Jerusalem Food
Good, Inexpensive Food Is Easy to Find
There seem to be two kinds of restaurants in the Old City – those that actually have names and anywhere from 5-20 tables, and those that don’t have names and barely fit 1-3 tables. We generally ate at the second category, and in the Muslim Quarter. You just sit down, look at what everyone else is eating, and then either point, hold up your fingers or say what you want. If you are at a hummus or falafel place, it will either be good or great food, and it will be cheap!
Hummus from any random spot will either be good or great! This one had falafel too.
These are Yemeni style pancakes, like a crumpet. Wander through the Muslim quarter to find them.
Yemeni pancakes heating up
La Patisserie Abu Sair is just up the street after New Gate in the Old City (New Gate st, Ha-Sha’ar he-Khadash St 35). We had some lovely tea, a quiche that was good enough, and some date rolls that are SERIOUSLY worth a quest. We ate a whole roll of date rolls, then went back and bought 3 more to give as gifts to date-loving family members. The combination of flavors and textures was just perfect: a little coconut, maybe some cardamom? While we were eating at an outdoor table, an old man stopped and asked where we were from, and then told us about his life growing up in the neighborhood and attending the school behind us.
Machane Yehuda Market
We considered a food tour, but we are the sort who like to wander, and we had time, so we started by targeting a few places we had read about:
Etrogman to get our Royal Drink (HaEgoz St, Jerusalem, 9431818);
Pe’er bakery to check on challah (33 Etz Hayim St);
Marzipan bakery to get rugelach (on the outside ring, Agripas St 44).
Along the way, we saw pickled fish and ate that on the spot for breakfast. We had first seen Hungarian hollow cakes in Tel Aviv’s Carmel Market and noted the same brand, plus a few more, were also here. For lunch we decided on schnitzel and eggplant on challah at Halati (HaEgoz St 9).
Get some Israeli breakfast!
Israeli breakfast is something to seek out. It’s lots of little dishes, mostly vegetarian with options for fish and eggs. We were very pleased with the offerings at Cafe Lyon, which is situated on one side of the Machane Yehuda market.
Fancy dinner right near the Old City
The Eucalyptus for dinner gets 5 stars! We got the set meal for 3 people. The waiter started with arak, and kept filling it, all complimentary. Not all arak–an anise alcohol–is yummy for us, but this one was. The best dishes were the appetizers, like eggplant with tahini and pomegranate syrup. If we returned to this restaurant and ordered a la cart, not set menu, we’d stick to the appetizers as they were all good. The main dishes were fine. Desserts: all non-dairy because this is a kosher meat restaurant, so all the white things on the dessert plate are ok for the lactose intolerant to eat! Very exciting. The chocolate lava cake is nice and chocolatey. Vanilla sorbet good. Malawi very good with rose syrup and rose flavoring in the pudding.
Our Neighborhood Go-To
Caffit is a chain restaurant with reliable food. The service can be hit or miss. When we visited they had a special soup celebration for a few months, and we tried 2 soups for dinner that were both very good. Breakfasts are tasty: green shakshuka, which was basically creamed spinach with feta and eggs; regular shakshuka, which is a tomato-based stew with eggs; and a 2-person workers’ breakfast which was a type of Israeli breakfast, featuring several salads and omelet.
Green shakshuka, is like creamed spinach. Served with bread to dip
workers’ breakfast for 2
menu CAffit
Friday Markets and Shabbat Preparations
If you are in Jerusalem Friday-Saturday, you will need to prepare for Shabbat meals as most everything is closed, including your public transportation options to anywhere that might still be open. Restaurants have what they call “Friday Markets” where they have essentially a buffet of foods that you choose and pay for by the piece or weight. On Friday morning, in whatever neighborhood you are in, go forth and check out the restaurants. Plan to buy what you need before noon as these are all open-until-sold-out situations. You could also go to the Machane Yehuda market, but it will be super busy.
In the German Colony, we bought food from Focaccia Moshava, Take Me Home, Super HaMoshava and Marzipan Bakery. (Marzipan is known for their rugelach. They have a stand in the Machane Yehuda market and a satellite in German Colony. We found their rugelach good, but very sweet. Foccacia Moshava has images on their website of the typical Market offerings. Super HaMoshava or whatever grocery store is near you is always an obvious option for food supplies.)
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