Haifa as you have never tasted before: a food tour that drives the senses crazy in the city of Carmel

We thought we knew Haifa quite well, but then we joined a two-day culinary tour of the Yalla Basta company, and we were left speechless and with dreams about our next visit to the city.

Ronit Avidan-Sheinfeld

15/07/2022

Friday, 15 July 2022, 07:35 Updated: 07:58

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Haifa table opened at Chef Alaa Musa's Lux restaurant (Photo: Afik Gabay)

Something good has been happening to Haifa in recent years.

For several years now, Port City has been offering more interesting culinary options than hummus or falafel on the market, but recently it seems to have really taken off on the runway towards becoming the northern culinary capital.

Among the small donkeys, bakeries and bars, new chef restaurants have gradually opened in the city, often led by chefs from neighboring Acre, who bring with them the knowledge and expertise in handling fresh local fish and seek to realize the potential inherent in the city's streets.

With two vibrant markets (Wadi Nisnas Market and Talpiot Market), old culinary institutions, small places with a family Haifa history and the opening of more and more new places, the culinary richness that Haifa offers to visitors today requires much more than a one-day visit.

How to choose, what to start with and where to focus?

We met with

A culinary entrepreneur from the owners of the Yalla Basta company, which specializes in culinary tourism, for a tour that combines the new and the old, the familiar and the hidden.

About a year ago we published recommendations for places in Haifa for foodies with children, this time the tour is dedicated to the young and adult audience.

The smell of roasted coffee will already bring you here.

Sami Cafe (Photo: Walla !, Ronit Avidan-Sheinfeld)

Sammy Coffee

Did you come to Haifa?

First of all coffee.

But make no mistake, Sammy Coffee is not a coffee shop, it is a coffee roasting house and that is what it has been doing for over 50 years.

So if you are looking to buy quality coffee, you have come to the right place.

In the small, family roasting house whose coffee aroma fills the entire neighborhood, the Haifa Faisal family cooks its coffee beans with an emphasis on quality and a lot of love for the family profession.

Their coffee, which has represented Israel in several exhibitions around the world and is especially loved by the United Arab Emirates and Abu Dhabi in particular, can be purchased at different levels of grinding and roasting depending on the customer's request or doubles.

If you fell in love with us in coffee, you can order it in delivery to many areas of the country.

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Handmade sourdough breads without yeast or added sugar (Photo: Walla !, Ronit Avidan-Sheinfeld)

Pat-Steinbach Bakery

After the coffee you can stock up on bread and if you are looking for something sweet you must taste the warmth of Steinbach's bakery - a juicy sourdough bun with a generous filling of chocolate.

Haifa has some great bakeries that oil has long since crossed the coastal road like Barda Bakery and its famous croissants or Glass Bakery, which has already become a real institution, but Ofer Steinbach's small bakery, if you are not Haifa, you are not sure you will find.

Steinbach is a descendant of a baker family called the Pat family.

His mother's father continued, as was the custom of his baker father, and opened a mafia in Haifa, but since there was no one to continue his way as he continued his father's way, he was forced to close.

Steinbach, who studied architecture in general, was dragged after the family story into the depths of the dough and sourdough and many years later opened the Steinbach bakery.

Here he bakes breads based on sourdough only without sugar and without preservatives.

Highly recommended is the totem bread baked in cylindrical clay molds and made from a combination of wholemeal flour, whole spelled, cashews and kernels.

Pat Steinbach Bakery,

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Martha Deli

Until two years ago with five restaurants, catering, commercials and cooking shows appealing to the Arab sector, Akko chef

was considered the celeb chef of the sector.

The time he spent at home with his wife and daughters during the Corona made him realize that he was missing the most important part of life.

He closed the restaurants, downshifted and opened a deli two minutes walk from the house so he could spend as much time with them as possible.

In Martha, the deli he opened in the downtown area you will find fine cuts of meat, fish, seafood, sausages and cheeses.

Some are imported, some are local and there are some that he makes on the spot, such as the unique Shanklish cheese - a hard and spicy cheese ball from Syrian cuisine or smoked meats that are sold as chunks by weight.

In addition to shopping and stocking up on raw materials at home, it is pleasant to sit in the place with a bottle of wine and have a delicacy from the delicacies or ask to have your delicacies packed in one of the beautiful picnic baskets and take with you to one of the lovely corners the city has to offer.

Martha Aquarius,

Allegedly a grocery store (Photo: Walla !, Ronit Avidan-Sheinfeld)

The magic happens inside (Photo: Walla !, Ronit Avidan-Sheinfeld)

Michelle Soidan's Delicatessen

And from the new back to the old.

