Cymbal, Jerusalem: Avi Levy worked for two years on Turkish shawarma.

That's the result

There is Jerusalem street food here that has returned from a long trip to Istanbul, a chef with a wide back and an even wider heart, and a fire that heats it all up to a perfect bite.

Let everyone get involved in the market, you know better

Yaniv Granot

05/12/2021

Sunday, 05 December 2021, 07:30 Updated: 07:46

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Volume has become an essence.

Avi Levy in "Cymbal" (Photo: Walla !, Yaniv Granot)

Avi Levy stands in the bustling square of "Cymbal" and loads a thick, wide chopping board with a pile of fresh vegetables. I recognize there red tomatoes and cucumbers, purple onions, a diverse herb collection and green peppers with a degree of spiciness that must be moderate, I conclude from the unstoppable addition movement (a conclusion that turns out a few minutes later to be downright wrong).

Avi Levy spices up this fresh mountain, dances around bowls and saucers of olive oil and lemon, and then begins to really work. Removable knife. I write "knife", though "a machete that only Danny bothered to hold without looking ridiculous" would be more appropriate here. The movements are total. Two hands are required for them. The blade moves from left to right at a constant rate, moderate in its intensity, but not a sucker. It's a sharp cut, but also contains a hug.

Avi Levy puts the Ottoman sword aside and raises gear.

He digs in with his gloved hands, slowly and stubbornly mixing the pile, which has flattened slightly in the last few minutes.

Juices flowed, vegetables just became a salad, volume became an essence.

Avi Levy finishes.

He takes a salad with both hands, a handful of spoons, and loads it onto my tray.

Pharm To Table is so 2021. I have a private Wise, 30 cm ride, 5 minutes with traffic jams, from the board to the plate. This is, if you were wondering, a perfect bite. Do you need more?

Do not oppose the occupation

The ideal starting point for your next picnic

To the full article

War of consciousness.

The soprito of "Cymbal" (Photo: Walla !, Yaniv Granot)

You want to eat the soprito as slowly as possible, you also want to eat the soprito as fast as possible

Avi Levy takes a thin loaf that has just come out of the mouth of the stone oven whose whole function in life is to take out thin loaves, and spreads it out on a large plate.

He moves a lid from a sizzling soprito remover, and loads it with a ladle ladle of the stew (NIS 48 to take, NIS 56 to sit).

This is, at the very least, the most convenient and elegant version of wiping the sauce at the end of the dish, since everything that was here to wipe has already been absorbed in the lapa.

It is also, at the very least, an inner battle of consciousness, a basis for quite a few future psychological sessions.

You want to eat the soprito as slowly as possible, relish and preserve the wonderful alchemy of chicken-potato-onion, delay the end.

You also want to eat the soprito as fast as possible, getting to the thin, soft lapa that has been dyed in the last minutes in earth tones.

This is a tough and brutal battle, which rarely provides two winning sides.

Do you need more?

Two excellent sandwiches in Tel Aviv

Handmade pastrami, and hills of roast beef

To the full article

There is a chance for the unification of the city.

The kebab of "Cymbal" (Photo: Walla !, Yaniv Granot)

A few drops of fat dripping on the coals, draw fractured cries from viewers wondering if this is not a blatant waste of flavors.

Spoiler: There will be enough flavor for everyone

Avi Levy kebabs meat on a long stainless steel skewer. Beneath it are two soft hills - one on a lamb base, the other from cart parts - that could easily have been the best tartare in town, and in front of the eyes a sharp silver rod, on which a patty slowly crystallizes.

The movements are skillful - hands and then fingers, some water at the edges, and a shaped extension that sends the skewer to the fiery fire well in the center of the space. A few drops of fat dripping on the coals, draw fractured cries from viewers wondering if this is not a blatant waste of flavors. Spoiler: There will be enough flavor for everyone.

The two kebab versions of "Cymbal" offer the "Old City" (lamb kebab in a Jerusalem pretzel baked on the spot with a salad of parsley and parsley, NIS 48 to take, NIS 56 to sit), and "Ashtanur" (kebab from cart parts in the same loaf, tahini, pickled lemon, Salad of marijuana and pickles, at the same price). The choice was difficult, so we went for the first and wept as the second was served in the chairs next door.

What you get is a narrow and tall kebab, incredibly juicy, soft and intense in taste.

This is not only lamb, but also seasoning, abundant red pepper and other things that only Levy knows how much to put in, when to put in and why to put in.

It sits in a very wide Jerusalem pretzel in proportions, and it is a deliberately deliberate mistake that provides you with a perfect excuse to continue eating it even without meat.

I do not know if this is indeed the kebab of the "Old City", but I can see it succeeding in reuniting Jerusalem.

Oh, do you need more?

3 bombs at 200 meters

The Tel Aviv hamburger battle continues, with a new-old claimant to the crown

To the full article

Juicy, smoky, different.

Shawarma of "Cymbal"

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For the nose, meat, some roasted vegetables on the side.

All around there is thick tahini and lots of other wet options, but everything is forgotten when the first fork ends its journey into the oral cavity

Avi Levy pulls out another nose and picks up a knife that is no less large and no less sharp, but with much more teeth. By this point the head and abdomen are already cultivating (and developing) expectations independently, and rightly so. He approaches the formidable shawarma skewer that rotates slowly in the corner of the space, carves chunks of varying thickness from it, and does not stop until the mound is high enough to obtain an identity card.

The dish (NIS 52 to take, NIS 58 to sit) is almost completely naked - for a loaf, meat, some roasted vegetables on the side. All around there is thick tahini and lots of other wet options, but everything is forgotten when the first fork ends its journey into the oral cavity.

The meat is excellent, crispy at the edges and almost melts inside.

Juicy and smoky and very different from the shawarmas we have been used to getting here all these years, and more in the fun spirit of the wonderful "Gertie Donner" from the Carmel market in Tel Aviv.

Levy says he has been working on it for almost two years, including frequent trips to Turkey and countless improvements and changes and upgrades.

The result is noticeable, and when it's all over you again get the loaf of the end of the dish.

That's fine, it can be treated as a dessert.

And no, you do not need more.

Good, rare urban wiping

When the hand of the north comes to Tel Aviv once a week

To the full article

Thanks to the Turks.

Shawarma of "Cymbal" (Photo: Walla !, Yaniv Granot)

Apart from the dishes eliminated above, you will find a sumptuous roasted eggplant, "komzitz" with grilled root vegetables also topped with a kind of onion spread that has just come off the fire, a Jerusalem-flavored mixed mix, as well as two desserts in the form of malabi-knafa and sabosa with almond rosette and rosemary jam.

The latter, but also the first and the pickles and the sauces and what not, actually, are all made here (and do not forget to ask for pita on the side. It seems that you do not need it, but when it arrives you will understand).

Levy's "Cymbal" (what a great name) is only a few steps away from the little monster To Match, which was once the Mahane Yehuda market, and from its old "Motzia", ​​marking a decade of rounds and experiences, Tel Aviv outings and other culinary initiatives.

Most were equal, but it feels the most real and natural there is.

This is how it is when the back is wide, and the arms are wide, and the heart is the widest.

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• Avi Levy

• Shawarma

• Jerusalem

• Soprito

• kebab