Coming back from Paris to Tel-Aviv have been a cultural shock at first. My friends and family made my landing a lot softer and going almost every day to the beach also helped. Just a few days after my return I went to an event of the Israeli food and culinary community, Baygale, in Bagnolet. It seems to be a good idea to go to a French restaurant to ease my feelings from returning from Paris to the middle east, but it turned out to be the most Israeli- fusion experience at the end. Overall it was fun, a lot of food, some wine, many dishes, the price was very good as well (180 nis pp before tip which is about 40 euro after tipping).

We started off with a sweet cocktail. It was vodka and fruit juice and passion fruit. I made it better by diluting with water and squeezing in this lemon wedge.

Grilled tomato eggplant salad for the bread, and olive oil with balsamic vinegar at the left. There was also Tehini spread (someone just could’t resist the urge). So far very Israeli start to a meal. This salad was rather good though.
First courses:

Seared calamari and octopus, shallots, peas and parsley cream
I don’t think there was any octopus in it, a bit drowning in sauce this one..

Lamb cigar on a bed of Velarona white chocolate and goat yogurt.
Everyone on my table liked this dish, I thought this is sweet enough to be a dessert.

Corvina and salmon tartare with summer fruit and crème brûlée of coquilles Saint-Jacques.
I don’t think there was any salmon in it, but it was a nice dish with raw fish and mango.

I liked the burning of the scallops but it was cut so thin, hard to figure out if there’s even a scallop hiding there. It was like a candy.

We waited and waited but the wine-man finally came at that point. The wines were from the Benhaim winery who gave us some wine tasting in exchange for this free publicity. To be honest, this rose wine was very good. The best out of the three we tried. It was too new so no sticker yet.

The red Shiraz (Sirah) followed immediately, trying to catch up with the meal (a white wine was missing even though most of the meal was fish and seafood)

Truffle soufflé, goat cheese and herb cream
A really good dish for anyone who likes champignon. I didn’t see, taste or feel the truffles though.

It was actually a baked duxelle with goat cheese, the first French touch of the meal

The first courses part of the meal finished with a pallet cleanser – Basil sorbet, vodka and pineapple
Again, too sweet to my opinion but could make a nice touch to a dessert dish.
Main dishes:

Fillet of Sea Corvina, saffron cream, asparagus.
The fish was cooked nicely, the sauce was good and it was one of my favorite dishes of the night, but why so much cream sauce on the plate?

Seafood gratin
This was a misfortunate dish. Some inferior quality seafood swimming in a heavy flour thickened sauce, crispped on top. Poorly presented, poorly put together. French-cheap-cafeteria dish maybe.

Jumbo shrimp, summer vegetables and a delicate stock
I’m pretty sure this dish we got was very far from the chef’s intentions. The sauce was another thick heavy sauce and not a delicate fish stock at all. The jumbo shrimp were good quality but overpowered by huge chunks of cauliflower.

Black tortellini stuffed with brie and grouper in olive oil and vegetables brunoise. This was the description of this dish but what we got was: Black tortellini stuffed with some kind of fish and mushrooms swimming in another creamy and heavy sauce. I’m still looking for the vegetables brunoise.

This was a weird one and what was also hard to understand is how come near the ending of our meal we get this pasta dish?

Entrecôte, potatoes gartin and bone marrow
Finally we got the meat dish, too bad we were too full because the steak was very good and well cooked. The potato gratin was horrible. The sauce was like the other dishes, heavy.
All five dishes of the main course were swimming in heavy-cream sauces. Are you trying to send us to the ICU?
Time for desserts. We received a big plate of assorted desserts, just like in a old fashioned chinese restaurant, the only thing missing was the firecrackers.
Even when doing a meal in the scale of this Baygale event, I think it’s necessary to think of the meal as a whole. Think about how the meal is developed, balanced, the order of things to be comfortable to the dinner, gradually building it up. Even when ignoring the very not French feeling to this meal, it was just a badly put-together meal. Yes, some dishes were tasty, but it was a total over-kill.
Was I drunk when I left? yes. Was I full? hell yes! Will I come back to Bagnole? never.