salad and the sandwich. I also asked for some tahini and they brought it in a shot glass which I found kinda funny.

The priced seemed a bit high at first, but when I got the plate I realized that it wasn't your ordinary panini.

All and all - a positive experience.

Bottom line:
Location: clean, well lit, nicely designed, but quite loud - being on a main road intersection.

Staff: courteous and helpful.

Verdict: will gladly return.

Read this post in Hebrew

Vitrina | Sausage (and Burger) Fest

Problematic eating habits a hard thing, especially for a foodie.
I have various issues, textures being just one of them. Never been a fan of ground or thinly minced meat; on top of that there's my growing dislike for meat in general.
It's not easy being me; it's also uncomfortable for my food companions.
Now, imagine what it's like when I'm invited to a place specializing in sausages.

pork and roquefort sausage in a soft bun, with fries, pickles, aioli and beet ketchup

I'm not a hater of charcuterie, but I do prefer my sausages dry, my hot dogs industrial, and I keep away from hamburgers due to the texture.
Vitrina offer over a dozen types of sausages and one sort of burger.
I ordered the pork and roquefort sausage, it was one of many interesting variations on the menu; with a side of 50/50 fries, an interesting take on your dull french fries in the form of potato and sweet potato fries, with parsley and lemon zest.
I ordered my sausage neat, it was my mortal fear of onions speaking - everyone around us were chewing tons of onions and that made me paranoid.
My order was accompanied by a ladle with an aioli of some sort and a delicious home-made beet based ketchup.
After exploring what others ate - I asked for their take on relish; just big slices of pickled cucumbers. They had the distinctive taste of a vinegar brine, and the yellowish shade suggested turmeric. They were divine.

sweet and regular potato 50/50 fries, with parsley and lemon zest

The sausage was delicious, although it was a bit hard for me to enjoy it's grainy inner texture.
The fries and pickles helped me drown my sorrow, that and the fact that the friends and I were having a great Friday afternoon, laughs in the sun included.
The missus called to say that she just finished her shift and that she's on the way to join us.
I ordered a basket of fries in the meanwhile.
Seriously, their fries are amazing.

I've been told that this hamburger is amazing

Several people at our table claimed this to be one of the best hamburgers they ever had.
I read that they use a smoked cut of beef neck as one of the ingredients; one blogger mentioned cheese being added to the mix (the hamburger in the photo above had some cheese under it).
My girlfriend didn't argue, in fact she wanted to go back for it several times since this visit, and she wasn't the only one.
Vitrina's unique and original twists on food and condiments are a winning ticket.
Another advantage was the background music - rock and metal; not everyone's cup of tea but we really enjoyed it.

Bottom line: great food, affordable pricing; even the fries, pickles and beet ketchup are well worth a visit on their own.

My girlfriend made me a sandwich.

Long story short:

I was dying on the living room sofa one evening,  all of a sudden the missus offers me a sandwich.

As if I'm going to say no to that!!!

Off to the kitchen she went, and this is what she came back with:

A huge chunk of sweet challah (one side was slightly pan seared for a nice crisp), juicy corned beef, soft-ripened goat cheese, lettuce, roquette, arugula, beet leafs, cucumber and sriracha.

Visible in the background: one jealous dog.

Bottom line: she really should cook more often.

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!).

Tel-Aviv's Sandwich Bonanza | Habima Neighborhood Café

Sometimes you just feel like you've hit the jackpot.

Continuing my coverage of Habima Neighborhood Café, I tried one of their grilled cheese sandwiches.

This variation is quite simple, but extremely delicious.

Just look at it!

Two huge slices of white bread, fresh pesto with whole pine-nuts thrown in the mix,  cheese and thinly sliced tomato halves. Simplistic yet amazingly interesting to taste.

Since it's really is huge, one can order only half, for what at that point seemed like a reasonable price but now I can't recall. 

The only negative note from this visit was that they were out of carbonated water.

They have many more sandwiches to cover so I will return for them, but for this one as well as it is well worth it.

Food Porn: The Little Things

Can't quite recall why was it that I stopped doing compilation posts, but here's a comeback!

A digest of various meals, dishes and stories.

Descriptions below each image, just like I used to do.

Hope you like it, drop a line if you do, drop a line even if you don't, I've been getting mostly spam comments for several weeks now, it's quite disappointing to find bot generated nonsense each time I expect something real, don't people have opinions anymore?

Come on, ask me something, it's getting lonely here!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

people from Kurdistan and with Kurd genes can't eat green fava beans cos they lack the G6PD enzyme so they can die

Just some of my home cooking.

Fresh green fava beans, cooked in crushed tomatoes, with cumin, paprika, garlic, black pepper, date syrup and mustard seeds.

The rice has some garam masala in it, and sumac too. And also some mustard seeds, I was adding them to everything that evening. It was delicious.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

mushroom pizza with sriracha

I had several horrible experiences with Pizza Seret and was glad to see they returned to their marvelous norm. All it took was a bite from this slice with mushrooms and a bit of sriracha, I was in pizza heaven again.

It's bad when good places turn wrong, but it's great when they relapse.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

pizza flavored bourekas with a hard-boiled egg, crushed tomatoes, pickles, tahini and a hot chilli pepper paste

Pizza bourekas with the works. I had the exact same post a while ago, but it wasn't the same bourekas.

This was after an early Halloween party this Friday, it was also a housewarming party for a couple of friends.

We walked the streets, slightly drunk, looking craving for a pizza. Mama's Bourekas was the only thing open in the immediate area. It was pretty good. 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

soft smelly cheese

Lately I've started purchasing funky cheeses. I mean moldy, smelly, pungent, soft, covered in weird colors, the kinds that make your fridge and pee smell weird.

