608648 Wed Apr 01 10:28:55 -0700 2009 0 53 Middle East and Africa 0 4557730 Very Schawarma for this time of year ‘Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue.’ The Song of Solomon It goes something like this: I hadn’t been back in two thousand years so when the chance came to jump down the culinary coney hole once more I hopped to it. This time the Food Trip Todd Squad included Chef, Commando the foie gras king, Producer Mr.Tumnus, the Chanteuse, Johnny O on audio and little ole cameraman me. We gastronauts were all heading for the food flashpoint that is Israel; land o’milk n’honey. If you were Romans, or Assyrians, or Babylonians, or many others then this land was on the way to somewhere for you and you left your epicurean sandal mark upon it’s back. If you were “lucky” enough to be one of the Chosen then your seed was cast into the wind of the Diaspora long ago and only in the most recent blink of the timeline have we, and now me made the return. Ashkenazis from Europe (think blintzes, perogie, matzo balls, chopped liver, seltzer, a coronary), Sephardics from the Med and Africa (think couscous, dolma, lamb, pilaf), Yemenites, Turks, Cochins from India, Shanghai Jews, Libyans, Moroccans, even Americans. The Return has brought their assimilated kitchen lore and the result is not your grandfather’s sad kosher compromise that historically has made so many dietary law sacrifices to flavor. Plus their culinary progeny have been travelers and quick studies. Hold on Food Trippers. This will be biblical. 10 daze, I’ll lose 6 pounds by eating constantly. Gather round. Warning: It’s not all kosher. El Al to Tel Aviv Business class is very nice. Insert ambien here. Wake up, touch down and I’m back although I’ve never been here before. It’s a modern city on the Med. The view from my room north along the coast includes a Mosque and the Muezzin wails the call to prayer over a loud speaker like some spiritual lighthouse. There is a relaxed military presence. Not so water cannonish as Peru nor so truncheon upside the head as China. Comely female soldiers appear in pairs in the markets. Garrisons with fully automatic weapons at rest stops are casual. Mostly the vibe is low key and we feel safe. Now the David Intercontinental is as fine a hotel as you’ll get anywhere. Dinner is at Boya at the Port area. Busy and unmemorable, featured were some mezze (a sweet tamarind sauced cauliflower) and kabobs but it was a lively room alongside the Mediterranean. The local golden brew Gold Star is excellent unlike the sad pale reflection Macabee-r. You could see how during warmer weather it would be a real scene here in the port when all these trendy spots open their doors to the waters edge and put their toes in the surf. A café and nightclub society; Whiskey a go-go; Max Brenner is chocolate; all in a live each day world. We take a ride with new friend Ali (think culinary Kojak) to a northern suburb and visit a bar in an apartment complex where smoking still happens indoors. All kinds. The water pipe, hookah or nargilla as it’s known here turns out to be a lifestyle. There was vodka as I recall. We’ve noticed that the women are exceedingly attractive. These Sabra are named for the native prickly pear cactus, sharp on the outside and sweet on the inside should you negotiate those thorns. A little prologue: When Chefs Todd English and Michael Ginor visited Israel a baker’s dozen years back, in the group were old friend Jean Louis Palladin, Drew Nieporet, Don Pintabona (chef of Tribeca Grill) and Roberto Donna (chef of Galileo in DC). They cooked two dinners at the Sheraton TLV and two dinners in Jerusalem. The Chefs ate perfect Humus at Abu Hassan, visited the spiritual Western Wall as well as “lots of less holy nightlife stuff.” Day 1 We shoot scenics in Tel Aviv, Jaffa and the Carmel Market getting the lay of the land and starting it right with freshly squeezed pomegranate and orange juice. Johnny O certifies it. The chosen juice. Johnny O, Mr. Tumnus, and I head back to the hotel to get some sleep and catch a lucky cab with Jeremy Moshe, cab driver, Yemenite Philosopher. He has voice like he’s channeling Harvey Fierstein in Aramaic. He shares his predilections