Recommend November 2010 - (Page 52)

“Slow Food” Anyone who has traveled to Israel in recent years knows there’s been a foodie revolution that has transformed the nation into a think-global, cook-local kind of place. On the one hand, modern Israel is one of the world’s great culinary melting pots, whose cuisine comes from the legacies of the country’s many immigrants and new dining and wining ideas brought home by well-traveled Israelis. Both contribute to today’s stylish food scene that is liberally seasoned with marquee chefs, boutique wineries, trendy ingredients, artisanal breads, olive oils and cheeses galore. Making Fast Tracks Across Israel’s Gourmet Landscape Galilee Covering the northern part of modern Israel, Galilee is Israel’s poster child in the slow food movement. This region was the original foodie paradise of loaves and fishes, water and wine, milk and honey. Its hills and deep valleys are packed with olive groves, grapevines and trees bearing everything from figs and lemons to almonds and kiwis. Galilee is also the nation’s most culturally diverse region, where Jews of all ethnic backgrounds, Muslim and Christian Arabs, Druze, Bedouins and Circassians live as neighbors and contribute to the rich traditions of regional cuisine. Upper Galilee is also home to Erez Komarovsky, who has been called the heart and soul of the new Israeli cuisine and is one of Israel’s most famous celebrity chefs. Responsible for bringing artisanal breads to Israel (from years working in France and the United States), Komarovsky scaled back his involvement with his chain of bakeries to return to the area from which he has always drawn his inspiration. Nestled away in his eclectic country house in the village of Matat up near the Lebanese border and surrounded by his organic herb and vegetable gardens, Komarovsky offers cooking classes teaching his brand of new Israeli cooking for small groups and seminars for chefs and food writers. One critic referred to Komarovsky’s genius as “...using the region’s natural assets in gastronomically nomadic ways.” True culinary aficionados can go on culinary tours of the area for a day or longer. These tours generally offer special insights into the foods, wines, people, history and culture of this corner of Israel. They are designed to include historical background, encounters with artisans and cooks, hands-on cooking experiences and a delightful array of Galilee flavors. A day tour, for example, might include a visit and tastings at a spice farm and an olive press, as well as a meal at a family-run goat farm and a tasting at a winery combined with an overview on the history of winemaking in ancient times. Another option might include exploring the Nazareth market, preparing a fresh-fish meal with a local family in the port city of Akko, picking edible wild plants and having a cook-out with a Bedouin family. “Slow Food” Movement At the same time, Israel’s roughly 20-year-old culinary turnaround is capitalizing on the bounty of the land, with its amazing variety and abundance of fruits, vegetables and dairy products. With such national endowment, food producers and consumers are buying into concepts promoted by the international Slow Food foundation (slowfood.com) that works to help communities around the world to rebuild their local food systems in order to eat better, protect the environment and maintain cultural diversity. The overall goal of Slow Food Israel is to “Eat Locally,” which means eating natural and healthy food grown, marketed and prepared with respect. And the ranks of Israeli eco-gastronomists continue to swell. Hence, shade-grown, organic coffee is the pour of the day in Tel Aviv cafes; a dozen choices of cheeses are produced locally by a couple who gained experience in Sardinia and France, who also have their own restaurant, Goats with the Wind; Rimon Winery bottles Port-style and dessert wines from its newly developed variety of giant pomegranate; and at cafe Chocolatte in the village of Rosh Pina, the Belgian-trained chocolatier proprietor adds halvah (a sweet sesame paste), cinnamon and honey, pine nuts and pistachios to the filled pralines. Involvement with the Slow Food movement gave the Slow Food Award to Moshe Basson, chef/owner of the famous Eucalyptus restaurant in Jerusalem. The award comes for initiating unusual conservation efforts such as saving wild za’atar, an over-picked herb in danger of extinction, as well as being a founding member of Chefs for Peace (see box). Driven to revive the heritage foods of Israel, Chef Basson recreates the home-style dishes of Jerusalem’s many cultures and traditions. His menu—food critics always single out figs stuffed with chicken in tamarind sauce—includes a remarkable array of herbs, spices and cooking techniques like nothing else in the country. To Market Nowhere is it easier to appreciate that Israel is part of the Mediterranean feast than in the market places. The country’s two most famous fruit and vegetable markets are the Carmel Market in Tel Aviv, where vendors hawk their fresh produce, fruit juices and beigele cham (hot bagels), and Jerusalem’s Machane Yehuda Market, a block-long alleyway where stalls of colorful bell peppers I-18 recommend.com http://www.slowfood.com http://www.recommend.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recommend November 2010

Editor's Notes/Agent Speak
Hotel Desk
Tour Talk
Medical Tourism Introduction
India: The Guest is God
Turkey: Investing in the Future
A Medical Tale of Two Latin American Countries
Quality Care in Taiwan
Uruguay's Making Waves
No More "Risky Business" in Colombia
River Cruising for 2011
Israel-100 Years of Green
South Africa With Style
Chicago: Nothing Second About This City
Jacksone Hole, Wyoming
Shining the Spotlight on Amelia Island, Florida
Koh Chang, Thailand
Barbados: Back to Work
Jamaica: Back to Basics
Acapulco on the Rise-Again
Re-Discovering the Wonders of the Yucatan

Recommend November 2010