(Gerry Furth-Sides) Chef Nir Margalith, co-founder/owner of Puzzle Israel Tours, is everything you would imagine a high energy Israeli would be. “Strapping” is the first word that comes to mind. And it stays there. Of course, being an Israeli, Nir is also a veteran of the army with boundless energy. So it’s no problem for him and childhood friend, Guy Marom, to head up an “army” of fellow countrymen who lead tourists on “behind-the-scenes visits to Israel that highlight ancient cultures and cuisines.” At the same time the chefs are de facto international ambassadors for contemporary Israeli cuisine. “Israel is blooming with cutting-edge chefs and local restaurants, updating a variety of cuisines considered exotic and not commonplace in Israel,” he reports enthusiastically.
The photo above and below are of a forest-cooking workshop.
Now regarded as culinary experts, Chefs Nir and Guy visit the US regularly, to spearhead Israeli cuisine cooking workshops and live seminars. This time around, Chef Nir was visiting the west coast to make an appearance at the Taste of Travel Theater and Trade show in Long Beach Convention Center Los Angeles. The idea is to showcase Israeli cuisine with demos of Israeli dishes. This time around it happened to be two classic eggplant rolls filled with minced meat and dates and gluten-free colorful tabbouleh salad. Recipes and photos are below.
Along with public appearances, the pair also seeks out places and people to host dinners – for 300-400 people at a time if necessary- as a Puzzle Israel Tours sample, while again showing off the “thriving cuisine of contemporary Israel.” Dynamic Deb Lust Zaluda, who lives in Chicago, was so impressed with the company she became the US Director Custom Private Tour. She joined the chef in LA to scope out sites.
We started the connections with Upper West Restaurant, Israeli partner, Elad Benisti (left). Chef Nir enthusiastically described contemporary Israeli cuisine, always a part of the tours, as “filled with our renowned organic production methods and innovative ways off using fresh, commonplace ingredients to prepare vitamin-rich and delectable dishes.” A bit disappointed to learn that many food writers are not aware of the cutting-edge scene, Nir is eager to spread the word.
This is also why he and his childhood friend, Guy, created Puzzle Israel. The trips may be a replay of my own first trip to Israel, traveling with a French group I met on the plane. We blithely asked for recommendations from anyone we met to get a feel of street food and restaurants. For the out-of the-way and behind-the-scenes experiences I somehow found myself making my own Yemenite earrings near the Dead Sea with a jeweler in his shop after hours. I merely had to mention I wanted to experience all the kitchen and field jobs at a kibbutz for them to assign the rotations. Yes, I was lucky to be on the trip of a lifetime.
The team at Puzzle Israel Tours enables every visitor to capture this same kind of experience by inviting them in at the planning stage. The ingenious method is so simple. A local team of insider travel experts find out visitor’s interests and ably curate engaging, personalized outings whether it be for individuals, families, congregations, teen groups or organizations. A trip can be geared toward adventure, history, voluntourism, sports and culinary arts. A variety of ‘active trips’ with health benefits are also offered , such as one excursion featuring yoga activities appropriately called “holy fit.” The cost can be $4000 for a 10-day trip.
Nir’s culinary inspiration is his grandmother, who was born and raised in Libya before moving to Israel. He was so impressed that he started cooking when he was 12 years old. In typical blunt Israeli fashion, his shrug was enough of an answer when asking about his mom’s cooking. He leaned forward, “when Israeli’s finish their army service they travel and I was lucky enough to go to India, Thailand, Laos, New Zealand- the cheaper countries, where I could spend a lot of time and really get to know the people and the cuisines.”
“So that’s why I created such an inter-active group tour in Israel where you can eat with a Muslim or eat with an Ethiopian, and the food becomes a backdrop to the cultural experience,” he explained. There are also updated blogs and cookbooks, Yalla! Let’s Cook!, for example, to carry away the experience. 