as a creature of the Tel Aviv night and we learn new swear words, all about Dentists, late nite eats and the apparently very warm Yemeni women. He asks us if we are hungry or cold. Guess. Dabush is the first name in schawarma at 3:00am. It’s really good or we are really hungry or both. Dabush is all about turkey schawarma vertically spit roasted with a great hunk of lamb fat on top as things clearly go better with that baste. In pocket pita or the gargantuan Iraqi style flat laffa, the thing is filled with cabbage, tomatoes, onions, aubergine pickles (a purple not found in nature), green pickles, hot sauce, tahini, and amba (mango pickle). This and a grapefruit juice and I’m in paradise with 72 new friends. Taxi drivers and really drunk kids are our late night dining companions. One kid with dark Yemeni features yells slurring to me “I teach you to say something,…once you go black you never come back”. Intl. LOL. Day 2 First stop is the Carmel Market w/Gil Hovav the Anthony Bourdain of Israel. He’s been waiting 90 minutes because he never got our messages that we would push back our schedule due to the late night knife fight. Sorry Gil. Hovav has his own TV Show in Israel and is a restaurant critic and local celebrity. He leads the Chefs on a tour of the Shuk Ha’Carmel and he is clearly the Mayor of the market. Countless double kisses ensue. First stop is the “courage test”. The Chefs take a food fear factor dare and try Tiger Blood wine and Sea Horse swizzle sticks. On to frsh than fresh Pomegranate and Orange elixer please. The look on Johnny O’s face tells it all as we quench ourselves; ambrosia again. The freshest vegetables, fruits, pickles, olives, hot laffa bread from the iron domed saj. The spice mix z’atar, including wild oregano known as hyssop in the bible, is sprinkled on the hot saj bread with labneh, a fresh strained yogurt and is a big hit. Hot and crispy Borekas which are phyllo turnovers of meat, potato, eggplant and more chopped to serve with hard boiled egg. Satiated for now we thank Gil and part ways. Dr Shakshuka is in. With its communal tables where stray cats rub against your legs and dream and beg. Dr. Shakshuka is a unique local Jaffa joint. Hiding in a narrow alley a stones throw from the clock tower, long family style tables fill a shaded courtyard. Welcome to Libyan soul food heaven. They serve a one-pan meal of Shakshuka, which is a dish of eggs and tomatoes seasoned with local flavors. Add your tear of fresh bread, olives, pickles and freshly cut tomatoes. For 2 ½ generations the family of chef/Owner Bino Gabso have been conjuring Shakshukas and other Tripolitan delicacies for Jaffa. Also featured here: Tripoli-style couscous with mafrum (potato stuffed with ground meat, served with stewed beef and vegetable soup), stuffed vegetables, kishke (North African-style intestine stuffed with meat and rice), grilled lamb patties; and fresh grilled or fried fish. Mezze and salads abound. Minted lemonade is the drink of choice. This just rocked! Itzik Hagadol. Also a gem of Jaffa/Yafo, is our choice ’shipudim’ restaurant in Israel.The grand green and red neon façade on a dark side street is something out of HongKong. (just south off the corner of Sd. Yerushalayim + Rhv. Eilat)…Big Isaac Luzon himself,(no misnomer) is waiting out front to meet us at his magnificent meating place. Theskewered meats, “shipudim”, in Hebrew, are all delicious. Selections include thedecadent grilled rich and buttery “kaved avaz”…foie gras… but all the usual suspects;kebabs, beef and lamb, are available too. Included are unlimited middle-eastern saladsand hot Iraqi pita bread… yes all even we can eat… tomato sauces, spices, stewedvegetables, chickpeas, eggplant…also tuna… this is the place…Mixed grill and mess o’mezze and the Squad is good. Don’t miss the citruswood direct fired steaks, chops, spinal cord and cow udder. Next time I will pass on theturkey or lamb Iraqi Mountain Oysters (this is nuts). Our crew also sampled sweetbreadsof lamb and veal More beer please. On the way to check out the skewer room several doors down a back alley I spied about10 old dudes in a room smoking the nargilla and drinking beer. I ask if I can take their picture,“Min