summer

israel, part two

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tel aviv

if the farm was just one of those things like a couch that could be strapped to a u-haul and moved to another place and if with some crazy effed up futuristic wizardry, the spot where i'm sitting right now just vanished and minnesota went missing and we were forced to relocate where would we go?? what would we do? could i bring my little town and all of its cozy winters?

would we go to montana? maybe!

asheville? when we retire.

tel aviv?????? right now??? yes.

that place is the tits! i have never felt more at home in a place that was so far from my home. sure, the food is great, the sun is always shining, there's a party every night, etc., etc., but what really made this place more than just a hummus-y beach vibe backed by the sweet sounds of matkot and hydration via shoko b'sakit was the people. everybody that i met was so welcoming and nice. not just nice in a pleased-to-meet-you/that's-a-pretty-shirt way, but nice in a real honest warm way, like how they all make sure you have somewhere to go for friday night dinner, how they open up their home if you feel like inviting instagram over, and how if you mention that you'd like to sharpen your pita skills, they're there with flour and an oven. 

if i was tel aviv's mum i'd be kvelling. 

i had countless wonderful experiences in my short time there, from making tahini cake and pretzel challah for al hashulchan, to feasting on three courses of the best shrimp i ever ate with naama and lama, to l'chaim-ing with so many amazing friends, old and new...

one of these days i'm gonna get on the mic and ask if any of you in tel aviv would like to swap houses for a winter. so get ready, go buy a coat.

here are some things i would like you to know about tel aviv if you're planning to go there:

going on a tour with delicious israel is a requirement if you care about food. inbal, the owner, knows everything about everything and will not take no for an answer if, for example, the special secret spice man at the levinsky market has closed up shop for the day but you're about to board a plane and need an emergency stash of ras el hanout. 

catit is where josh, jeff, and i lost our shit over what was easily one of the top three meals of our lives. it was fancy and beautifully plated and i yelled at jeff for wearing shorts to it, but it wasn't stuffy, it was just so good.

i had a really great almond pulpy cocktail situation at imperial.

yom tov's halva is a *revelation* and their cheese stuffed hibiscus is something everyone needs to try at least twice.

the turkish breakfast at the cookbook cafe is everything i aspire to make for the breakfast table.

bread and co was two doors away from my airbnb and i am positive that if i lived in tel aviv, this is where i would sit every day with my shakshuka in a bread bowl and a cold coffee and morning twitter.

feincook is a very cool hip kitchen studio space with fun cooking classes and the most delightful people.

the freshest, most beautiful sodas in the world may be found at café levinsky 41, and sipped alongside colorful balls of homemade marzipan.

dr. shakshuka, abu hassan, orna v'ella, lehamim bakery, and night kitchen were a few more places that i loved.

mizlala, miznon, north abraxus, eatwith habanot, mashiah, and port said were the ones that got away, but they're at the top of my list for next time.

food pictured in this post: a chocolate chili ganache cake with marzipan hearts and a halva + berry pizza made with the extraordinary bazekalim, a tahini + fig cake and kashkaval stuffed pretzel za'atar challah which will be in the november issue of al hashulchan, fig + silan + tahini + dukkah toasts, a feta + watermelon + mint cake which, ok, is actually #notacake.

-yeh!

israel, part one

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haifa, jerusalem, the dead sea, tzfat, the negev, the galilee

the funniest thing happened this week! i got on a plane all sweaty and smelly from the thick israeli summertime and 24 hours later, got off in grand forks, shivering because suddenly i was in the center of fall. it's like i had traveled through time, so consider me a regular marty mcfly.

on my first morning home, i woke up right in time to hear macaroni sing his cockadoodledoo. what a sound!! i imagine it's kind of like hearing your human kid talk for the first time. i piled on a blanket and scurried into the kitchen to brew coffee from a little instant packet that's been hiding in my suitcase since the first kibbutz of my trip (and thank goodness it was there, apparently eggboy was too busy with harvest to replenish our coffee beans while i was gone). i sprinkled it with hawaij and then left it to cool while i ran outside to say hello to macaroni and yank some onions from the ground for my morning salad. oh man it was cold! two weeks in 110º will really make you forget what 60º feels like.

and then in the fall morning light, over salad and tahini and coffee laced halva and hawaij laced coffee, i unpacked and repacked all of my most favorite memories from the past two weeks into imaginary little jars that i will keep forever and ever:

the dash to the tzfat lahoh man, and his hotter than hot zhoug,

a successful (painless!!!) dip in the dead sea,

chili halva, nougat halva, stringy halva, nutella halva...

a rugelach threesome in the middle of mahane yehuda,

the hummus to end all hummuses, in haifa, with a hardboiled egg and a pool of magic tahini,

asaf avidan singing that one day, baby we'll be old, while we snaked through the desert and into an area that was so close to the border, my phone thought we were in jordan,

riding a camel named monica,

my first ever bites of kubbeh, 

a speakeasy in jerusalem,

40 new friends...

i could go on and on, but i'm saving some for my tel aviv post! and i've still got to unpack and find places for the pounds of halva and tahini that almost made my suitcase overweight. *almost* (and if it was, you know i would have chugged that tahini cognac-style so it wouldn't go to waste.)