Not far from the entrance to the Wadi Nisnas market you will find the magic shop of Michelle Soidan, a descendant of an old family who has lived in Haifa since the 16th century.

In the small shop that Sudan insists on calling a family grocery store rather than a deli, you can find personalized culinary treasures that Michelle makes sure to buy from small suppliers and family businesses that do not compromise on quality.

Among the basic ingredients in every neighborhood grocery store, you will find unique alcoholic beverages' part o of local distilleries such as Arak Carmizan from the Silent Monastery in Bethlehem, delicacies wrapped in dried roses or pistachios from Nablus, halva that they prepare for themselves, pickles and other unique spices, cheeses Many surprises.

On Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays the place is filled with homemade delicacies like stuffed lamb neck, wrap, Lebanese cuba, thin vine leaves seasoned with cinnamon and more and more.

A pleasant stroll between bars and food stalls.

Pedestrian street in the lower city of Haifa (Photo: Walla !, Ronit Avidan-Sheinfeld)

From the Turkish market to the port

One of the pleasant areas to spend time in the city especially in the evening, is the Turkish market area in the downtown area.

The area that used to be a commercial area for city residents and sailors, has in recent years become a recreation center that includes small bars, restaurants, bakeries and street food stalls scattered among shops, galleries and graffiti works by young local artists.

The walk between the streets, some of which are deliberately closed by the municipality to vehicular traffic, allows for an uninterrupted calm stroll and makes you want to move from place to place, sip beer in one and eat borax in another.

Iza Bar

The afternoon drink is best made at Iza Bar, which is already full during these hours with young men and students coming to start the evening.

The Haifa bar is known for its colorful street parties, but on a daily basis it is just pleasant to sit here with a beer or a cocktail.

Along with alcohol, you will find a large and relatively rich menu here at the bar, at reasonable prices, but we recommend continuing to wander from there and taste more tastings from the city.

Borax Izmir (Photo: Walla !, Ronit Avidan-Sheinfeld)

Borx Izmir

At the Izmir borax stand you will find crispy Turkish borax whose dough is opened not with oil, butter or mercifully margarine, but with tehini.

How simple, how delicious, healthy and wonderful.

You will find here boraxes in several different fillings served of course alongside mash, spicy, tahini, hard boiled egg and pickles.

Hot Recommendation: Try the borax stuffed with salted gibbon cheese with fresh hyssop leaves.

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Libira, brewery and restaurant

Beer lovers, Libera is the place for you.

A well-designed and very pleasant restaurant to sit in with a spacious bar, which grew around a brewery.

The brewery itself and the production of the beer are done in the nearby Kibbutz Ginegar.

From there come five different and wonderful types of beer that can be ordered to the table as a tasting and thus enjoy them all.

The dishes on the menu are built to fit alongside the undisputed star of the place, so you can enjoy for example a charcuterie platter of pickled meats and sausages, wings, gabarelex, an excellent hamburger, cordon bleu and more flavors that go just great with cold beer.

Rasif Restaurant (Photo: Afik Gabay)

Cubnia (Photo: Walla !, Ronit Avidan-Sheinfeld)

Rasif 33, a chef's restaurant in the harbor

The sea once reached the place where the Rasif 33 restaurant is located today.

This was before the British decided to dry it up in order to increase the city port during the period they ruled the country.

Rasif, which means continuous, is Hamudi Okla's new chef's restaurant, which opened in the port.

Al Okla, which is already his second culinary affair with Haifa, most of us were exposed to in the first season of Chef's Games.

He began his professional and impressive career at Chef Yosef (Zuzu) Hanna's Magdalena restaurant and then connected Italian and Arab cuisine when he headed the Italiano de la Costa restaurant when it opened on the beach in Haifa.

A meeting between him and the Bergot brothers, restaurateurs from the city of Acre sent him to Acre for the opening of the much-acclaimed Cililnarari Sama Bar and Almarsa Restaurant.

The success of the Bergut-Okla team led them to now open Rasif in Haifa.

Here you will find a long bar with an oven in the center, a relaxed atmosphere, a fine wine menu and dishes from the Arab-Galilee-Haifa local cuisine with an emphasis on fresh ingredients from the area and Wadi Nisnas.

Among the dishes on the menu, you can enjoy, for example, sea tartare with falafel crumble, lamb cubania, tender lamb sirloin over unloading in a heart with lamb shank and hot yogurt, shrimp in fennel seeds, squid with arisa and roasted potatoes and more.

Raw fish dish at Lux Restaurant (Photo: Afik Gabay)

Lux and Crud by Chef Alaa Musa

Adjacent to the Rasif is Lux, a relatively old chef's restaurant in the city of Chef

, who recently also opened a new tapas bar next to it called Crodo.