fadlak?”, but they refuse until Big Isaac insists. The men begin to sing and the shot hasan eerie sort of voyeuristic quality. (BTW: Itzik is now open in Encino. Finally a reason to go to Cali.) Bar Yoezer is just as Chef left it years back. Yoezer himself is still at the bar drinking big red wines like some Mideastern Rip Van Winekal. It is a cavernous dark and quiet stop with vaulted ceilings and serious vintages and a fine continental bistro menu. Set in a former Turkish Governor’s residence it is reminiscent of some Florentine Buca. It was quiet and we were full. Tel Avivians really love Nanutchka because it’s got both traditional and modern elements. A crazy lively nightspot the Gruze (Georgian) delicacies from the kitchen are great and the owner Nana Schrier holds court like a Diva. D-fried and poached chebureki and kachaburi stuffed with beef and goose — or with cheeses, mushrooms, and vegetables, rich stews of lamb and meat dishes with dried fruits, and delicately sauced fish and chicken made with onion, tamarind, and pomegranate as well as fusion like Nana’s “Black Sea egg rolls” stuffed with crab and shrimp all come to the table. As the night deepens Nanutchka bar-bistro rocks to Russian and Western sounds, plus traditional music, and people often dancing in the aisles and on the bar. As I navigate the tiny standing room only dance floor with both hands holding a camera over my head someone grabs my neck and forces a glass of what I was hoping would be water to cool me down. It looked like water. Nanutchka thinks I should shave my beard. People keep insisting we drink vodka. O K DAY 3 Mr Tumnus is down. Hummus “Al Haboker” or morning humus is an Arab cultural tradition and the breakfast of the proletariate. The Abu Hassan Ali Karavan restaurant serves the best humus in Jaffa and possibly Israel these last 40 years. We wander thru the memory of this place and eventually find it after a while in a hillside neighborhood at #1 Dolphin Street. The six small tables inside are full and our heroes sit at a deuce on the street right under the take away window. Nothing quite like rich and creamy chick pea spread with just born pita. The menu is very limited, only humus, Masbacha which is humus warmed by cooked chickpeas or fava beans with plenty of lemon, olive oil and chick-peas and pita-bread, served with fresh onion and lemon juice spiked with hot green chilies. Our heroes relive their first taste some dozen years before and our crew swipes the plates and vacates to let others take our place before the humus is gone and Abu Hassan closes until tomorrow morning. Commando describes Chef Israel Aharoni as “Israel’s most notorious culinarian and a chef of many different toques”. Aharoni has made dim sum and foie gras household words in Israel. Of course he has a TV show, who doesn’t in this country? Its called Derech Ha’ochel “The Way of Food”. Aharoni knows the way and we rendezvous at Levinsky Market and tour Pereg Spice where two giant conical piles of sweet paprika frame the store front. Samples of olive oils and marzipan are had and we happen on a Schawarma made perfectly with all the trimmings including a lemon quick pickle slice that makes it a vibrant mouthful. A Turkish delicatessen sample of smoked mackerel known as Lakerda is Turkishly delightful. Aharoni is grande and eccentric with gray ponytail and black bushy pointy eyebrows. (Think Spock meets Paul Mitchell.) We’ll catch up with him later at night when he’ll DJ a big charity nightclub event. Yes, he is also a DJ. In a small restaurant of six tables in winter, Margaret Tayer laughs like a fool and we fools along with her as she prepares divine deep-fried filet of sardine stuffed with “caviar” and warm rolled grape leaves filled with rice, nuts, and raisins served over yogurt and herbed olive oil. Eaten al fresco with a view of the Med, in earshot of the call to prayer that wrestles the sound of the surf the Dolma are devine. The laughter and food are both infectiously delicious. Commando eggs Margaret on with a zesty “yallah habibi” and the cackles drown out everything else. PR Event at the Hotel. PR Event at Knife Battle Reception. Charity Event with Aharoni at Club Block. Vodka flows. Sad