On Monday, June 1st, we went to a restaurant in the shuk called Machneyuda (not to be confused with the name of the shuk- Machane Yehuda).
To start off, I apologize for not writing about food for so long. I know you all have been eating vicariously through us especially now with corona where we could eat out and rub it in your face that you could not (although, now that we are no longer in Israel, sadly we also can’t eat out in restaurants but let’s not ruin this post with talk about such sad things right now).
Next time you all come to Israel (which might not be for quite some time), you won’t need to plan a single meal. We will tell you where to eat all around Israel. Get excited… in the next few weeks I will be posting the top restaurants in Israel in our opinion and Alexandra will post the activities that we recommend. Yes, in our last few weeks in Israel we were able to eat out (thank goodness!!!) but when we entered a restaurant we were supposed to get our temperature taken (many places had a temperature taker- not a thermometer but a gun like machine that can tell if you have a fever while being inches away from your face- how do those things work?! But let’s get back to the point) and we had wear masks, except when eating (you can’t actually eat and wear a mask simultaneously).
The restaurant was not a kosher restaurant, but there was a lot we could eat. It was delicious! And the service was amazing and really fast. It was like we had our own butler, he even cleared napkins after they were used and brought us new ones.
We ordered 6 dishes plus 3 desserts. We got a polenta dish, cured red tuna, fresh pasta, roasted eggplant, a Kurdish pastry, and a Nablus salad. Plus bread with tahini to start. The desserts we got were cheesecake, chocolate mousse, and Bavarian cream.
All but one of the dishes we got, the pasta, were not main dishes which was good because they were not too big so we could order more things. When eating out at a restaurant you have never been to before, it is very important to try as many things as possible.
My favorite dishes were the eggplant and the salad, and my favorite dessert was the Bavarian Cream.
All of the food was incredible!!! I definitely recommend eating at this restaurant. it is definitely a five star restaurant.
-Naomi
P.S. A general rule about the chocolate or garlic (with some exceptions) is that garlic improves main dishes and savory items and chocolate improves desserts and sweet items.
P.P.S. My likes and dislikes: the eggplant, salad, and the bavarian cream were my favorites, and my least favorites were the pasta and the tuna
This bread and tahini would be improved with garlic
The Kurdish pastry was salty and cheesy and it came with dips on the side. It would have been improved with the addition of garlic.\
The smell that emerged from this truffle polenta was AMAZING! It was something that smelled too good to eat. It would have been improved with garlic. Alexandra said that it was like a polenta cloud that smells like truffle.\
This salad had a good mix of textures and the labane לבנה complemented the salad perfectly. There was a good crunchy element in the salad, and it was overall somewhat simple, but delicious and not exactly an ordinary flavor combo (in this salad there was labane, frozen grapes, and zaatar/hyssop, plus a few other things that I do not remember). This would be improved with garlic
Ima forgot about the importance of taking pictures of your food before eating, so the dip in this photo got a little messed up. The tuna was good, but nothing special. In this dish there was lemon and pistachio garlic. It would be improved with more garlic\
This eggplant was supposed to have strawberries on it, but instead came with cherries so since I am allergic to cherries I didn’t eat them but I bet the cherries would have made it taste even better. AMAZING. That is how I would describe this dish. Amazing, period. The eggplant tasted smokey, in a good way, but I would add more garlic (almost all eggplant dishes have garlic so I doubt this dish is an exception). It is honestly hard to screw up eggplant, but wow this was so good! Plain, simple, and WOW! I think I tasted a little mint…
Pasta is a almost always good, even when it is just plain and simple, and especially when there are whole garlic cloves! Yum. Although not so much fun for Ima (she has a garlic sensitivity, which is so sad). This dish would be improved with even more garlic.
A rich chocolate mousse with sea salt and a mint garnish. The salt was a great addition and it helped balance out the chocolate, but this dessert was still on the simple side. If there had been more chocolate it still would have been good.
This was a bavarian cream with nuts and toffee. OMG.The cream melted in our mouth and was heavenly. It would be improved with chocolate
Pay attention to the English spelling of words and the translations from hebrew. I love the way Israelis translate. It is so funny!!! Can you see where it says muse instead of mousse? ;)\