-yeh!

thanks so much to israel experts for sponsoring this post! a majority of these past few weeks was spent as a staff member for israel experts' culinary themed taglit birthright trip. it was the same one i attended as a participant two years ago and i loved it! if you're interested in applying for this trip, you can find out more information here. registration opens september 8th, but pre-registration has already begun, so you can begin your process here with the referral code mynameisyeh33 and israel experts will contact you to choose a trip option. questions can be directed to: info@israelexperts.com or 1-800-218-9851!

oven-fried green tomatoes with garlic and onion yogurt sauce

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our garden is vomiting tomatoes right now and as a result i am vomiting happiness and sorry that's gross i didn't mean to get on the subject of vomiting...

what i mean is, i've been having fresh tomatoes at just about every meal these days and it's glorious. tomatoes in my breakfast salad, tomatoes and basil on toast, tomatoes shoveled into my mouth on a homemade pita that i just can't eat without feeling really really bad for peeta mellark. 

i may be dressed like it's fall, because outside the mosquitos are monsters and the air conditioning inside is blasting hard, but i've been dining like a summer queen because our garden is nailing it this year, if i do say so myself. i guess it helps to be married to a farmer.

i am a winter girl but with tomatoes, i forget about that.

my love for fried green tomatoes began four years ago at the now-closed sel de mer, in williamsburg. i wrote kind of an awkward ode to their fried green tomatoes here. (tl/dr: it was like a green tomato donut and it was perfect in every way.) but because i am such a wimp when it comes to deep frying, today i am showing you an oven fried version-- you can eat about three times as many as the fried kind before you feel all barfy. and with the amount of tomatoes coming out of my garden, i need all the help i can get eating these guys. did i mention i'm having a tomato party tonight? i don't think my guests know it yet, i should probably go warn them...

ooh and there's a sauce! it's oniony and garlicky and kind of like a lighter fresher version of french onion dip. v easy to make and if you have some sumac lying around, i recommend adding a pinch, but it's not necessary.

oven-fried green tomatoes with garlic and onion yogurt sauce

makes 4-6 servings

ingredients

4 large green tomatoes (or 6 smaller ones)

kosher salt and black pepper

3/4 c flour

1 1/2 c panko bread crumbs

1 1/2 tsp sweet paprika

2 large eggs

1/4 c buttermilk

sauce:

4 cloves garlic, smashed

1/2 purple onion, finely chopped

1/2 c plain greek yogurt

kosher salt and black pepper

clues

preheat the oven to 400f and place an oven-frying rack (or metal cooling rack) over a large baking sheet and set it aside.

cut the tomatoes into thick slices and season both sides with salt and pepper.

set up three bowls: one with the flour, one with the panko, paprika, and a pinch of salt and pepper, and one with the eggs and buttermilk (beat them to combine). coat each tomato slice in flour, and then the egg mixture, and then the panko and then place on the oven-frying rack one inch apart. spray the tops with cooking spray and then bake for about 20 minutes, until golden brown. let cool slightly before serving.

to make the sauce, mix together the garlic, onion, and yogurt, and then season to taste with salt and pepper.

enjoy!

-yeh!

thank you so much to edyn for sponsoring this post! these tomatoes and all of the other goodies from my garden were grown with the help of a handy new gadget called the edyn garden sensor, which is a device that sticks in your garden to relay tips and information about moisture, lighting, soil nutrition, and a whole bunch of other fun stuff to your phone. it also tells you when your plants are about to ripen! so you can know in advance when you need to start planning your own tomato party. it works in wifi, so if you're looking to check one of these puppies out, make sure your garden gets wifi or you can use a repeater. if you're a beginning gardener, a full on farmer who wants to geek out (hi, eggboy), or somewhere in between, check it out!

the county fair!

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it's happened. i've suddenly found myself knee-deep in county fair culture and i don't see myself ever coming back. and i don't think i need to because there are multiple county fairs every weekend during the summer in minnesota and north dakota. multiple! is that normal? are you not technically a county unless you throw a fair every summer with fried food and creeptastic rides and 4-h ponies?

i'm really tempted to spend an entire summer only going to county fairs on my weekends for a statewide county fair tour. i think i would learn a lot. even just from going to this one, i witnessed my first cow competition, met the biggest bunnies i've ever seen in my life, and learned all about cat diabetes from a presentation by a kid who is sure to be a future veterinarian of america. there was also an actual hay growing competition! 

this whole time i thought that fairs were just about the fried food, but i've been proven wrong. 

i can't wait until i get to go to the state fair, where there is all of this fried madness and, rumor has it, an entire barn where you can watch animals giving birth. i meannnnnnn....whoa.

how was your weekend??

-yeh!

p.s. read all about what i ate at the county fair in last week's grub street diet!

pictured: bag // dress