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Rehovot Restaurants: Dining Out
I have followed the culinary career of Eliezer Loya with interest since 1992 when he left his job as chef to the American ambassador and took over the kitchen of Tel Aviv's Dakota, where he demonstrated a true knack for seafood. I especially recall his expertise in preparing crab in a Pernod sauce. Over the years, at various restaurants, including Rose and Kazanki, Loya continued to make us happy with simple and tasty dishes. He is especially known for matching well-seasoned sauces to shrimp, langoustine, calamari and other seafood. About six months ago, Loya decided to show us he has an equally firm grasp on meat, as well, and his new Rehovot-based restaurant, Fresco, proves just that.
Located not far from Rehovot's industrial area, Fresco has a simple but inviting decor. The menu offers both appetizers and entrees, as well as a salad and pasta buffet for openers. We approached the buffet and the first plate I filled consisted of two kinds of eggplant, large chunks and thin slices, which were first grilled and then treated to a rich veal sauce; the second, fried together with garlic, was sprinkled over with fresh herbs. I also helped myself to a flavorful and chunkier than usual Turkish salad, and a long, fried and lightly pickled green pepper that proved just as flaming hot as the waiter said it would be.
My second plate took a different direction and included several slices of soft Italian-style mortadella sausage, a few slices of spicy French-style cervelat sausage and just a few bits of matjas and pickled herring, each of which proved tasty, especially when eaten with homemade challah-like bread and butter. While we were dining, our waiter brought over several other dishes: an excellent, airy and just salty enough ikra, kosher pickled cucumbers and two delicious pickled tomatoes. All of these called to mind the olden days in Jewish restaurants in New York City's lower East Side.
Eastern European delicacies
After these offerings, we shifted to more formal appetizers. We ordered a small platter of tissue-thin slices of smoked ham, the fat of which was wisely left intact, as well as a plate of equally thin and excellent slices of oven-dried beef jerky. As an extra first course, we ordered a plate of the restaurant's homemade patrician pork sausages, which were long, firm and bursting with rich, garlicky flavor and cooked in root beer; they were best eaten with our hands and dipped in sharp mustard. We also ordered a portion of the calf's foot jelly. This traditional Eastern European dish, often associated with the Jewish kitchen, is made by making an aspic by slowly boiling a calf's foot in water together with onions, carrots and garlic, and then combining the liquid with some meat off the bone. In this case, the dish was splendid: a firm aspic with an abundance of meat, served with lemon wedges.
Following a well-needed cigarette break on the terrace, we returned for our main courses. I ordered the Romanian-style kebabs. These particularly plump kebabs are made of beef and beef fat ground together with garlic, pepper, caraway seeds, coriander, marjoram, cayenne pepper and baking soda; the kebabs were first grilled and then cooked in a medium-hot oven. If it had not been a hot summer day, I might have ordered a second helping of the the crisp and juicy kebabs. One of my companions opted for the baby spareribs, which were done very well in a mustard and honey marinade, which added an appealing hot sweetness to the soft, just fatty enough meat. My other companion did not fare quite as well, as her pork fillet in a red wine and beef marrow sauce was just a bit too dry.
That there is a distinct Eastern European touch to many of the dishes was undeniable, especially in light of one of the desserts we shared, a version of the well-known Hungarian-Romanian papanash. This rendition was a rich cheese-based dough formed into a large doughnut-like shape, deep-fried and served with a sour cream and cherry sauce. Perhaps best described as "melt-in-your-mouth" soft and full of both calories and flavor, the dessert was splendid.
Wisdom would have had us stop there but we continued with a portion of chocolate cake, the cake itself with a distinct resemblance to a brownie with walnuts, which was topped with a rich chocolate concoction that, although said to be a mousse was far closer in flavor and density to a marquise. That gave us no cause for complaint. Nor did the excellent chocolate sauce that topped the cake, made from a combination of fine bittersweet chocolate and melted butter that had been blended together.
The bill for three for such a sumptuous meal, including espressos, came to a quite reasonable NIS 350. Despite the fact this is basically a meat restaurant, if you visit during the hot months of the year, I suggest staying with either white wine or, alternatively as we did, with the good, ice-cold Czech draught beer (half liter mugs cost NIS 24 each). This is a place to avoid if you are counting calories or cholesterol. But for those in search of the simple but very good life, this is the place to be.
