Shmulik Cohen’s Restaurant, Tel Aviv, Israel
Ξ February 16th, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ A Day at a Time, Restaurant Reviews |
In the 1930s Shmulik Cohen set up a small family restaurant serving traditional Eastern European influenced food in the South of the expanding Jewish city of Tel Aviv. At the time the Herzl street was the main North-South road through the city on the way to the ancient port of Jaffa (which has since been absorbed into metropolitan Tel Aviv). Although the area may have lost some respectability over the intervening years I am informed that little else has changed in the restaurant, and this is one place where staying the same is all important because it is so good I’d hate to see it change.
This is the 4th time I’ve been here, each time in the company of my good friend and colleague Dr Yaron Lapidot. As we both have Eastern European heritage (mine is Hungarian, his German/Polish) we both savour the food and the atmosphere. We sit at our “regular” table, the one in the corner near the counter with the picture of Ezer Weizman on the wall, I think it’s signed by him. There is a menu, but we don’t use it, instead Yaron, as somewhat of a regular, asks for the kitchen selection, and then we sit back and the food gradually arrives, spread out over at least an hour (2-3 if we take our time and talk, which we usually do). Schmulik is long gone but his daughter is the main cook, typically preparing the food during the day, which his grandson and granddaughter work the evening diners.
First are the “appetizers”, pickles, humus, olives, dark bread, egg & vegetable salads, hot grated red horseradish, cubes of pickled beets, radishes and the stars of this opening act; 2 fish dishes, small pieces of brined herring (or mackerel?), slightly pickled but so full of flavour and melt in the mouth, it is to die for.
As always they serve a small shot-glass of their homemade lemon vodka, cold and sweet it is nectar and previously has been the only accompaniment to the food on my earlier visits. However this time I am keen to expand my knowledge of Israeli wines and we open a bottle of Yogev 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot, from Binyamina and pour a couple of glasses. The wine has a beautiful nose with a hint of Bordeaux, but fruitier and with a touch of sweetness promised. The softness of the nose carries on into the first taste, this is a nice easy drinking wine which matches well with the food that continues to arrive and which we are gradually working our way through.
After a while we the waitress clears the table, since this is a fully certified Kosher restaurant the plates and cutlery used with fish have to be cleared away and replaced with new before the meat dishes can be served. A bowl of chicken soup is an intermediate, a clear broth but strong in flavour, with short trimmed noodles, ravioli and a dumpling. If you didn’t know what was coming next there’s a good chance you’ve already eaten too much and the soup would finish you off, however I’m familiar with the plan and do not finish to soup, just savouring the best bits. Yaron picks up another bottle off the wine rack on the counter (they keep a tally as you go along!) – it’s not as if we’ve finished the first, but he wants me to try a second one that night, so the cork goes back in the Yogev (the start of a decent carry-out when we finish). The second bottle is the Dalton Canaan Red, 2006 from Upper Galilee. The nose suggests a richer wine, but still a delicate fruitiness, and there’s more up-front dryness, turning into a smooth finish. Yaron suggested similarities to the semi-sweet wines popular in Eastern Europe, and I could see what he was meaning, but having only recently tried a semi-sweet red from Georgia these two do not have any of the residual sugar that was obvious in there – these two are well made, easy drinking, delicate and feminine wines, made with ripe grapes. Neither of these would have aging potential over a couple of years, but that doesn’t detract from what they are, and with the delicious food at Shmulik’s it was a treat.
Finally (it’s well over an hour since the dishes started arriving – it took that long to slowly savour the food in between conversations) the roasted and baked meat arrives, and what a selection!. A goose leg cooked to perfection, the meat falling of the bone and the skin crisp and flavoursome. A similar story for a chicken drumstick, I can’t recall tasting chicken as good as this for a long time home, some slow-cooked beef and what I think is a slice of lamb (but it had been marinated or cooked in a sweet savoury sauce and falls apart at the touch of a fork) some homemade sausage, kishka I think and a selection of vegetables; peas, potatoes and such like (I’m sorry to say I ignored these, as the meat deserved full attention).
Nearly 2 hours later we were done. Food and wine were left, but neither of us had anywhere to put it! A doggy-bag was suggested, which I jumped at (since it was primarily large chunks of meat that would go into it and I knew the next night I would not be visiting any restaurant). The wine came with me also, approx a half bottle of each which I savoured over the next 2 nights. Yaron bought a bottle of the lemon Vodka for himself, something I’ve done on my last visits to the restaurant, but this time I knew I was intending to buy some wine for my return trip home (I may regret that, it is the best Vodka I’ve ever tasted) and came back to the hotel with the remnants of the wines and a little box of roasted meats for the next night.
If this has sparked your interest in visiting this restaurant beware, the size of the establishment is deliberately small (cosy is a good descriptor) – so you have to book in advance. But if you do get in then I hope you enjoy the food and the service as much as I have.
Shmulik Cohen Restaurant, 146 Herzl St., Tel Aviv, Israel.
Greybeard.
