If you're going to open an Israeli restaurant, you need to go there before opening.
Excellent logic.
Jennie Hatton of Profile PR, Zahav's agency, filed this dispatch today (3/6/08) at the end of what she calls an "eight-day eating extravaganza."
Besides Hatton, the travelers are Zahav owners Steven Cook and Michael Solomonov; Mike's wife, Mary; general manager Max Shapiro; architect/designer Elisabeth Knapp and her husband John; baker Wes Johnson; sous chef Sam Smith; Solomonov buddy Pervaiz Shallwni; photog Mike Regan; and chef/entertainer Phil Roy, also a Solomonov friend.
"Within 30 minutes of landing, we started eating and it hasn't stopped unless we were sleeping (which has been limited)," writes Hatton. "There is no way to put down everything that we ate -- but we had at least four to five meals a day. We've eaten in restaurants, from street vendors and in the markets, but the best meals have been in people's homes, either friends or family, where we ate foods from the different cultures that make up Israeli cuisine. Those meals included a traditional Morrocan Shabbat dinner in Jerusalem; a late-day meal at Mike Solomonov's father's house, where his family cooked for us; and Yemenite soup at construction chief Ofer's mother's house."
"Markets we visited included Tavlin, a spice market and restaurant in the Judean Hills, where we bought spices, fruit teas and olive oil and ate about 15 different dishes of salads, fish and meats, plus Machane Yehuda, the main open market in Jerusalem, and Shuk HaKarmel Market in Tel Aviv.
"We also visited a date farm at Kibbutz Kinneret, the second kibbutz created in Israel, where we sampled more than 11 types of dates and visited the home of a woman who has been making her own olive oil for over 30 years.
"Some dishes that we've feasted on include shakshuka (tomato pepper stew with poached eggs), sabich (an eggplant and hard-boiled egg sandwich in a pita with all the fixins of a falafel -- and let me tell you, this beats any late-night cheesesteak snack); hummus three ways and lemonnana (fresh lemonade with mint).
"We've also enjoyed (very much) the local anise liquoir called Arak - we've had this every night."
"We took camel rides and then spent a night in a Bedouin tent. While we were all lounging on our sleeping mats, post dinner, Elisabeth got a call from Ofer needing an immediate decision on how to lay the wall tiles at the restaurant. Elisabeth had her plans with her, so she Steve and Mike figured out the pattern they wanted to go with. At the same time, John, Elisabeth's husband, got a text message from a friend wanting a reservation at Xochitl for that evening (we are 7 hours ahead) and Steve sent a BlackBerry email to make it happen. On the other side of the tent, I was fact-checking the Food & Wine magazine feature on this trip and the opening of the restaurant, which will be in the May issue.
"Who knew we could all be taking care of business while hanging out in a tent in the desert."
The travelers also woke at 4 a.m. to drive to Masada to see sunrise over the Dead Sea. They took a "float" in the Dead Sea, followed by mud baths and a sulfur showers. "We all smelled like eggs, but we felt totally relaxed," she says.
Now for Zahav business:
They bought the coffee service (cups, saucers, creamers, sugar caddies, etc, all in the bright blue patterned ceramics that you find all over Israel) for $700 US. They got a fruit juicer, a kibbe maker, and skewers for kebobs, and they pciked up some decorations at the flea market in Yaffo in Tel Aviv.
The travelers head back to Philly Friday 3/7. "The best thing is, anytime we crave the amazing food that we've had here, we can always go to Zahav," Hatton says.