This monkey's gone to heaven

Imagine there's a mediocre place near your house, it serves mediocre food but the price is right and they even have good days on which the food is great. This imaginary place serves humus, shawarma, skewered meat and other staples of the Arab cuisine.

Now imagine that this made up place is closed for renovation. They splash some paint around, move the furniture, cover the floor with old newspaper. A sign on the see through glass door says it'll be open in no time.

They never come back tough. The place is closed, the work just ceased one day. Nothing moves inside, no one, no sign of live. The place is abandoned.

This happened to me. This place is real to me.

The place was always packed, there was no sign of anything going wrong.

Was this my fault? Did I not deserve a place near my home that serves a variety of food that I like?

This is in loving memory of Sayid's Original Hummus of Akko (the Tel-Aviv branch).

Superb falafel balls with fries and some ketchup

Fresh salad: cucumber, tomato, parsley, all finely chopped and served with lemon juice

A lovely plate of humus, with soft chickpeas in the middle, covered with olive oil and tahini

Food porn: pizza and meats

I gladly present four dishes I'd love to eat each and every day + one I don't ever want to see again.

Enjoy!

A new place called Kababa - a word play on kabab (kebab an Arab word for skewed meat) and baba (father) is now serving chicken shawarma alongside veal doner and a variety of skewers. All of the above might sound very old-school and hardcore but the place is operated like a McDonald's, with trays, brand paper cups and lots of employees to take your order and put it into a touch screen computer. Also: the meat is cut by a robot!

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Thin crust pizza with pineapple, corn and eggplants. It was awesome when it was hot but half an hour later it became tasteless. Seriously, it went from being a great pizza into cardboard just like that.

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This never came near my mouth but I just had to take a photo. I'm not a fan of meatballs or minced stuff in general. It sure smelled good but still - I feel bad just looking at it.

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A slice from a nearby Sbarro with a side of grape drink. This is a personal favorite that goes back to childhood. This specific branch was closed several weeks after I took the photo :(

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These gherkins alone are amazing but that whole meal is just mind-blowing. Turkey pastrami, corned beef, mustard cut with date syrup, it was like a miracle in my mouth. All that and an ice cold can of Dr Pepper.

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.

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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.

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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). 

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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

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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: home and away

Yet another set of stuff I ate.

I know you won't enjoy this as much as I did eating, but there's some good stuff here.

A huge amount of prosciutto inside a soft bun. The prosciutto was really salty so I sweetened the whole thing by using date syrup as a sauce (and some mustard too). This creation made me tired, satisfied and really proud.

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Shawarma in a laffa (taboon bread) roll. Along the chicken shawarma there was a salad, some fries and two sauces: tahini & amba. Quite an awesome lunch.

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Grilled chicken breast with oven baked vegetables (potatoes, yams, beets, roots and some other stuff I can't recall). This was served on plain white jasmine rice.

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This deserves a post of its own. A wonderful place (called The Bun, as seared on the bun in the image) serving variations on Asian cuisine (noodles, soups, wok fried dishes, and this little gem). My favorite dish is a pair of steamed bao buns with pulled beef with sweet pickles and a tangy sweet sauce. If you ask nicely you can also get the same dish with pork belly (not on the menu).

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This is just a Persian style soup that came along with some meatballs (I'll see if I can find actual pictures of them). Pretty good dish, made by my girlfriend's aunt.