This time we met about ten people and begun this Friday morning (yes, morning!!) at a Persian restaurant: “Eden”.
One of these places you wouldn’t know of otherwise. Eden Restaurant.
Decor – well… a very authentic governmental office look with florescent lights and plastic bouquets. There’s no menu, you have to ask what’s cooking.
“Āsh” is the Friday’s special and consists of Beets vegetables and meatballs, tamarind sour sauce (45 NIS). The flavors were unique and full. The beets took over like always but it was tasty. The meatballs weren’t so good. It was all about the sauce.
Other dishes on our table: We got a big plate of arugula and radishes in the beginning. The daily rice dish was a green rice with dill; Two other main dishes were: Ghormeh Sabzi, one of the flag dishes of Persian cuisine: goulash and sour vegetables – beef cooked with celery, parsley, red beans, dried Persian lemon and fenugreek leaves (45 NIS); Mosmh, beef goulash with tomato sauce with eggplant and green beans (45 NIS). It was all very interesting, and nice to try a spoonful of each. I didn’t really feel like eating the whole bowl of either of them.
Still craving for a real Foreign meal we left Eden and went to the Chinese place, just a few steps down the street of Neve Sha’anan. If Eden was breakfast, we were ready for lunch. To get to our table in the back of the restaurant we went through the kitchen and got a glimpse of it.
Small magical moments inside the Chinese’ kitchen.
Who said there’s no real Chinese food in Tel-Aviv?
Ordering process isn’t easy, just like in China. The grumpy Chinese man (waiter / owner) made it all more authentic. I already love this place.
Bao (7 NIS for one). Chinese steamed yeast bun filled with meat of some kind. Delicious.
A bite!
It was really great and we got soy sauce to dip but I missed the vinegar dipping sauce you get in China.
A large plate of cooked Chinese dumplings (30 NIS)
YES.
Soup with dumplings (30 NIS). It wasn’t as good as I hoped. Too much MSG. Authentic MSG though.
Geva asked for a TA package for the soup. The angry Chinese man said no. So he went to buy a box and took it anyways.
Simple TA tricks.
The bill, obviously.
We were completely bloated and looked for a dessert. A cup of sour-salty yogurt drink didn’t do the trick and we kept looking. In the end I found a Filipino food stall with all kinds of weird things. I asked a lady that bought there what’s the best sweet dessert and this is what we bought:
I do not have a description for that. It was 10 NIS. Caramelized on top, gooey bottom.
The group trying to eat our Filipino dessert.
A second attempt to eat that thing
At last! It was cut.
If you can’t imagine what it tastes like, go try it for yourself.
Next, and the most exciting part of the day was when I asked the Filipino in the stand if he has “Balut”. He did. I never tried it. It was about time. Some people were happy (the vendor, me… ) and some (most of the others) were horrified, but they were wrong to be. See what it is:
The Balut is a boiled duck’s egg. Beautiful big white egg. The only thing is that it’s already fertilized and contains a small duck’s embryo.
The egg is peeled like a normal boiled egg and you can see inside it’s divided to the albumen (egg white) which already turned into cartilage texture and isn’t nice to be eaten. The egg yolk is big and tastes like a boiled egg yolk. The third part is the embryo.
As I’m peeling, drops of liquids from inside the egg are spilled around. It’s a messy business.
You can see the veins on the inside of the shell. The liquids supposed to be sipped. I sipped it and it was very nice, tastes like dark chicken stock. Amazing!
Then I went ahead and tried it. The embryo tasted like chicken’s throat.. Kinda bizarre combination of egg and chicken all wrapped in one.
There were two other brave people who tried it. Guess who? If you weren’t brave enough, I’m sure it’s still there. It’s only 12 NIS for a piece and worth every Shekel!
To wash down the chicken and the egg flavors we went to eat Malabi and Panna cotta in Ha’Carmel Market. (two dessert for 20 NIS, three for 25)
Finishing our day in the market.
It was a lovely day, thanks to all the “Foreigners Eaters” group. Let me know if you want to join the next meeting. I think we’ll have Ethiopian but I have to go back to the Chinese again to try his duck dish or some other Chinese classic.
I’m pretty sure I read a similar post in Hebrew, guessing it was some other member of the group.
As for the food, gotta admit that the Persian place seemed to offer the most edible stuff, for me at least (the Chinese place wasn’t my cup of Chinese – I hate onions and minced meat with a passion).
Great post!
Thanks
I guess we have different taste in food, That Food 😉
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