Donkey: Taco Quality Assurance

Lunching at trustworthy places is always fun.

Luckily - you have me to suffer so you won't have to.

This time I returned to Donkey, just to see how things are (and to munch on some tacos).

Shall we? I wanna finish this post already cos the picture is making me really hungry.

 Three pulled beef tacos, black beans, cheddar, lettuce, cilantro, hot salsa and a frosty Dr Pepper

The post is called "quality assurance" because Donkey disappointing me several times (they stopped making their coriander sauce and their amazing pineapple BBQ sauce, and the food was too soggy and bland on my last visits). This was their chance to claim back the throne.

The watery delivery persisted - the beans and pulled beef were too wet for the tacos to withstand.
The flavors were partially back. Not complete blandness, but some improvement was needed still.

A new issue arose: apparently Donkey now have lunch deals, but we weren't offered any, although later as we sat down we notices people coming in after us were.
I realized it was due to the guy taking our orders being new; but still.
Not pleasant, but I didn't make a fuss.

Bottom line: more room for improvement; be visiting again soon.

10 Sheqel Falafel | HaMasger 73, Tel Aviv

Before I start, allow me to do the math for you:

10nis (New Israeli Sheqel) are the equivalent of 2.77 US Dollars.

Mind you, $2.77 is a great price for any kind of food, especially for a falafel sandwich.

The price range in Israel shifts between 15 and 20nis, with the exception of a handful of places that are trying to brake the market with 6-10nis falafels.

That said, it doesn't matter what you pay if the falafel sucks.

This falafel didn't suck.

We came in at about 15:00; at such a point of the day a good falafel has either ran out of most things fresh, or currently having everything prepared for the second or even third time that day.

And indeed, some of the food ran out already, some of the salads too; and they were prepearing new salads and falafel as we came in, upon order.

The pita was fresh and warm, quite an achievement for three in the afternoon.

I was told that they buy from nearby bakery, so they have fresh inventory at all times.

My falafel was great, crispy and flavorful.

With fresh and pickled cabbage, tomato \ cucumber \ pepper salad, tahini and amba - it was wonderful.

The amba was a reall bouns, when it's good - it's great; Amba is a mango based condiment  it's sweet, sour, tangy, a bit spicy, not unlike chutney, but introduced to Israel by Iraqi Jews.

It's mostly found in falafel \ shawarma places.

Bottom line: I will gladly eat there again (also - very friendly service).

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.

Vegan Adventrures: Seitan Schnitzel Sandwich

Experimenting with new foods and with my own perceptions can often be fun.

I'm not quite the adventurous type - but I have my moments.

If you add that desire for new flavors to the fact that meat started to gross me out (not all the time, but I lack the desire that I used to have for it, in general) you'll see that it's a good time for a new type of sandwich.

So, long story short: this happened:

Whole wheat bun, vegan cream cheese spread, lettuce, tomato, mustard, seitan patty - crumbed and deep-fried.

It wasn't bad, it was good even.

Since the menu read "cheese" I was expecting a sheet of cheese substitute, but it actually was cream cheese or somewhat like a more liquid cottage cheese.

The seitan is unlike your ordinary chicken schnitzel. I guess that when you add the right spices and throw in that breadcrumb batter - most things will (and do) taste good.

To me that was in some way superior to actual chicken: there are no bones, no cartilage, no blood, fat or red dots, no dark meat and so on.

There are no dead animals being eaten thus less suffering, pollution, all that jazz. Your typical reasons for veganism. 

I'm not preaching, not as long as I'm eating corned beef sandwiches and writing blog posts about it - but it's a good alternative and a good option in general, and for the equivalent of about $7US.

Not bad.

The place is called Buddha Burgers, you might want to give them a shot.

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.

Corned Beef Heaven: Tal Bagels and a Side of Fries

This is going to be a short one.

The Missus brought me a differ in the form of this sandwich:

• Poppy seed bagel (don't argue, this is a bagel, they bake them thick and with almost no hole so stuff won't fall out).
• Spicy mustard.
• Corned beef.
• Pickles.
• Lettuce.
• Fresh cucumber slices.
• Tomato.
• Grilled eggplant.
• Deep fried eggplant slices.
• More spicy mustard.

There were fries.

That's all you need to know.

Habima Neighborhood Café

I'm not a big fan of coffee shops, nor am I a fan of hipster infested places, venues packed with people aching  to be seen or just trendy spots.

Eating is something I rather do without people staring at me and talking loudly around me.

I also dislike long queues. 

All of the above are a great reason to avoid Habima Neighborhood Café, but they have so much amazing sandwiches that I just couldn't.

The sandwiches change on a daily basis, but follow a similar line. There are "bite" sizes (cheap and still big enough), grilled cheese sandwiches with meats and vegetables, all sorts of cheeses and cuts, salads and other interesting twists.