From a boy who washed dishes in Uri Buri's restaurant to support his family, Musa, a native of the city of Acre, became an esteemed chef in his own right.

Lux, which opened in the port of Haifa four years ago, is very popular and popular among the city's residents and even among the public who deserve to eat there in particular.

First he opened next to it the Knape de Luxe, a cafe with desserts from the Arab cuisine and in recent months he has opened from the other side the Crudo, which means raw.

If you find dishes from a chef's restaurant in Lux, you can enjoy light and small tapas dishes, most of them suitable alongside cocktails and fine alcohol.

Get lost in the alleys.

Wadi Nisnas Market (Photo: Walla !, Ronit Avidan-Sheinfeld)

Wadi Nisnas

An entire day can only be devoted to a tour of the Wadi Nisnas market in the city.

You can go with a list of recommended places and you can just get lost in the beautiful alleys between the street food stalls, to hidden galleries.

To dedicate yourself to the melody that emanates from a workshop for building oysters among the greengrocers, and no less important, to stock up on unique raw materials such as yogurt stone, bloody sumac, fresh and dried spice leaves, sweets and pastries.

Brown and crispy balls.

Falafel George (Photo: Dror Einav)

The falafel of the wadi

Who was the first?

Whose original recipe and who are the elders?

As in any good neighborhood, in the wadi market there is a neighborhood spiced with past rivals and a bit of tehini.

Among the stalls in the market you will find two good old falafel institutions, the old falafel and the falafel George, which share a common history that dates back to the 1950s.

George and Angela Afara The residents of the neighborhood, who were called "old" by the Jews, then opened a small falafel stand in the market.

The dough was prepared at home and carried every day to the market where they would fry the balls for a line of people waiting for them every morning.

At 13:00 when the mass was over they would return home.

The couple, who were childless, lived next door to George Abu Shakra's sister and even adopted one of her sons.

George recounts how for years he would help them every morning to carry, clean and tidy the place and they in return taught him the original recipe for magic balls.

You will find his falafel at the entrance to the market and next to the brown and soft balls, the tahini and fresh salads, George and his daughter Hiba serve an impressive selection of spices such as homemade smoothie, shifka, harissa, garlic and lemon topping and more.

Before you leave you will not leave here without a glass of coffee spiced with cardamom.

Further in between the alleys of the market you will find the old falafel, where the first falafel stand of the Afara couple was located.

Afif Sibit, a regular customer of the couple, purchased the place and the secret recipe in the 80s when they asked to retire and then expanded it.

Since then, he and his family have continued the tradition of making the balls and have often been crowned the best falafel in the city.

Here you will be greeted first with a crispy and well-seasoned falafel ball with great tahini on top, as is the custom of the elders from time immemorial.

go between the two stalls and decide for yourself who is your favorite and you may find that both are simply excellent.

Come especially for her.

Wig with fried onions in hummus alsham (Photo: Dror Einav, Dror Einav)

Hummus Alsham

And it is impossible to tour the market without a portion of chickpeas.

The young chef and resident of the wadi, Stefan Shehadeh, half Arab and half Swiss, opened Hummus Alsham 6 years ago, in front of the old falafel.

This is a young hummus in terms of the wadi, which emphasizes food that my mother from the Lebanon, Syria and Jordan area.

Aside from the chickpea and bean dish, you must come here to taste the wig - crunchy pita slices soaked in a hot goat yogurt sauce with chickpeas, topped with a hot distilled hot butter (samna) in front of diners' eyes.

There is a dish of feta with fried and green crispy onions and another dish called feta kusa with fried and crispy zucchini cubes, lemon and gerger leaves - as amazing as the cream of the first wig, the one with the zucchini even surpasses it.

A knock on the Umm Sabri bakery (Photo: Walla !, Ronit Avidan-Sheinfeld)

Umm Sabri Bakery

There is no shortage of bakeries in Wadi, but Um Sabri's has a special charm, perhaps due to the feminine power behind kneading and opening the dough.

Every morning at four, Sabri's sisters and daughters arrive to make the dough for the pastries.

Here you will find handmade pitas, patties stuffed with spinach and hyssop in the winter or manish (mankish) - a dough that has risen slowly, opens into a large pita and goes into the oven with lava and hyssop or gibbon, and the most successful in my eyes with hamra Even him himself.

Vegetables at Umm Elias

In Umm Elias' market you can find seasonal vegetables and bloody vegetables.

Here, too, chef Hamudi Okla does his shopping for the Rasif restaurant in the harbor.