Events at home. Tears flow. The Chanteuse has to fly. That’s all about that. Day 4 Our bus hits the road. Now we are 7. Fields and orchards roll by and some lunar landscapes where bible story backgrounds have been pelted by the heavens with boulders. Ahead lies Cesaria and its legacy of Roman rule. Its theater, aqueducts and sunken harbor bear testimony to the 600 years it was the provincial capital. This history and its effects on the culture are felt today, even in the cuisine. Commando reminds Chef English, “this is the place where your people first messed with mine.” The Underground Crusader City at Akko tells the tale of Crusaders who did the same. Their cultural assault is also apparent topside in both contemporary tradition and gastronomy. These were not Templars but rather appropriately Knights Hospitaliers. We speak hospitality! At Akko we lose the Chef and track him by his wireless microphone signal to the back of a busy Falafelry. He has ordered four and the Squad dispatches them in a flash. The Felafeler’s hands move faster than the eye or camera as he makes deep fried chick pea balls and stuffs pita from the bakery across the square which meet the freshest humus, tahini, cabbage, pickles, tomatoes, onions, and cucumbers. (I must break here for a snack). Commando stops to partake in the nargilla in the bakery. Into the Arab Shuk and the fish is an amazing array of jewelry from the sea. Clear eyed scaled fish and shell fish in wonderous variety are perfectly styled on ice. They call to us like pet store puppies. Pastries and bakeries and spices and a man pulling a hot almond milk drink topped with spice and nut, ladling the beverage in high arcs to gather a crowd. Long lines wait at two doors to a place that must have the best humus and foul (“fool”) moudammes (Egyptian fava bean spread served hot with chick peas, olive oil and paprika). We could only peer in thru the windows. Housed in a 400 year old Ottoman Building on the Akko waterfront Uri Buri is famous for fish and its prodigiously bearded owner Uri Jermias. Gil Hovav said it was a must. Uri wasn’t in. There was fish. Only 20 km. from Lebanaon, in 2006 a constant rocket barrage drove tourists from Akko but not Uri Buri lucky for us. First an appetizer of fresh jackfish smothered in lemon, capers and onions, baby Saint Peter’s fish (tilapia) grilled and served with caramelized beets. The cauldron trout with green onions, spices and a cream sauce was also delicious. The pan-seared scallops in cream sauce , some very Akko Coquille St Jacques were devoured. The Squad ended the meal with homemade ice cream and minty rose water. Back in the bus we are chasing the last light of the northern Israeli day in Rosh Pina where Chef Chaim Tibi, Mizpe Hayamim and restaurant Muscat awaited. Across the Kenneret from the heights of Rosh Pina we glimpse the Golan and Syria Beyond. The organic farm that serves restaurant Muscat is impressive and lemons and oranges, pomegranates and chard are all in season. They even make their own supply of soaps for their ninety rooms, using garden grown products as well as Cheeses and Liqueurs. A lamb shoulder dish cooked slowly ala sous vide was perfection. The menu kicked off with a just baked foccacia with olive oil and sea salt included Beet ravioli w/organic camembert, sherry tartar and hazel; Veal Carpaccio in olive oil and balsamico; toasted bell peppers w/organic goat cheese; goose canneloni, veal tonsils; mushrooms with smoked goose; fanned out and wood fire roasted eggplant with pine cone oil; stuffed veal spleen on a wild salad w/a crown of wild mushrooms and hyssop; gnocchi w/goat cheese filling and marigold sauce.Chef Chaim can really cook. The exquisite preparations and presentations with pairings of excellent local vintages bowl over the Chefs and we toast in the candle light of a perfect dining experience and a perfect day and in need of a perfect nap. Day 5 The Scot’s house is a groovy restored exterior/modern interior, group of buildings dab smack on the Gallilee and a real non-kosher w/bacon massive buffet breakfast proper sort of place. They had Shakshuka and the awesome Yemenite bread called Jachnon, which is baked all night in a tightly