The ingredients vary depending on availability and creativity of the staff.

I'll try to cover as much sandwiches as possible, but until then, here's a starter:

.Jambon, cheese, mustard, mayo and arugula

I took my chance with this one since I'm not a big fan of mayo, it was really worth it.

The sandwich was on the cold side (Cafe Habima have three temperature levels: fresh, cold and grilled), but still, the flavors were amazing and the temperature was just right.

The cheese was of a Swiss variety (they usually indicate what cheese is used but not this time), and the jambon was crispy and flavorful. Fresh leaves and just enough spreads to keep the sandwich moist but to not wet the sweet bun. A great experience.

A moment of honesty: I took the sandwich and ate it on a very remote bench.

Amazing sandwiches are still not a good enough reason for me to suffer while eating.

Liking this blog on Facebook could be an easy way for you to stay updated.

More to follow soon.

Corned Beef Sandwich @ Ruben

Two days ago I posted about a Ruben's sandwich that was a tad on the mediocre side. It was even more disappointing since I'm trying to consume less meat, so each meat that contains meat needs to be worth it.

Yesterday I posted about a roast beef sandwich from Science and got negative feedback from r/eatsandwiches about it looking bad and not containing enough meat.

This is today's lunch, another sandwich from Ruben, it was delicious, amazing, mouth watering, 300 grams of meat and joy + a couple of amazing gherkins.

300 grams are over 10.5 oz, it's their medium size. I used to have the 400 grams as my regular, then went down to 200 since I was trying to change my diet. This was just me being very hungry. I could hardly move after this sandwich, the long walk back to the office helped a bit.

The sandwich contains: above mentioned 300 grams of steamed corned beef, lettuce, tomato, mustard, date syrup, horseradish sauce and a special secret herbs sauce they make.

It was really good; enough to make me forget about vegan guilt and the previous sandwich I had there which was meh.

Bye bye now.

Roast Beef Sandwich @ Silence

Silence is a place I visit mostly for grilled cheese panini style sandwiches. It's dirt cheap, the food is food is good (i.e. delicious and fresh) and the staff is super nice. You can't really ask for more.

They have a long transparent showcase deli style fridge with most of their ingredients.

All you really need to do is tell them what you want to eat, and construct the dish along with the person serving you. All of the dishes are basically salads or variations on sandwiches, but there are enough ingredients to keep you interested for a while within the given genres.

Also available: winter soups.

I was a bit bored with grilled cheese so I took a ciabatta with roast beef, mustard, lettuce, arugula and a bit of tahini. Along with an ice cold bottle of Fanta.

It was a good lunch, no regrets here.

That's it I guess.

Beef & Turkey Pastrami Sandwich

I've dedicated two whole posts to Ruben's sandwiches, not to mention at least a handful of random images.

They make great sandwiches, simple yet delicious, juicy, tender, with the option to enlarge the sandwich into monstrosity with is always great.

This post is a bit special, keep that in mind.

If you're not a regular reader (or a follower on Instagram) you might not be aware that I'm trying to go low on meat consumption, maintaining mostly a vegetarian and vegan diet.

This is hard to gather from the meat stacked sandwiches, but there are other meals, some less photogenic, still delicious though.

As promised - this post is different.

I want to tell you mostly about the guilt that comes along with this change in nutrition.

Once you realize how horrible the meat industry is - it's hard to turn back to the ways of old. Sort of like waking up from the matrix.

Meat doesn't look as good once you flip that switch in your head. It looks more like dead animals.

This is why every relapse to meat needs to be worth it.

You can't just eat meat products if they're not amazing, I can't that is. If I go our and eat something dead - I need its death to have a meaning. You can't just kill a cow and a turkey for a mediocre sandwich, it makes no sense.

If you eat meat once a week or twice a month, that meat needs to be meaningful, flavorful and it seriously needs to be good enough to justify its consumption.

Now, you all now that not every meal is a party in your mouth, not every steak gives you a foodgasm and not every sandwich features the pastrami of a lifetime.

This makes things even harder.

The sandwich in the photo above was okay. I can't say it was mediocre but I also can't say that I didn't feel bad for wasting my "meat ticket" on it.

It disappointing me in a whole new way. A way that is rather new to me and as such stings even more.

This sandwich was the the unjustified death of two animals. I don't need that on my conscience.

If I'm going to eat meat every now and then - I need it to be great. I need it to be so good that I won't mind all the horrible stuff that comes with the territory of meat eating.

I wish I had some magical conclusion I could share, a notion about vegetarianism or veganism, it's just a different way of thinking, even for a borderline enthusiast such as myself.

Consciousness is unpleasant, that's what you can walk away with, that and a picture of a beef and turkey sandwich, with mustard, horseradish sauce, tomato and lettuce.

Don't be fooled by this post; it's not that easy to turn a life around, the next post is going to be about a corned beef sandwich, an amazing one, luckily.