Fresco: 23 Herzl Street, Rehovot. Open daily from 12 P.M.-12 A.M. Tel: (08) 934-3788.
Source: Daniel Rogov. Dining Out: The very good simple life. Haaretz (14 August 2008) [FullText]
Located not far from Rehovot's industrial area, Fresco has a simple but inviting decor. The menu offers both appetizers and entrees, as well as a salad and pasta buffet for openers. We approached the buffet and the first plate I filled consisted of two kinds of eggplant, large chunks and thin slices, which were first grilled and then treated to a rich veal sauce; the second, fried together with garlic, was sprinkled over with fresh herbs. I also helped myself to a flavorful and chunkier than usual Turkish salad, and a long, fried and lightly pickled green pepper that proved just as flaming hot as the waiter said it would be.
My second plate took a different direction and included several slices of soft Italian-style mortadella sausage, a few slices of spicy French-style cervelat sausage and just a few bits of matjas and pickled herring, each of which proved tasty, especially when eaten with homemade challah-like bread and butter. While we were dining, our waiter brought over several other dishes: an excellent, airy and just salty enough ikra, kosher pickled cucumbers and two delicious pickled tomatoes. All of these called to mind the olden days in Jewish restaurants in New York City's lower East Side.
Eastern European delicacies
After these offerings, we shifted to more formal appetizers. We ordered a small platter of tissue-thin slices of smoked ham, the fat of which was wisely left intact, as well as a plate of equally thin and excellent slices of oven-dried beef jerky. As an extra first course, we ordered a plate of the restaurant's homemade patrician pork sausages, which were long, firm and bursting with rich, garlicky flavor and cooked in root beer; they were best eaten with our hands and dipped in sharp mustard. We also ordered a portion of the calf's foot jelly. This traditional Eastern European dish, often associated with the Jewish kitchen, is made by making an aspic by slowly boiling a calf's foot in water together with onions, carrots and garlic, and then combining the liquid with some meat off the bone. In this case, the dish was splendid: a firm aspic with an abundance of meat, served with lemon wedges.
Following a well-needed cigarette break on the terrace, we returned for our main courses. I ordered the Romanian-style kebabs. These particularly plump kebabs are made of beef and beef fat ground together with garlic, pepper, caraway seeds, coriander, marjoram, cayenne pepper and baking soda; the kebabs were first grilled and then cooked in a medium-hot oven. If it had not been a hot summer day, I might have ordered a second helping of the the crisp and juicy kebabs. One of my companions opted for the baby spareribs, which were done very well in a mustard and honey marinade, which added an appealing hot sweetness to the soft, just fatty enough meat. My other companion did not fare quite as well, as her pork fillet in a red wine and beef marrow sauce was just a bit too dry.
That there is a distinct Eastern European touch to many of the dishes was undeniable, especially in light of one of the desserts we shared, a version of the well-known Hungarian-Romanian papanash. This rendition was a rich cheese-based dough formed into a large doughnut-like shape, deep-fried and served with a sour cream and cherry sauce. Perhaps best described as "melt-in-your-mouth" soft and full of both calories and flavor, the dessert was splendid.
Wisdom would have had us stop there but we continued with a portion of chocolate cake, the cake itself with a distinct resemblance to a brownie with walnuts, which was topped with a rich chocolate concoction that, although said to be a mousse was far closer in flavor and density to a marquise. That gave us no cause for complaint. Nor did the excellent chocolate sauce that topped the cake, made from a combination of fine bittersweet chocolate and melted butter that had been blended together.
The bill for three for such a sumptuous meal, including espressos, came to a quite reasonable NIS 350. Despite the fact this is basically a meat restaurant, if you visit during the hot months of the year, I suggest staying with either white wine or, alternatively as we did, with the good, ice-cold Czech draught beer (half liter mugs cost NIS 24 each). This is a place to avoid if you are counting calories or cholesterol. But for those in search of the simple but very good life, this is the place to be.
Fresco: 23 Herzl Street, Rehovot. Open daily from 12 P.M.-12 A.M. Tel: (08) 934-3788.
Source: Daniel Rogov. Dining Out: The very good simple life. Haaretz (14 August 2008) [FullText]
Labels: Rehovot Restaurants