covered dish (steamed) for Sabbath brunch. Was good. Eat it with Yemeni hot pepper garlic chutney. Christ walked these places and we visit a boat from that time recovered from the bottom of this major water source and along with it a cooking pot of that age. Jesus ate here? At the edge of the Galilee or Keneret the water has receded hundreds of yards and the crisis is apparent. Today there is less water to walk on where the miracle of loaves and fishes is told and water concerns are food issues. The bus rolls on to Nazareth, the defacto capital of the Arab North of Israel, the childhood home of Jesus and a center of Christian pilgrimage. There’s also a mighty kebob restaurant, spice market and bakery.Enter Palestinian Chef Dochol Safedi, who continues the life-work of his father, Mahmoud at the awesome Diana Restaurant. We rendezvous at the ancient El Babour spice mill market where the colors are dazzling and aromas intoxicate. We take coffee with the owners. Here’s your ras al hanout and z’atar and harissa found in bulk, fresh milled and piled like treasure heaps in this ancient cellar in Nazareth. Kanafeh (Arabic: كنافة),is a very fine shredded phyllo used to make confections, pastries and desserts which originated in the Palestinian city of Nablus in the modern-day West Bank, where it is filled with what else? Nabulsi cheese. The kanafeh is cooked covered over gas jets then the whole pan is doused with syrup covered with another pan and flipped to cook the other side. It is sweet acrobatics no doubt. Here in Nazareth at the Mahroum Sweet Shop we sample formidable versions of Palestinian desserts including baklawa filled with almonds, peanuts, pistachio and doused with honey as well as halawa. I want these now. At Dochol’s Diana the biggest knife you ever saw chops meat for kabobs. Chef takes a turn. “If you pull a knife, be prepared to use it. I’m TE and this is my Food Trip.”) While I’m shooting this Ali appears in my peripheral and pops an ample sample of kebab lamb tartar in my mouth. Raw, meaty, nutty…spicy, exotic. Probably better cooked. A million mezze including roasted cauliflower with tahina come dancing out and some great big reds and gold star beer followed by kebobbery and chops and fresh Iraqi bread out of a bee hive oven like Nan from a tandoor. Pastries and Coffee and we find the Chef’s sons smoking Nargilla on a street corner with the locals. Chef and Commando join in and the double apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. The lights of Nazareth twinkle out on the hillsides. The bus awaits. We are late again…still. Drive to Jerusalem. Renter thru the Jaffa Gate under cover of night. We take the city unnoticed. When in Jerusalem the cast and crew of Food Trip stay at the ultra luxurious and hyper efficient David Citadel. Quick freshen and taxi to Mona Bistro and meet Ezra Kedem, Chef at Arcadia and the Gordon Ramsey of Israel. Red Bull and a steak knife please. Day 6 Did I mention every breakfast includes the always refreshing Israeli salad of diced tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet onions, olive oil and lemon juice. They all speak espresso as well. I like. An old man in traditional Arab dress beckons at the Mount of Olives and I give him some Euro and we stop and connect, beggar and minstrel, as the view of Jerusalem begins to shine in the early magic hour.” From The Land of Milk and Honey I’m TE and this is my Food Trip”. The sun touches off the golden dome of Al Aqsa. Behind our camera tour buses unload and pay a sad camel to take pictures aboard that solitary ship of the desert. (I am reminded at my club that only the Goyem call it the Wailing Wall.) I was bawling myself so whatever. The Western Wall is spiritually magnetic and the fathers and sons covered and placed prayers in the cracks of the wall of the second temple left as a reminder to the Jews by the Romans re: who was boss back in the back in the day Holy Land. The men in black are covered in prayer shawls and wrapped in the leather straps of tefillin. The murmur of prayer and their gyrations as they fervently daven fill the air with concentrated energy. Security melts into the background of the plaza. I spy one solitary Israeli