I’ve recently returned from a week in the Middle-East, visiting both the State of Israel and Palestine.  Its a land which has been fought over many times in history, where territory is still disputed and where, undoubtedly, one state is illegally occupying the territory of another.

The three traditions that occupy these biblical lands (Jewish, Christian and Muslim) all have their own food culture and in some cases rigorous dietary rules.  The Jews have their Kosher laws and the Muslims have Halal and these tend to be broadly observed whether or not a person practices their religion.  The Christians of course eat everything, even the common enemy to Jews and Muslims, the pig.  In Jerusalem, Kosher restaurants display certificates from a Rabbi to indicate they properly observe the food laws and no doubt Muslim eateries do similarly.  Certainly you see people checking the certificate before they queue up to buy their chicken wraps.  I was delighted, one lunch time, to find a little restaurant run by Palestinian Christians that advertised ham and cheese toasties.  Ham, in the East can of course mean turkey or beef ‘ham’ but no, on this occasion it was real ham and all the more lovely for being rare.

Putting these differences to one side though, I think its best to sum the cuisine up as being Levantine.  It’s generic to the wider region and very similar to the food I was eating not so long ago in Istanbul. Kebabs of various types, salads flavoured with lots of interesting herbs and the creamiest humus imaginable were all in abundant supply in whatever type of restaurant.  The omnipresent and not entirely unwelcome chips had their place too of course, as well as cucumbers, pickled herrings, flat breads, strained yoghurt, nuts, seeds and salty cheese, fried or fresh.  I guess the challenge for the gourmand is to find somewhere to eat that’s a bit out of the ordinary, a bit different.

Once such place is The Eucalyptus, located just outside the ancient walls of Jerusalem and close to the Jaffa Gate.  Executive Chef Moshe Basson, with family connections in the Veneto area of Italy, is co-owner with his son Ronny.  Whilst there is an a’la carte section to the menu, they major on a range of different tasting menus which offer a great opportunity to discover the flavours and textures of the local cuisine.  It’s a Kosher restaurant for sure but it cuts across cultural boundaries to create some amazing looking and tasting dishes.  The tasting menus each have names such as Queen of Sheba or King Solomon without any indication of which dishes are included, or even how many there will be.  The difference in price for each option indicates the difference in the number of courses that will be served.  It’s not cheap (nowhere in Jerusalem seemed to be) but it is good.

We were assured that when we came to the end of the meal they would ask us if we were still hungry and if we wanted more, and sure enough, after more courses than I could count or remember the offer came to repeat any of them if we wanted to.  The answer was no, simply on the grounds of lack of capacity to eat another morsel!

One negative aspect of the restaurant related to the service, which was otherwise very good and is something that seems to happen more and more these days.  Gins and tonic were ordered to sip while the menu was perused but took so long to arrive that by the time they were brought to the table, not only had we ordered and received the wine but the first course had arrived too.  This is annoying and does nothing to get the evening off to a relaxing start.  They’re forgiven though because of the great food which was brought in an endless procession to the table.  I made no effort to interrupt my eating to take notes of what the dishes consisted of or what they were called but I did manage to take a few snaps of some of the courses.

The Rooftop restaurant on top of the Mamilla Hotel in Jerusalem offers some fantastic views over the New and Old Cities but, with the exception of some delicious roasted bone marrow I found the food to be unexceptional and the service very poor indeed.  Having waited a very long time to be given a menu or offered a drink we hijacked a passing young waiter who did his very best to help and give us what we needed, despite being very busy and working in a completely different section of the restaurant.  Without his initiative we would certainly have made a complaint or indeed left.

Here are a few photographs of some of the food at Rooftop and a few other places in Jerusalem.