Seeing these pictures of my Dinner at Israeli restaurant North Miznon make me wish I'd followed my instincts to use the phone instead of the camera.
But I was stubborn... and blindly hopeful.
Of course it is apparent now that I need the miracle from the magic of a software.
Which I don't have.
So... these pictures will just have to do.
They look weird, I know.
Next time I'll go with my social-media brain instead of my hungry-customer brain- because the food here definitely deserves much more than these overly-expressive pictures that make the food look so much less appetizing than what they really were.
It was our first time.
As would have been for many a customer- the restaurant having opened only just a week earlier from the time we dined there.
The place had come recommended by a friend who'd introduced it as the second dining concept from chef Eyal Shani- the same chef who'd also helmed the kitchen of the now one-year-old Israeli street food place further down the road.
All this, however, I found out only after we'd been seated, and only whilst I was looking at the menu.
Having not (yet) been to the other, let's just say that I, umm, (sort of) confused the two.
See, where I'd been looking for casual eats like Eggs No Steak, Falafel Burger or Ribeye Steak with Egg on the menu, what I saw was Slow Roasted Whole Indian Cabbage Head, Fennel Bulb, Seafood Platter, Burning Yellow Potato, and variations of steak.
Took me a minute or two to reset my bearings before reading the menu with a new eye.
We'd hoped to order the famed Sirloin Roast Beef Carpaccio on the Rock, but with us being the second turn, it was no more available, so my dining companion decided to have his steak in another style instead.
Arranged strategically (like a flower, I thought) over a bed of tahini, topped with a generous heap of finely chopped tomatoes, the beef slices were perfect in terms of thickness, in texture, and in taste.
If my dining companion was delighted with the meat, I, on the other hand, was enthralled by the tahini.
I'm not exaggerating.
I really fell in love with it.
You might say that it's not such a big deal, that tahini is available in specialty stores and supermarkets, and that it's nothing more than just ground-up sesame- but you don't know the feeling it gives you when you take the first bite of beef and tahini together, and then a few seconds later realize that the smooth, creamy, salty, near-milky flavor is not cheese.
The joy of having tahini together with the beef overwhelmed me so much I ended up yammering happily about it all through my own meal of big spinach leaves and cute soft (Viennese?) potatoes sitting snug in a lake of beautiful yellow (I don't know how it's prepared) cheese.
Some might argue that this is no different than creamed spinach.
But spinach and cream don't offer you the same warmth that spinach, potatoes and cheese do.
You know, if there's one word that best describes the food here, it would be exactly this: Warmth.
I felt it everywhere.
In the beef, in the tahini, in the tomatoes heaped upon the beef, even in the delicate soft potatoes, the clear lake of yellowy cheese- and especially- especially in their focaccia bread.
I've never had focaccia bread like this before.
Maybe I'm too much of a casual diner, but for some reason the bread gave me serious thin-crust pizza vibes.
Layered with onion, tomato and green peppers, accompanied by a dip made of sour cream and Yemeni zhug (green peppers seasoned with garlic, olives and coriander), their bread was crisp on the bite, warm on the palate and, so welcoming even as you felt the gently warmed olive oil (generously drizzled over the bread) slid down your throat into your stomach, and into your heart.
This was another dish that we fell straightaway in love.
So good it was that we continued to savor the bread all through our meal, even through dessert.
I wish we'd ordered the "Cardboard"- a tasting platter of all the desserts available- but us being full by then, we decided to go for just the Malabi instead.
A traditional dessert- the Israeli rosewater milk pudding made me think of our local bandung, but unprocessed, way less sweet, and certainly, much healthier.
I'd like to try the Sirloin Roast Beef Carpaccio on the Rock next time we come.
I'd also like to try the 'Cardboard' desserts (do they allow sharing?)
And I'd certainly leave more room for the bread.
Because- as noob as I am when it comes to food- I appreciate the re-interpretation of familiar favorites and casual eats.
Maybe I don't know what it means to have lemon butter with crab, squid and prawns.
Maybe I don't know what it's supposed to mean when one has a fennel bulb or a whole head of cabbage for dinner.
But I do know what it means when one can't have a cheeseburger.
I do know what it means when one has to go for cheese over cream.
And I do know what it means when the usual pizza is out of the question (or limited) and so better it is to have lots, and lots of clean-tasting, fresh, pure-oil, crispy bread free-flow.
It's signature, and it's a good deal. ;)