A Bold TASTE OF ISRAEL in Los Angeles

(Gerry Furth-Sides) The first Taste of Israel Food and Wine Festival at the Majestic in downtown Los Angeles, was as wild as a bus ride in Tel Aviv.   For starters, being Los Angeles on the Pacific Rim, sushi was one of the busiest booths.   And with Los Angeles bordering Baja, David Slatkin offered tacos.  All the food and wines were kosher.

Our renowned cookbook writer friend, Faye Levy, noted that, “The dominant style of the dishes was Sephardi, with the exception perhaps of the salmon pastrami from Chefs Erez Levy and Richard Lauter of  Savore Cuisine, the challah pudding made by Alain Cohen of Got Kosher?

There was a frenzy of activity in the booth of Shaul Ben Haderet (also spelled Ben Aderet) of The Blue Rooster  Restaurant in Tel Aviv, who came to Los Angeles for this event.

Chef Alain Cohen, who is known for his French- Tunisian cuisine, served “boulettes de ma mere”–meatballs made using his mother’s recipe–on a bed of couscous.  Preserved lemon added a rich zest to the tuna filling of his Tunisian fricassee sandwich in his house-baked pretzel rolls. For dessert there was Cohen’s tasty challah bread pudding, made from his house-baked challah.

Chef Ben Haderet handmade spinach “burik” one by one; he spooned seasoned cooked spinach onto each square of dough, broke an egg on top, twisted the dough into a bundle and fried it until the pastry was crisp and the egg was cooked like a poached egg.

Chef Ben Haderet described contemporary Israeli cooking as “taking our grandmothers’ dishes and upgrade them – with bold-flavors.”

Hummus m’sabbacha was also featured at the booth of Hummus Bar & Grill where Chef Ofir Arbel layered chickpeas and tahini with smoky grilled eggplant, diced semi-hot red chiles and small cubes of cooked beef, and served the rich appetizer in a glass.