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

Grilled Cheese Sandwich w. Mushrooms and Sriracha

Yesterday I fancied some mushrooms.

I'm not sure how does one get that specific craving, but on my way home back from work I stopped for that purpose only. 

I bought a basket of champignon mushrooms and continued my way home - thinking about what to prepare.

Making grilled cheese sandwiches was a sudden decision, influenced by a smell in the building as I made my way up the stairs. I suddenly wanted cheese, grilled cheese, stringy and crispy and fun.

Since I was already set on cooking with musrhooms - I chose to use sriracha alone. The cheese and the smoky spicy sauce combined with mushrooms are enough flavors for one simple sandwich.

Cooks often ignore the stipes and use only the caps. I like to use the whole mushroom, but this time I had to save space due to the toasters limitations so I just ate the stipes and some whole mushrooms too while I was at it. I'm not sure what it is about the taste of fresh mushrooms, but I really love it, the earthiness, the nutty flavors, the meat like texture.

Now all I had to do was squeezing the bread together gently with my hand into a sandwich form, just applying some pressure to make a sandwich form.

The moistness of the mushrooms and sauce started to show on the bread.

On to the toaster.

The above mentioned moistness and the actual fluids from within the mushrooms caramelized inside the toaster, creating a lovely golden \ rusty color and a crunchy bite.

I allowed my creation to cool down for a bit - inside the shut down toaster, thus it was still how but not as humid as it would be on a cold plate. 

While everything was cooling down I prepared a cold glass of club soda.

I also ate all the mushrooms that were left. 

The grilled cheese was awesome. A great thing about sriracha is that becomes sweet after it's been heated, thus making it spicy, sweet, smoky, this made the whole meal taste like wonderfulness in my mouth.

Several hour later I got a bit hungry again.

Being fresh out of mushrooms I went trough the fridge looking for something that I could turn into a quick snack. I found a jar of homemade chimichurri that my girlfriend's mom gave me on the weekend.

Turned out great :)

Food porn: pizza and stuff

Back with another batch!

I'm kinda hungry cos I've yet eaten today and it's past lunch time. These pictures are killing me so I'll get this over with and run out to grab something.

Enjoy!

Grilled cheese bagel with pesto sauce, tomatoes, corn and fried eggplants. It was better than one might imagine.

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Just a plate of hummus from a place called Assaf (the name of the owner). They're really great and are easily  on the top of my favorite hummus places. There are two types of hot sauce on the table, complimentary falafel balls and relay sweet pickled cabbage that's served the moment you sit down. Their pitas are puffy and really soft.

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An amazing pastrami sandwich by Ruben. It resembles a reuben sandwich but lacks the cheese. The meat is actually somewhere between pastrami and corned-beef and it's kept in a warm humidor. It's packed with overwhelming flavor. I ordered mine with mustard, horseradish sauce, lettuce and tomatoes. They also have a pretty good turkey pastrami.

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This was actually one of the first places around to have Sriracha sauce. The pizza is so good you don't even need the sauce but still... The service is horrible but the quality of the pizza justifies a visit. This pizza is so good that it tastes amazing even after a night in the fridge - no heating.

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A new pizza place I tried offered free toppings so it was hard to refuse. The pizza itself was pretty much okay but the cherry tomatoes and the mushrooms were pretty great. I will order the hell out of this pizza.