Tramezzini! Prosciutto con grilled veggies.
Arancini!
..con salmone, zucchine, philly.
Fried mozzarella con acciughe (anchovies) and polpetta vegetariana.
Delicious bruschetta in wine bar: ricotta con pumpkin and parmiggiano, smoked hering, blue cheese with pear.
Mezza uova con anchovies.
Antipasti pesce at Osteria della Botega. The chef cooks for the German Pavilion.
Cuori di carciofi in aqua.
Farmer’s market, Santa Marta.
Homegrown produce from individual farmers.
Niko Pirosmani (1842 – 1918), one of Georgia’s greatest painters, found inspiration in the traditional Georgian feasts, the supras (‘table-cloth’ in Georgian).
At a Tatar shop.
All the Georgian delicatessen.
Khachapuri (Georgian cheesebread) everywhere.
Khachapuri yourself!
Churchkhela, traditional sausage-shaped fruit & nut sweet.
Dinner at the most popular Georgian restaurant on Leselidze Street, Shemoikhede Genatsvale (‘Come in, Darling’)
Khinkali (Georgian dumplings) mix.
Fried cheese with yoghurt. Super rich and super delicious.
Badridzhani Khvelit da Matsvnit (eggplant stuffed with cheese and yoghurt, and -in this case- meat). Wonderful.
Dinner at Maspindzelo Abanotubanshi, with lovely Georgian violin music.
Beetroot-walnut sauce, very nutty.
Poached eggs in a wonderful tomato-aubergine sauce. Most delicious.
Chocolate halva (Haim Raphael’s), one of the best discoveries of this culinary exploration. The strip of pure chocolate in the middle makes it quite special.
Massive chunks of pastel-coloured halva on Carmel Market.
…with Turkish delight in the foreground.
Knafeh, a traditional Arab cheese pastry soaked in sweet syrup and most delicious!
Kitchen revolutions start on walls.
An aubergine. Magnified.
The Middle East loves eggs!
Strawberry season reflected in street graffiti.
Innovative marketing strategy developed in the souks!
Shish Kebab at Damascus Gate, the Arab quarter of Jerusalem.
Shik Shukit: pita, labneh, tahina, lamb.
Semolina cake with Tahini ice-cream and fruit. One highlight of our dinner near the Iraqi market (the other being 90s R&B on full blast).
Best hummus ever. Devoured at Ikirmawi in East Jerusalem.
For one cannot live without the other.
Fact: Hard-boiled eggs rank 3rd place in the Middle Eastern top 10 most popular foods.
Eggs even find their way on pizza.
Sambusak, Samosa-style filled savoury pastries.
Sarah and her (Spinach-Cheese) Sambusak.
Sandra and her (Beef) Sambusak.
Beautiful colours! Pickled vegetabes on Levinsky Street.
The best deli in town: Haim Raphael on Levinsky Street.
Good recipes never die.
Passion Fruit Meringue Tart – merging the best of French cake making with exotic fruit
White Chocolate Cheese Cake Tart with Raspberry Compote
Lemon Mascarpone Tart
And time passed quickly, very quickly.
After August and mango trees decked out in all their lunules, September begetter of cyclones, October igniter of sugarcane, November who purrs in the distilleries, there came Christmas.
It had come first, Christmas did, with a tingling of desires, a thirst for new tenderness, a burgeoning of vague dreams, then with a purple rustle of its great joyous wings it had suddenly flown away, and then its abrupt fall out over the village that made the shack life burst like an overripe pomegranate.
–Aimé Césaire
L’étoile de Noel en pain.