soldier near a big duffle bag and can only imagine what’s in it. I leave a note of my own. I have a handkerchief here somewhere. Just sayin’. On the Via Delarosa the Boychiks find an ancient bakery circa 1300 and bread w z’atar dispensed in a scrap of Arabic newspaper is a single perfect note. Dear food diary… At the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where Jesus was crucified and later interred we wander and are interestingly- invited into a Syrian orthodox service in a catacomb-like room. Instantly we are timeless with television equipment in tow. The chanting and incense and same as it ever was glow of candles and the effigies that stare back from single dimension antiquities draw us back and forward again as we photograph the participants with old world hearts and modern eyes. Moshe Basson forages. Chef-owner of the Eucalyptus in Jerusalem he takes a different approach. His inspiration comes not only from traveling the world but from the Bible. A proponent of slow ways Moshe also participates in Chefs for Peace which brings Palestinians and Israelis together at the table. Basson’s lamb dishes are seasoned with the same herbs used thousands of years ago. Thyme, hyssop (z’atar), pine nuts, sumac, wild asparagus, worm wood. As we talked in a forest outside the city, he snapped a pinecone and popped out a wild pine nut for Chef to taste. “Nutty”. He travels throughout the country to harvest wild herbs and has a reputation as an expert on them. He has started growing his own produce on his restaurant’s rooftop and in flower boxes on the street. “Arugula, like children, needs the exact amount of care to give it the right character,” he said, between running up and down the stairs. A giant pan of rice and chicken, nuts, and fruits is miraculously hefted by the diminutive Basson and flipped to dislodge its pot crust and make the dish complete. Lamb slow cooked in a clay jar capped with dough (Lamb crock pie?) and fresh figs on a pool of marzipan and chocolate were standouts. All this in a tiny kitchen with one end open to a square two stories below and an improvised gas driven saj hangs over the railing. The air is laden with spice and herb and fire and flavor. Wild thyme is scorched by flame and shaken over the dishes like a shaman ritual. Breath. I wish you had smellovision. Back in the bus. It’s the first night of Hanukah and we are guests for a Moroccan Family dinner in suburbs. For those of you expecting Hanukah Harry and presents under the bush take it easy. This is Moroccan and Israeli. Colorful dishes of beets and salads, dolma, fish cakes, couscous and rice as well as pastry cigars and triangular pastels stuffed with tuna. A very Moroccan Hanukah indeed including the mandatory sufganiot jelly doughnuts that say Hag Sameach over here. Chef lights a beautiful oil Menorah along with the very talented and charming lady of the house who has cooked all this and of course has had her own TV show. Day 7 (Last day) We finish and begin with elevated breakfast at the shaded courtyard restaurant Arcadia. Victuals include oven hot foccacia sleek with olive oil, Shakshuka and Sabich- Iraqi flat bread stuffed with fried eggplant, humus, and long cooked hard boiled eggs (chaminada) and Amba mango pickle. Ezra Kadem is a great one in the kitchen and the dining room and this special set up just for Food Trip is the way to start this final day. Also attending was Chef Shalom Kadosh, one of the leaders in the quest for a national cuisine, executive chef at Jerusalem’s Sheraton Plaza Hotel as well as Chef Guy Ben-Simhon of the Le Guta Restaurant. Shalom is famous for Israeli cuisine based on what’s referred to as the Seven Species: olive oil, wheat, honey, dates, figs, pomegranates and grapes (wine). It’s in the Bible and the agricultural landscape remains the same as ever. Chef Kadosh, makes his own food trips for culinary inspiration and adds a distinct Israeli touch seen in dishes like quail prepared with an onion-and-pomegranate sauce or savory stuffed figs. Full of breakfast, where better then to wander than the Mahane Yehuda Market? Amongst the everything, we sample the Yemenite hot coriander pesto called Tchug (grinded). I put it on everything