A great place in Jerusalem

[Dina G.]

Just back from a Middle East trip, great food everywhere. The best was definitely in Jerusalem at a place called Eucalyptus, but also called Little Eucalyptus. It's on Horkanos St. We made reservations but if you go early it won't matter (early is 7pm, by 9 the place is packed.) The focus is on biblical food, herbs mostly, and the chef comes out to tell you what he has made for the night and what the dominant flavors are. We tried one of the tasting menus, a good deal for the money. You can't go wrong with the lamb, really great. The chef is from Iran, but he draws from a lot of countries for inspiration.

[Indy 67]

I'll second the high praise for Eucalyptus. We ate there twice on our recent trip to Jerusalem.

I have a bit of a history with this restaurant. I was first introduced to chef Moshe Bassan's cooking over a decade ago when he gave a lecture/demonstration about the foods of the Bible at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. The evening ended with dinner, prepared by the restaurant's chefs following Bassan's recipes, being served in the KenCen restaurant to the lecture crowd of more than 100 attendees. The food wasn't fabulous since it had been prepared/served under banquet conditions, but the promise was there.

In 2000, I visited Jerusalem and had my first chance to dine at Eucalpytus. Delish!

When we went to the restaurant on this trip, I wasn't sure I was in the same restaurant at first. The Biblical focus was the same, but the setting/location had changed from a large modern retail and office complex evoking ancient construction to a funky, slightly shabby space on Horkanos. I don't know what prompted the change, but I think it was an improvement! The more intimate space and the homey decorations in the new location are a better fit with the restaurant's personality. The hostess, executive chef, and, when in town, Bassan himself are constantly circling the restaurant chatting with guests and showing the herbs and other ingredients that are the foundation of the cuisine.

Our first meal there, we ordered the middle-priced tasting menu. Actually, tasting menu is a misnomer, since I think of tasting meals as offering miniscule portions intended to introduce diners to the full range of a chef's talent. This meal was a multi-course extravaganza of food.

I can remember some of the dishes, but far from all.

The meal began with a trio of soups served in demi-tasse cups including Jerusalem artichoke soup and lentil soup. Then we were served small plates of approximately six mezze. I can't remember too many of these since they were overtaken by a later round of mezze. (We loved the potatoes with parsley and the black-eyed peas in the second round of mezze. I would never have ordered either of those dishes if I had been choosing a la carte, but I'm sure glad we got a chance to taste these dishes.) I know we were also served stuffed Jersualem sage leaves, Eggplant in pomegranate syrup, a portion of Ma'aluba from the communal preparation (a chicken, vegetable and rice casserole, lamb over smoked green wheat, and a beef dish from someone's grandmother's kitchen that was heady with spice and fruit. Dessert was the weakest part of the meal. A bottle of red wine and pitchers of lemonade and pomegranate juice accompanied the meal.

As fabulous as our dining experience was, I had one small disappointment. The figs stuffed with chicken in tamarind sauce that I had adored from the lecture and my years-ago visit was not part of the meal. As we were waiting for the check, the hostess bustled over and said that the chef was making some stuffed figs for us. Major dilemma! We couldn't eat another bite, but those figs sure are good. We asked the chef to stop the cooking and we made a second reservation. At this meal, we ordered a la carte. We had a lamb preparation, again from someone's mother's or grandmother's home and an individual portion of the ma'aluba. (This wasn't as good as the portion from the communal batch. The vegetables that form the upside-down crust hadn't gotten as caramelized.)

Here's a link to the restaurant's web site. The photograph of the restaurant on the home page is the exterior of the old location.

http://www.the-eucalyptus.com/index.html