One of the most fascinating trips focuses on the Bedouins in the Negev. Nir becomes excited talking about unincorporated areas, one specifically that has as its one permanent place, a bus station! It is a place where nomadic Bedouin families were invited to “settle the unsettled” with goat farms and vineyards. The eight to ten day trips that feature this startling place “feel very close to nature and the locals.”
“Some nuts are hard to crack but we usually are able to pull it off, “laughs Nir. He recalls one grandfather whose family brought him on a trip. He had never traveled outside of the United States, and was going to “have none of it” at age 65. “Five days later he was sitting and laughing with his children and grandchildren in a Syrian pool (built for officers stationed in Syria to relax), exclaiming out how he was doing things for the first time!”
With only word of mouth and online presence for the first time last year, testimonials on YouTube document the success of Puzzle Israel Tours. It backs a Chef Nir boast, delivered with a smile: “Israel has done an amazing job of becoming the cuisine to watch for culinary breakthroughs – especially the chefs who do different market to table concepts (see www.localfoodeater.com, TASTE OF ISRAEL post)
For more information on upcoming visits and information on Puzzle Israel Tours, please visit: www.puzzleisrael.com.
Recipes for Chef Nir’s “dishes in the wild” demo dishes:
Mushrooms Filled with Roasted Red Onions and Tahini
Ingredients:
15 mushrooms, insides spooned out (keep insides including stem for later)
3 red onions, julienne
1 C walnuts, finely chopped
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400°F
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 T honey
1⁄4 C raw tahini
Extra-virgin olive oil, as needed
Sea salt, to taste Black pepper, to taste
2. Heat olive oil in frying pan over high heat. Add onions and garlic, stirring constantly. Add the mushrooms’ insides including stem and cook for 3 minutes or until onions are caramelized. Add honey and toss together for another 1-2 minutes
3. In a mixing bowl, combine the tahini walnuts and caramelized onions. Toss together
4. Using a spoon, place a spoonful of the onion mixture in each mushroom.
5. Place mushrooms onto sheet pan. Bake for another 10-15 minutes.
6. Serve warm
Ingredients:
1 lb. raw ground beef
5 Medjool dates, pitted, small dice 1⁄4 t sea salt
1⁄4 t black pepper
Fresh thyme
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 450°F.
3 eggplants, 1⁄4” slice, lengthwise 1⁄4 C extra-virgin olive oil
1 red onion, small dice
2 cloves garlic, minced
2. Line a sheet pan with sliced eggplants. Drizzle with olive oil, and bake for 10-12 minutes, until slightly golden brown.
3. Heat olive oil in a frying pan over high heat. Add onion and garlic, stirring constantly for 2-3 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium and cook for another 15-20 minutes, until caramelized.
4. In a mixing bowl, combine the raw ground beef, sautéed onion and garlic, dates, salt, and pepper, and mix well.
5. Place a spoonful of the beef mixture onto each eggplant slice.
6. Roll the eggplant over the beef mixture and use a toothpick to secure the roll.
7. Place the rolls onto a lined sheet pan and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes.
8. Remove from the oven and garnish with fresh thyme.
9. Serve warm
Allow me to introduce you to pizza maven, Tonino Morra Is being honored by GOURMET magazine as “making the best crust in America” enough of an recommendation?Now Toto’s magnificent pies are at Tonino’s Place in Calabasas and in Westlake Village.
He’s partnered with Tonino “Tony” Boniovanni, who adds his own family’s Roman-style dishes recipes to the menu. With wife Linda, Tonino’s Place combines the very best of Italian food in authentic surroundings.
Why? I’ve learned to recognize, in this “best pie” accounting, the elements that make the crust softly spongy yet crisply charred, ever so faintly sweet, even more faintly sour. Not to mention that is requires a superlative and intuitive talent to prepare the handmade dough that involves secret ratios and rising times, maybe a special kind of flour and usually a searing hot oven.
Tonino’s Place is a plain wrap, food-driven place with practical prices and generous portions. Wife, Linda Boniovanni, is such a firecracker at hospitality that when you telephone Tonino’s, you think it’s a major dining establishment. Actually there’s just enough seating inside and plenty of outdoor seating for those who “want to eat it hot.”
