Fine Dining meets Street Food for Brunch | OCD, Tel Aviv

OCD opened several months ago in Noga neighborhood, an area that is becoming a creative center in Old Jaffa. OCD offers a unique culinary experience in the TLV scene. First it only offers a set degustation menu and second, the place contains only 18 seats located around the bar overlooking the open kitchen. I was first exposed to this way of dining in Tokyo, and since then it has definitely become my favorite. It provides a great view to the kitchen action and enables direct interaction with the kitchen staff. It also prevents awkward situations where your waiter doesn’t know which fish he just served you (happened to me in a pretty expensive restaurant).

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Polka Dots and Lightning Ice Cream | Oddies Foodies, Hong Kong

Oddies Foodies is not your usual ice cream place. As you enter you’re confronted with a window where all sorts of crazy and astounding ice cream cones are lined up like pretty Barbie dolls. And boy, are they spectacular, with designs that are somewhere between inspiring and insane. Originally they had another branch in Wan Chai which closed down.

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Universal Yums Box – February-April Boxes Review

I’ve been wanting to join one of these snack box subscriptions for a while now, so when I read an article in one of Israel’s popular news sites about one such service which started delivering to Israel, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to give this thing a try. We subscribed to 3 month worth of Universal Yums boxes and in this post we’ll share the boxes we received, what was inside and what we thought of it.

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My riceless Indian experience | Ma Pau, Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv is in the midst of an Indian cuisine wave, and the recently opened Ma Pau is riding this wave alongside other restaurants like Captain Curry and Dosa Bar. More street-food eatery than a restaurant, this family business was opened next to Meir Adoni’s Catit and Mizlala, at the corner of Nahalat Binyamin and Ahad Ha’Am. Its three founders decided to open following their mother’s death, as a way to honor her cooking – hence the name, which literally translates as “mother’s bread”.
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Yum Cha Close to Home | Hong Kong Dim Sum, Tel Aviv

For a long long time I felt aversion to the the word dim sum. The culprits are many Israeli catering services and restaurants which served unappealing frozen sacks and dared to name those “dim sum”. This all changed when I visited Hong Kong a few weeks ago. I discovered an amazing culinary world to which complete injustice was done here.

We just got back from a tour of southeast Asia which included Hong Kong. Naturally, we were intrigued to find out if Hong Kong Dim Sum hits close to home.

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Cause for Celebration | Atera, New York City

This March we had the opportunity to celebrate Tali’s birthday in Atera, a 2 Michelin starred restaurant based in New York’s Tribeca Neighborhood. Its founding chef, Matthew Lightner, who ran the kitchen for three years, was replaced last year by the Danish Ronny Emborg. This change made quite the ruckus online with mixed opinions on the decision to have a Danish chef as the head of a well-established American restaurant.

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Refreshing and healthy lunch | Rak Hayom, Tel Aviv

Rak Hayom (“Only Today” in Hebrew) is a phrase that is commonly heard at Israeli food markets by the loud, local vendors. Rak Hayom’s menu is based on fresh market ingredients which definitely echoes its name, only without the noisy, messy atmosphere of an Israeli market.

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A culinary (carnival) ride | Straw – San Francisco

When one of my colleagues got back from a business trip in San Francisco he told me about this magical wonderland; a place taken straight from the fairytales; one that serves a doughnut burger. From that moment on I knew – that doughnut had to be mine!

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