but Tchug works especially well on schawarma and felafel and kabob and schnitzel etc. A recipe: Tchug/Schug (“pesto from Yemen”) Ingredients: 2 bunches cilantro 1 bunch Italian parsley 4-5 cloves garlic peeled 2 Ssrrano chilies or 4 Thai red chilies, stemmed ½ cup olive oil ½ tsp cumin ½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper 1 ½ tsp Kosher salt ½ lemon, juice of Directions:Cut and discard stems of cilantro and parsley. Wash and pat dry. Blend or process all ingredients. Taste, Adjust, Add oil to top as with pesto. Back in the Mehane Yehuda Market a Torah service in a tiny closet sized synagogue draws us in as the roll up scripture is chanted aloud with prayers of thanks given for it in unison. Walking that walk. Down the way green leafy betel-like Qat is sold. Because the qat (Catha edulis) produces alkaloid stimulants, perhaps three quarters of Yemeni adults chew qat leaves each afternoon, for a period lasting at least five hours. So we monkey see.. It’s said people spend about one-quarter to one-third of their cash income on qat . And because qat has come to mean everything in Yemeni life, some among the poorer segments of society will willingly forego food in favor of buying qat, also know for its Viagra like virtues. Just sayin’. We wander in the Iraqi shuk of the Mehane Yehuda to Azura which offers a menu of traditional food such as rice, beans, kube (a semolina-wheat dumpling filled with meat usually served in soup in the Iraqi tradition), hummus, majadara, a rice and lentil dish, vegetables such as pepper and zucchini filled with rice and other dishes. These are all one pot dishes very slow cooked over small flames. The seventy year old proprietor comes in each morning at 4am to put up the food his next of kin will serve from 8am to 1pm or whenever it runs out. Our Chef is so big in this individual gas driven pot family business that as we film he is conscripted to help serve dishes. We were after all taking up valuable real estate. Can you believe I lost 6lbs on this Food Trip? You can never have enough Shesh besh (meaning Six Five) and Turkish coffee. Smoke and friendly arguments fill the square and our heroes and Chefs Ezra and Shalom roll dice and play backgammon and enjoy the company of fellow Chefs under the shade of giant palm trees on the edge of a vast market in an ancient city where for us everything new is old again. The famous local hangover remedy, the Jerusalem Mixed Grill (actually funny enough – ‘a sautee’) or Midnight Sandwich includes lightly curried parts of the animal (mostly chicken heart and spleen – it is as by Commando – it is all about texture) sold no where else. (all stuffed into a pita with a generous shmeer of spicy condiment) (its also … all about the condiment) We chow. Everybody gets their own with everything and topped with fries. Insert the last icy cold tall boy Gold Star. Once again things go better with beer. Last street food. Sababa! Last supper at Scala at the David Citadel. It’s the wrap and Chef thanks the whole team. It may be the best Food Trip ever and we are melancholy at the finish. Back on the bus. Did someone pack those framed big knives I wonder? We are bumped to first class on El Al. There will be humus. Airport. Knives. Issue. Mr.Tumnus is down. There is a lot happening on Food Trips: Important lessons in old ways, slow ways, green initiatives, sustainability and bio sensitivity. In the end a real story of two old friends returning to the Holy Land and then competing for culinary gold is indeed a very warm tale of pride, talent, heritage, and hope. Humble and elevated plates galore will make millions of viewers hungry and the Chefs, Cooks and Gourmands are sharing so much. I stopped at Haim Cohen’s restaurant in Brookline on the way from the airport. Had to have some felafel, hummus, schwarma, borekas and an orange Fanta. I told him I still had the “Jerusalem Mix Midnight Sandwich” from Agripas near Mahane Yehuda in my system. 6′3″ Haim Hagadol laughed out loud and said, “Those guys in the window with the goose parts you can’t sell here?…they are always drunk”. Like Steven Wright said, it’s a small world…but I’d hate to paint it. Wed Apr 01 10:28:55 -0700 2009 92239 EATTV