Are those pickles kosher?

July 23, 2010 - 8:39 AM by

Chef Moshe Basson prepares a kosher delicacy in the Eucalyptus kitchen. (Photo: Marc Israel Sellem)

One of the great things about living in Israel – if you keep kosher – is that you can find kosher restaurants just about anywhere. Ok, maybe it’s not so easy in Tel Aviv and Eilat, but even there, you won’t go hungry.

Not ready to live with the traditional kosher fare available, two immigrants from the US, Ari Greenspan of Efrat and Ari Zivotofsky of Beit Shemesh, have spent years studying the Biblical origins of kosher food.

Don’t forget, besides forbidding lobster stew and quiche Lorraine, there are plenty of exotic animals, fowl and birds that are considered kosher, but generally not found in your local kosher deli.

That’s why Zivotofsky and Greenspan decided to throw a lavish 18-course-meal this week featuring pheasant and guinea fowl pastry as an appetizer, water buffalo, swordfish and deer as main courses, and fried locusts for dessert.

The “mesorah dinner,” held at Eucalyptus Restaurant, across from Jerusalem’s Old City walls, was designed to pass along the “chain of tradition” of which animals, birds, fish and locusts are kosher and which are not.

Prepared by the restaurant’s chef Moshe Basson, who has made a career on perfecting the traditional ‘land of Israel’ cuisine, the meal started off with Ethiopian Injera bread and “Shiluach Haken soup.” According to a report on the meal in The Jerusalem Post, the soup commemorated the mitzva of sending away the mother bird, because it featured a fleishig egg (an egg extracted from a live chicken) inside a noodle nest in sparrow, dove and pigeon broth.

The soup was followed by quail in caramel sauce; figs stuffed with wild chicken and wild rice; duck, goose, muscovy and mullard in honey-ginger sauce; the pheasants/guinea fowl pastry, and turkey that the chef unveiled with great fanfare.

The heart of the meal featured cow udder in saffron; a combination swordfish, kingklip and blue marlin; and the shibuta, a fish from the Euphrates River that is famed for tasting like bacon. The shibuta was brought from southeastern Turkey, and the swordfish was caught by a tuna fisherman in the Mediterranean.

The next courses were sheep and goat in endives; water buffalo; and spotted deer and red deer.

Not your typical fare in any restaurant, let alone a kosher bistro in Jerusalem. According to the report, most of the participants were too full, or grossed out, to partake of the fried locust dessert. I guess they can wait and have that on Pessah.

Tags: , , , • Category: A New Reality, Food, General, History and Culture, Israeliness 

Comments

2 Comments on Are those pickles kosher?

  1. would love to try this Kosher meal on Wed, Jul 28th 2010 6:25 PM

    2. I am endeavoring to go Kosher and am learning to be Torah Observant . I love learning about what is right and what is wrong. This article on this meal sounds so adventurous and as well delicious. I sure wish I could partake of these kind of events. There are certainly a lot of Kosher foods out there. It is my hope to learn how to prepare more of these exotic and delicious meals. Thanks for the Article.

  2. Asher on Wed, Jul 28th 2010 8:45 PM

    3. I take exception to the opening sentence that reads in part, “… you can find kosher restaurants just about anywhere. Ok, maybe it’s not so easy in Tel Aviv and Eilat…,” and would substitute Haifa for Tel Aviv (I am completely unfamiliar with Eilat). From what I have seen in the past year, Tel Aviv far outstrips Haifa in kosher eateries. Good for my pocketbook, but hard to take a visitor to dinner.

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