Gluten Free in Jerusalem

We were culinary cowards in Israel.  I admit it. 

Between the language barrier and being celiac, it was just too hard. The few times we did not eat in our own hotel were those times we were with our guide, Aviv Jasman (www.israelunlimited.com) a native born Israeli, who knows Israel and particularly Jerusalem very well. On Friday night, on our way to tour the Old City and to see the crush of pilgrims at the Western Wall, we went to the rooftop cafe of the Mamilla Hotel, a hip boutique hotel with a very cool vibe. The view of the Old City from the cafe on the rooftop was marvelous. It was late afternoon and the sun was not very warm, but the view was breathtaking.

Friday night is the beginning of the Sabbath and it is a serious business in Israel. Everyone quits work mid-afternoon and everything shuts down. (We were the last people out of Yad Vashem, which also closes early on Fridays, which you might keep in mind if you are going there on a visit.) So, restaurants change from their regular menus to the Sabbath menu, which is always cold food. Also, nearly all the restaurants in Israel are Kosher, so the menus are either dairy or meat, not both. Luckily for me, fish is pareve and can be served with either meal.

The choices were salads and we shared a green salad that had the most wonderful roasted pecans on it. (All the nuts we had in Israel were superior. I have no idea why, although some were roasted with honey, which was really nice.) For our entree, we had smoked salmon plates. That meal was one of the highlights dining wise for me. Although the food was simple, it was very fresh and elegantly prepared. We had to wait awhile for our food though (no big deal the conversation over the day was intense. We had just left Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum of Israel.) But the reason why we had to wait is interesting. The food on the new menu had to have a special Sabbath blessing before it could be served, and the restaurant was waiting on the person who could do that. We had arrived right at the transition between the two parts of the week, the regular, and the sacred. From then till Saturday evening restaurants that were kosher and still open would be serving cold dishes .

The dinner we had that night, after our tour of the Old City, must not have been in a kosher restaurant because we were served grilled fish and a kind of mashed potatoes with some greens mashed in it. I'm not going to recommend the potatoes, but the meringue dessert with raspberry sorbet and raspberry sauce was great. This was all in a little restaurant called The Colony, also a very young vibrant place, hand-picked by our guide, who seemed to know the place well and knew that, unlike many restaurants in Jerusalem, they would be open on the Sabbath. There was a long bar along one wall and there were comfy looking couches in the bar area. Our waiter had Rastafarian locks and was very well attuned to gluten issues, as were pretty much all the restaurants. The place was packed and humming. A good choice for a Friday night out on the town.  

Jerusalem, folks, is a happening town. If you get a chance to go there, take it.  You will be amazed, entertained, moved, and delighted.

Cathy