Food that plays quiet sounds

Photo: PR, Yoav Peled

• Food
• Recommendations and reviews
• My father Efrati

Broken heart left us chef Dan Shmolovich as he closed down around Acre, now he is back in the field with Sharak a new Tel Aviv sea restaurant, doing what he knows best - fish food, which has the most beautiful kind of quiet, as much as this quality was lacking Here

My father Efrati

We were introduced to Chef Dan Shmolovich at the Sabida restaurant in Acre. His meals were some of the happiest things that happened in Israeli restaurants outside Tel Aviv. Sabida, who operated for about five and a half years in Old Acre from 2013 to 2019, brought the concept of the basic fish restaurant to its most successful show. Every time we visited it was deliciously delicious. Shmolovich, along with his then-sympathetic sympathizer, Horowitz, showed that basic culinary doesn't have to be overlapping and that simple food, based on the right ingredients and executed with proper care, can be really great.

Sabida relied on the excellent raw materials of the market in Acre, probably the most successful arena when it comes to sea traffic. The meals were built on the concept of 'the owner went crazy': a complete meal, including a variety of fresh and non-banal salads, and mainly fish of two kinds, for a hundred shekels. It was actually the best business meal in Israel, not least; But the landlords didn't really go crazy. They were young people with romantic dreams and for that good they couldn't really survive for long. Sabida closed, leaving many food lovers sad and its owners, like enough local eateries that closed restaurants, with debts.

Wow, what a great place

In recent weeks, Molovich has been back on the field. He leads Sharak, a new sea restaurant on Ben Yehuda Street in Tel Aviv, located in the space where Agadir Embassy used to operate.

Sharak (Photo: Shani Brill, PR)

Sharak is not a big restaurant. Simple design, with a center bar and many high chairs. When we visited her, she seemed to have not yet crystallized in terms of the atmosphere concept. When we arrived there was great music - a gentle modern North African ethnicity that matched the plethora of character on a cold winter's night. Later on, the musical line changed, the volume increased slightly, and instead of the dimming of the late evening hours, the space was flooded with blinding lights. Besides it was excessively hot. Not all the staff seemed skilled and professional enough, and that too was a meal attendance. One can assume that over time, this foundation will solidify.

The food concept, on the other hand, seems well-structured. The menu is tight. It has several openings in small plates, four fish / seafood first, some salads and only five fish mains. In the current storm days it is harder to find good fresh seafood and their presence on the menu is indeed minor. Culinary, the menu at Sharak looks like Savida with a few additions. The closed meal format is not here and pricing is tailored to the reality of Tel Aviv, although it is at the very bottom of the average.

We opened with pickled white palmia (NIS 48), octopus in vinaigrette (NIS 52) and Jargier salad (NIS 38). Next to the first came a plate with pita and za'atar. The Palmida dish had four non-small chunks at all, making it a high-value-for-money promoter compared to the Tel Aviv standard. Sour cream, dill, and green onions accompanied the chunks of palameda, which were very tasty. There was a deep understanding of the genre and a very good picking skill. There was a real depth to their taste, along with great gentleness. Picking a fish is not a complex operation but doing so is no less than art - one that stays simple but gives it the subtle touches in a way that makes it high. excellent!

The octopus in vinaigrette was also of the same genre. Chefs don't like to work with octopuses. It is a cheap raw material whose long softening work is oppressive. This octopus softened so well and correctly that it was stunningly soft that allowed for a lovely depth of flavor. The vinaigrette enjoys the right balance between intense and delicate flavors. It had a good sourness with a fun weed twist. Both of these dishes were very reminiscent of food in Savida. It is food that has the quietest of the most beautiful kind. The one that gives the raw materials the stage, along with their best handling and adds gentle, correct touches to get them out better.

The salad, which, in addition to the jargier leaves, also had clams, dates and radishes in intense vinaigrette, was fresh and endearing. The bitterness of the leaves, the citrus-game and the intensity of the sauce; All of these were sympathetic; But it was not the magic of the meal.

We proceeded to a portion of fish patties in hot sauce (NIS 68). Three very large patties, of a white fish mixture, rested on a spicy tomato sauce and made us a lot of joy in our hearts. They were full of sea flavors, with no hostile takeover of oriental seasoning. The fish were not chewed but chopped and the sauce was spicy, one that was tender but not overpowering. A deep, coarse sauce and plenty of good white tahini poured over it to give it another dimension. It is a simple and traditional North African dish that Shmolovich era brought to its taste. She was lush but accurate and not exaggerated.

The gumbar was made in a charcoal oven in the most basic way and came without additions. It was very large, it was juicy and meaty and the cool smoky touch of a refined and good wood grill was evident. He was the simplest but also the most accurate and good of his kind. More than the food of sophisticated restaurants, it's about fisherman's food - those who put their freshest fish on the bbq and know how to handle it the most. This quality has completely disappeared from restaurants here. Whole fish is mainly aquaculture from day one. In the grilling genre on a simple grill, it's hard to think of restaurants that do it right. The pleasure was immense.

We closed an interest with Greek ice cream (NIS 22) based on strong yogurt and gumsticks with olive oil, honey and pistachio, which was light enough, not too sweet and very tasty.

NIS 326 for a full meal for two (before drinking) including a salad, two firsts and two mains from the sea and dessert is not a lot of money. So something of Savida's worldview is still preserved here, too, with requested adjustments to reality. There was a lot of delicious food at this meal. Simple food that played the quiet sounds in their good and blessed ways. Hold my fingers to Shmolovich. He deserves to be successful in this round.

Sharak, Ben Yehuda 120 Tel Aviv, 03-6307070

Sharak account (Photo: Shani Brill, image processing)