They're delicious.

Here's me enjoying them on a walnut rye. Good times.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

eggplant and tahini ciabatta

Ciabatta, with a big chunk of eggplant baked into its top, and lovely thick tahini hiding beneath the layer of eggplant. A touch of coriander was the garnish added to it by the baker, I added some coarse salt when I got home and ate it like a madman, not stopping for a second, completely disregarding my surroundings.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

pickled cabbage

Hummus Asaf which is my favorite hummus got their pickled cabbage recipe back. Their last few batches were unlike the amazing sweet and savory cabbage strings I used to devour, but like I said, they recreated the original recipe after a few mediocre months.

It's worth a visit even if you hate hummus, just order anything, you'll get the cabbage anyhow.

Forget that, just walk in and ask for a tiny bowl to go, they're good people.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

chicken selects, McDonalds

A two image feature.

Lunch at McDonald's, indeed one of the simple joys. I don't eat burgers, prefer to avoid ground meat and generally dislike what McDonald's represent and do, but every once in a long while I eat a chicken meal.

The ultimate junk food, but still, I'm lovin' it (and feeling guilty about it).

McDonalds: fries, ketchup, BBQ sauce, sweet n sour sauce

And that's it for now.
Don't forget to write!
Also, if and when you do, please add an animal that starts with a C, just for fun.

Corned beef sandwich

Just for a moment, try to ignore this amazing sandwich.
Look at those gherkins. They tasted better than you imagine.

Now, the sandwich.
Woeber's Sandwich Pal horseradish sauce, spicy mustard, date syrup, lettuce, tomatoes, 400 grams of juicy corned beef.
All served between two slices of super fresh rye bread.

Again, you read the letters, you make words in your head, your imagination starts working overtime.
Yet again, you can't even imagine how amazing this sandwich was.

Food porn? YES.
Me being a tease? Well, no. I'm dying for one of these right now and I'm at work, pretty far away, it's scorching hot outside, this place discontinued their delivery service and I'm as miserable as you probably are.

Porcini and cheese tortellini with caponata sauce

I had lunch at this place not far from my work, it's called "Laboratorio di Pasta".
There were many interesting types and shapes of pasta but the sauces offered weren't that amazing.
The place itself is designed in an interesting manner bordering between rustic and modern.

The pasta is cooked upon ordering (if I'm not mistaken it's precooked and frozen), dropped into boiling water as soon as your order is typed.
There are several large pots, constantly heated, containing the sauces. As I've mentioned, I tried three sauces and they were just okay.

My personal scale for measuring pasta sauces is based on the flavor and my ability to recreate a similar product at my home, with basic ingredients and not much effort.
Sadly the sauces were not fancy enough nor were they extremely special in flavor.
That said, the cheese and porcini tortellini was amazing.

The service was on the slow side, one of our orders wasn't processed, I personally saw my food sitting there  while the person behind the counter just did nothing. The value for money wasn't that great either, but damn, that tortellini was so good!

One last complaint: the vegetables in the caponata sauce were too thinly diced and hardly felt.

Food out: eating out

Good images of good eating.

This post has no reference to me cooking or to eating at home so I though "eating out" might be a good title.

Don't have anything else to add, the images and short descriptions are going to do most of that.

Enjoy!

I was peer pressured into eating at a horrible place I had all the reasons to hate. Nothing was fresh, the way they made my food was just wrong - I mean, really, heating up a cold chicken schnitzel in a pressure toaster? That's just wrong! Somehow, the end result was a bit better than I imagined. Still not going back, ever.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

A hummus place not very far from where I live (called Youness) makes these great falafel balls. They're really green on the inside (parsley) and brown, crunch and covered with sesame on the outside. They're served with some tahini and are just delightful.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

This place is called Tagine (or Tajin) after a North African dish which is called after the heavy clay post in which it is cooked. The place specializes in an assortment of home cooked dishes, home being all over the world - thus making it very multicultural and with many flavors and dishes that change daily.

You just choose what you wish to eat from the many pots and containers. I chose spaghetti, a grilled chicken breast, chicken schnitzel and some white rice (fries on top). 

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

This hummus is from a place called Hakosem (the magician). They have pretty good falafel, awesome shawarma, amazing beverages they make (lemonade, a mixture of lemonade with pomegranates, a tamarind drink and some alcohol variations of the above). They hummus is mediocre but all of their other dishes are almost divine

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@.

Corned beef on rye, with mustard and lettuce. Does it get any better? Well, it does sometime, but this was pretty amazing altogether.

Food porn: cow and chiken

This time it's mostly about the meats and one special hummus.

A place near my work mistakenly made me this sandwich - I wanted roast beef and was handed a chicken breast instead. I only noticed the error once I was back at the office but it was actually in my favor as the chicken breast was exquisite. It was incredibly moist and really flavorful. 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

This is from one of my favorite places in the entire world. A tiny Indian place called Salam Bombay. It's run by a couple that also does the cooking and the serving and their hands just work magic. There's no menu and you can just choose from whatever dishes they prepared for the day. The place is open for 4-5 a day and is closed on weekends.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

This is a great sandwich with a sad story. My greenfield and I went to a hummus place in our area just to discover that it was closed for good. On our way back we bought fresh baked French country bread and wonderful slices of beef shoulder pastrami. 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

This is from a place called Abu Adham. Their hummus is made in the northern Galilee tradition which means its light and has lots of tahini in it, it's sweeter and it is served with tons of olive oil. According to the northern hospitality tradition they also offer unlimited free refills and a cup of hot spiced coffee after you can't have anymore hummus.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Domino's with mushrooms and hot pastrami. It was divine.