We were privileged to find there a fresh and wonderful okra, pakos and dahrosh, which are two cousins ​​of the cucumber, eggplants and solid and beautiful zucchini already emptied and ready to fill and other great surprises.

Fatma Shehadeh (Photo: Walla !, Ronit Avidan-Sheinfeld)

Shehadeh's delicacies (Photo: Walla !, Ronit Avidan-Sheinfeld)

Homemade food in Albanian Beitak

No one will pass by Fatma Shehadeh's house in the market without stopping at the pots full of all the goodies at the front, and perhaps those are her mesmerizing blue eyes?

Either way a visit to Wadi Nisnas necessitates a stop here.

Shehadeh, a medic and an industrious ambulance driver from Puradis, moved to Haifa following her love and marriage to Lawrence Ben HaKona.

She started cooking only about seven years ago after a wedding and since then her name has spread far and wide.

In the small place, which shares a wall with the house where she and her husband live, hence the name Elbit Beitak, and in Hebrew Beiti Beitach, you will find home-made home-made food for the preparation of the family 's harness.

Among the delicacies you will find majdera, stuffed and tabula excellent and more familiar, but also mojanat - a kind of salty rugelach made of hyssop spiced dough filled with salted cheese or fried cuba made of airy dough filled with meat and a unique seasoning of spicy holjanan root.

Shehada makes sure to buy her spices at Ziad's adjoining stall.

חומרי גלם מקומיים ואיכותיים אצל זיאד(צילום: באדיבות יאללה באסטה)

חנות התבלינים של זיאד

דוכן התבלינים של זיאד הוא המקום להצטייד בו במבחר תערובות תבלינים וסוגים שונים של עלים לחליטה למטרות קולינריות או רפואיות. ואדי ניסנאס מפורסמת בתבלינים שלה ויש לא מעט חנויות תבלינים, אבל דווקא הדוכן הקטן של זיאד מציע איכות שאי אפשר להתעלם ממנה . את אבן היוגורט שלו והלאבנה, הוא מכין בעצמו מחלב של עדר הצאן המשפחתי, אל תצאו מפה בלעדיה ובלי סומק בלאדי טרי וצנצנת של דיבס (דבש ענבים) או רכז רימונים אמיתי וחמצמץ.

חנות התבלינים של זיאד, בסמטה הצמודה לאלבית ביתק

פלטת בשרים באטליז אבו שקארה(צילום: דרור עינב, דרור עינב)

אטליז אבו שקארה

בוואדי ניסנאס יש מעל לעשרים קצביות, אבל כנראה לא תמצאו עוד אחת כמו האטליז של מרוואן וז'אן אבו שאקרה. זה מתחיל במוזיקה השמחה הבוקעת מהרמקולים בכניסה, בשוט האלכוהול שתקבלו בכניסה וממשיך לעיקר - הבשר.

מלבד תצוגת תכלית מרשימה של נתחים טריים ומיושנים מבשר מקומי איכותי כולל תו תקן של חי בריא, תמצאו כאן ויטרינה עמוסה סוגי בשרים על האש שמוגשים כפלטות מרהיבות על מגשי עץ ענקיים, כריכי בשר מושקעים בלחמי מחמצת וגולת הכותרת של המקום הלוליפופ - רולדות המורכבות מנתחים שונים של בשר, שומן ונקניקים שנצלים על שיפודים קטנים כמו סוכריות קרניבוריות ומופלאות. גם אם אתם לא חיפאים ואין לכם דרך לחזור הביתה עם אחד הנתחים שהוא מוכר, אתם הולכים לבלות פה בקרנבל הבשרים של מראוון יותר משתכננתם.

אטליז אבו שקארה, ח'ורי 38, חיפה

כנאפה עדינה ונפלאה עטופה סמנה(צילום: מערכת וואלה!, רונית אבידן-שיינפלד)

כנאפה חובה בממתקי הידידות (אלסדאקה)

And impossible without a sweet ending.

Fouad, a third generation of the Salah family of the famous Alsadaka sweets in Nazareth, fell in love with Fada, who was born in Haifa, and so by the power of her love, Fada brought Fouad and the sweet family business to Haifa.

In an impressive stone structure, more than 100 years old on Wadi Street, two years ago they established a local branch of the Sweet Empire from Nazareth.

You will find here different types of baklava that the quality of the raw materials and the knowledge of the homeowners in their preparation is evident in each and every one of them.

The knapsack that is prepared on the spot is especially recommended - very delicate and not too sweet, the marking wraps it in wonderful velvety.

The reporter was a guest of Yalla Basta, a company that specializes in organizing delicious tours and fascinating experiences in the Israeli markets.

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• Haifa

• Food tours

• Hummus

• Falafel

• borax