The buzz was electrifying. Guests surrounding me gleefully followed the instructions “to enjoy,” compared notes and shared dishes, even if only for the few minute respite in between the 100 bites. We seemed to be happily following a recent Whole Food sign blessing this endeavor. It read, “EAT GOOD FATS.” And, after all, we were burning calories by standing and walking the whole party.
conspirators out to have a blast with the absolutely top-notch versions of their favorite animal, THE PIG. And it brought together esteemed chefs and their friends. Below is Chef Nick Shipp and his wife, and Brooke Williamson and her husband. Nick’s email is” “bacon-wrapped chef.” Chef Nick was at the event to cheer on his good friend, Bruce Kalman.
Personable returning champion Chef Walter Manzke of Republique was crowned the Prince of Porc. Chef Walter will go on to represent Los Angeles against the other nine cities’ winners in Grand Cochon at Snowmass / Aspen for the title of 2016 King or Queen of Porc and the grand prize, a four-day wine experience in Rioja, Spain’s most prominent wine region.
So, true to its billing, the seven-year-old flagship tour, touting itself as “the world’s first environmentally conscious nose-to-tail pig competition celebrating fine-dining,” lived up to its word.
Finally the crowd entered the pool area. Fancy white covered food booths resembling cabanas were scattered about the area with an inviting sign to “Meet the CHEFS & their PIGS.” Chef Brooke Williamson’s beautiful smiling face was nearest. She was working with RED WATTLE pork from Rainbow Ranch, originating in New Caledonia, a French Island in the South Pacific. Sliders had a hearty but tender, almost beefy taste for which they are known I later read. At this hungry beginning, the guest next to me asked if the bacon decoration was edible (top right corner of lower right image)! Brooke’s cotton candy on a stick with a shredded pork filling happily ended the menu. 
To the right, the station of gentrified Rose Cafe Executive Chef-Partner, Jason Neroni, offered such startling, diverse dishes as double ramen, an insanely rich yet delicate broth with pork fat, spring garlic, fermented turnips, poached belly and noodles (my favorite bite shown at the bottom here) and a lasagna with fennel and pork sumo, porcini jus, stuffed trotter terrine with foil gras, black truffles, cognac soaked morels (below left).
The bold middle dish below is roasted pork meatballs with smoked burrata, chicharrones, tomato marmalade. Always serious, Neroni barely had a second to look up.
Pork Tartare with Black River Caviar on a potato chip; a Cuban Sandwich with braised Pork, Cured ham, Mojo and Dijon, and a Pork “Torte Gibier” with Blood Sauce (shown above). 
Below, elegant Taco Mari Chef, Carlos Salgado, prepared Corazon Asado with torpedo onions, cara cara oranges and serrano, working with Red Wattle from Walnut Keep.
Many of the donated items were the generous gift of sponsor Williams-Sonoma. By this time the crowd was so thick you could only hear the auctioneer add more and more to each package in the 100’s of dollars – all the money to go to donations.
The beverage program included Cochon555’s Punch Kings local barkeep competition featuring Breckenridge Distillery.
On Friday, the Late Night Asian Speakeasy featured an all-inclusive feast paying homage to Chinese, Sichuan, Korean, Thai and Japanese after-hour establishments known to inspire great kitchens across the country. 
“just a very small amount elevates any dish to extraordinary” – from salads and vegetables to pastas, pizza and even desserts. That’s because the powdered “touch” is fresh. With Truffle oil, as with olive oil to a certain extent, the taste is different and kind of stale when it is not at its freshest –I sense that so many people are not in love with the taste of truffles because they have only know the taste of truffle oil, and not at its freshest – recently in the fashion of truffled French fries prepared with it in restaurants. Even when they do like it, I’m not so sure it is the freshest and at its best!! The delicate Girasol Restaurant carrot crisp, however, was heavenly when a little during of fresh powder was added. 
