Thanksgiving in Israel

I had the best turkey of my life this past Thursday.

The Turkey on the smoker.

I'll get back to the Turkey in a paragraph or two, but first a little background. Thanksgiving is easily my favorite US holiday. Ironically, Yom Kippur is now my favorite holiday, but only in Israel. I love that nobody drives, the air is clear, and that I can take bike rides on major highways without fear of being run over. Thanksgiving though will always be a special day for me, even in Israel, and every year that I've lived here I've made a point of making a full on turkey dinner. I use my mother's excellent Paul Simon recipe. I call it that because it calls for putting chopped Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme under the skin of the bird. It is a great recipe and the turkey always comes out well.

7 hours later...it is the best turkey I've ever had

This year I decided not to make a turkey or host a dinner, and was kindly invited by my friends Susi and Dave to their house for dinner. I made the trek out to Jerusalem, and just entering their house you could tell something special was going on. Susi and Dave decided to smoke their turkey, and I had never tasted smoked turkey before. The turkey was smoked on low heat for over seven hours, and the result was amazing. Instead of trying to use a dozen different superlatives to describe the taste, I'll just use three. It was just the moistest, juiciest, tastiest turkey I'd ever had. The smoke flavor really came through, and it was just an awesome, awesome turkey.

A lot of happy people

Every once in a while I get a culinary eye opening, eureka type moment. My first time at Abu Hassan, Adora's foie gras baklava, tasting cold pressed olive oil from olives you picked a few hours earlier are some of the recent ones from the past few years. This turkey definitely goes on this list if not going straight to the top of it. The whole night was a lot fun between the tasty turkey, good friends, and lots of wine. Thanksgiving lives on in Israel quite strongly for me and I'm already thinking about next year's smoked turkey.

Thanksgiving in Israel

Adora

I know I've claimed that Irit is possibly my favorite restaurant in the country, but there is strong competition for this title from Adora. Founded in the last 5 or 6 years by the relatively young chef Avi Biton, the restaurant has quickly risen the ranks to be one of Tel Aviv's top restaurants. Outside the food being really, really good and creative, one of my favorite things about Adora is the inspiration for the food. Chef Biton tries to blend classical French techniques and dishes with ingredients, influences and dishes from Israel and the Middle East.

Foie Gras Baklawa (http://www.rest.co.il/sites/Default.asp?txtRestID=5985)

One of the best examples of this, and possibly the restaurant's signature dish, is the Baklawa covered Foie Gras. Baklawa is a sweet desert made from layers of phyllo dough covered in honey and pistachios. Chef Biton wraps a piece of foie gras in phyllo dough, perfectly cooks it, and then drizzles the dish with honey and pistachios. I'm not a good enough writer to try to describe how good it is. Trust me, its delicious, and, in my opinion, a must have dish for non-vegetarian/vegan and against eating foie gras visitor to the restaurant.

Eggplant falafel (http://www.rest.co.il/sites/Default.asp?txtRestID=5985)

A second dish worth writing about is the eggplant falafel dish. As you can see in the picture above, the dish appears to be three beautifully fried falafel balls. Once you bite in you realize this is a unique take on the classic regional food. Instead of ground of garbanzo beans one finds roasted eggplant inside. Only the outside of the dish is the garbanzo bean mixture and it is the perfect coating to the soft roasted eggplant. The "falafel" is served with a nice yogurt sauce and tasty sprout salad.

Adora is also very reasonably priced, making the restaurant one of the best places for value in the city. I'm already thinking about my next visit.

Savor Israel
http://www.savorisrael.com/

Adora