What changed my mind almost immediately was the series of trufflepalooza – with Sabatino truffles – hosted by the venerable food blogger/hostess and entrepreneur, Erika Kerekes. Sabatino Tartufi truffle zest also transformed this colorful Italian wild sardine salad and roasted brussel sprouts into very special party dishes.
Enticing ideas for the zest include sprinkling it over asparagus or grilled shrimp or adding it into a vinaigrette; buttered (healthy!) sweet potato mash with truffle zest and bourbon; a shake of Sabatino Tartufi truffle zest over pasta or risotto with a poached egg and truffle oil. For more ideas, search out maven Erika Kerekes’ own recipes on www.inerikaskitchen.com. Below is a bone marrow with polenta dusted with truffle zest.
To the left is a duck confit with a truffle “zested” sautéed cauliflower from Chef Josie of Normandie Bakery.
(Gerry Furth-Sides) “Souk” (market in Arabic) is an intriguing enough name to draw restaurant. What brings people back to the recently opened Souk Shawarma Cafe is the soul-filled food of chef partners (Syrian-American ) Andrew Faour and (Jamaican-American) Matt Carpenter.
This time around Andrew’s Syrian background comes to the fore. The “secret force” for the shawarma is a horizontal rotisserie grill which keeps moisture in the meat as it is being basted in its own juices while being cooked. Chef Matt is happy because he gets to “play” with his favorite ingredient, duck, which stars on the grill menu along with beef, lamb and chicken.
The food lived up to the mission statement on the wall of SPICE, FIRE and SOUL. Laughed Matt, “we honor traditions and we do this by infusing a new take on the familiar dishes and flavors of the middle east here.”
Moroccan- style lamb headlines the new Merquez Shawarma, a spicy sausage made in-house with ground Halal lamb, spices and herbs, served with roasted onions, peppers, tomatoes, piquillo sauce and Souk mix. ($7.99 in a wrap and $2 extra for a plate with salad). Unlike most sausage, the Merguez Moroccan-style does not use a casing but is instead free-formed on skewers and directly cooked over the open flame.
The sounds of the men and women bartering as small children dart between the stalls, laughing and playing.
At Souk Shawarma, prices in the neighborhood just outside gentrified downtown Los Angeles are made possible with counter ordering and many of the side dishes packaged in a refrigerated self-serve “Grab and Go Case,” such as the Spicy Eggplant shown at left.
(Gerry Furth-Sides ) Already at the age of seven, after the kids at school assumed my mother, who arrived in this country on a luxury liner, was “a gypsy” because she had dark hair, some sort of an accent and was wearing a beret, I knew there had to be a better word for “foreign-born American resident.”
Duh! If I forgot 400 years of bloody Turkish rule in Greece, a tour that following summer of Greek island churches with glass display cases piled high with the bones of adult and young victims massacred by Turkish invaders, was all the reminder I needed.
Both Turks and Greeks claim “Dolmas” from the term “hollowing out.” The Turkish version was developed as a part of an elaborate, labor intensive “court cuisine” of the Ottoman Empire before the Greeks claimed it.
Turkish chefs even use vine leaf wrappers around dishes other than dolmas. One difference is the Turks have always loved vegetables, while for Greeks the opposite held true.
Timeless Tastes, the beautiful, comprehensive book given to me by Layla, Defne’s sister explains how Turkish culinary preparation requires serving dishes hot or cold (not the Greek room temperature) and requires precise measurements in preparation. The photos of the Turkish dishes are from this book.
Along with the tradition of dining on an entire meal of “mezes” (small plate appetizers), another commonality is their love of honey, with markets in Turkey offering dozens of different varieties of honey labeled according to the village of origination.
(Gerry Furth-Sides) Ten to try European desserts either on the way to becoming American mainstream or there already are a welcome addition to the “usual suspects” stuck on too many restaurant menus. Even if you are not a dessert lover, these might change your mind; they did change mine.
Gerry Furth-Sides 
Barbara Hansen 
Chef-owner Alain Cohen 
Roberta Deen 
Jose Martinez 
Nivedita Basu 