Hummus, knapa, steak and croissant: 6 food recommendations (and 1 hotel) in the north

Get in the car, put on a visa, and don't stop driving until you arrive.

Oh, and come hungry.

very hungry

It will yield money

09/23/2022

Friday, September 23, 2022, 06:00 Updated: 19:24

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Mark, and start.

Food recommendations in the north (photo: image processing, Israel Mapping Center)

The North remembers.

He remembers everything very well, but especially July-August.

He remembers the exploding roads and the websites calling to stop arriving as early as nine in the morning.

He remembers the queues and the rushes, and prepares well for a holiday season that will try to recreate all this, very soon.

But he is "the North", and he is nice, so he remembers, then rises again, shaking the memories elegantly from the clothes - and yet welcoming.

That's right, it's September.

Most of the children have entered the classrooms and the temperatures occasionally decide to be kind.

so?

And what exactly is your excuse?

Get in the car, put on a whiz, and go on a road trip that is almost impossible to implement here at other times.

Instead of attractions, we marked for you a magnificent steak and a perfect knapa, respectable hummus and a French croissant with an almost French view, so come hungry.

very hungry

Mijana

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The Arabic-Italian party of Ahmed Kabaha and Omar Alwan will take you off Route 65 a bit and put you in the heart of Arara, but it is definitely better than any other plan you had when you decided to get in the car.

Mijana, poetry in Arabic, is exactly that, if the tune you hear in your head is food.

Here you can find excellent meaty koba, squid stir-fried on sour-thick labneh, fish shawarma that plays with tahini and amaba, as well as seafood and spinach pizza.

Apart from these, Alvan juggles bagels, frika risotto, makluba-labarak, fruits and vegetables that have just reached their peak, a tame Middle Eastern version of arancini, good meat, fresh hummus and even fresher pitas, and a dessert section that leaves you giddy, and with a dramatic sense of FOMO .

This is how it is when there is also crème brûlée with caramelized figs, also creamy "um ali", also knapa that is installed on the spot and "lyali mijana", the semolina dessert to rule them all.

In short - not just a mandatory stop on the road, but a mandatory trip.

More North recommendations

A hidden burger joint, a European cafe and a decadent bakery

To the full article

Battalion

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The inscription high up on the interior wall of this wonderful cafe reads "Dreams are meant to come true", then spurs you into action like the good Coaches.

Lotem Deri has already fulfilled, now it's your turn to join.

This Israeli-European gem requires a bit of climbing (with the car, relax), but every gear up is also inevitably one look down when you arrive, so it's all worth it.

There is a mill here that has been producing Syrian olive oil since 1997, and continues to operate, and next to it Deri raised the same dream - a charming, delicious place full of good air, in every possible sense.

The kosher menu sends stimulating signals to the brain in the form of croissant benedict bursting with good things, red and green shakshuka, chard and cheese blintzes and many other breakfast options, which require large tables and forks flying everywhere.

There's an elaborate sandwich section, burrata with roasted tomatoes and some huge fresh salads, and there's also Cubana - big, brown, great in smell and great in the mouth and great in the mouth, until you don't understand where your promise to taste just a little has gone.

And all of this, together with excellent baked goods-plus, deep and buttery and stuffed and decadent, in front of green open spaces (rumor speaks of stunning sunsets, but the place closes its doors in the afternoon, so you are welcome to nag about expanding the schedule) and with a team that might have been difficult to find, but now it's worth it. On Friday, a real buffet scene develops here, and later, Deri promises, there will also be a big tabon and hot pizzas as a result. You just have to leave all the breakfasts and brunches you've known, and go with the dream.

, Beit Habed Complex Abtalion

Saraya sweets

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Heba and Walid Ramal's sweet kingdom requires a few twists and turns inside the northern Druze settlement, but every turn of the wheel can easily be an excuse for another calorie later, and when you arrive, you'll realize how much you'll need of each.

It is, there is no other way to describe it, a sweet traditional-modern duet, which brings you back to your childhood, because you look around, turn to the responsible adult and tell him with shouts and a sense of urgency that you are interested in everything.

Long years of searching for the perfect knapah led Walid to private kitchen efforts.

There were, throughout those years, multiple trays of experiment-error-wondering, countless recipes and formulas, impossible precision of sugar water and cheese mixture, and above all family secrets that were developed along the way, and now create - apologies in advance to everyone, you really are excellent - probably the knapa The best in our places.

There is a classic here, of course, and there are softer triangles with the same cheesy stretch inside and also a luxurious Lebanese sandwich of Knapa Ka'ak, but the private version of Knapa Nablosia is a magnificent creation that requires your restraint and focus.

Then head to the long display case, full of crispy baklava and pistachio games, and start loading.

On the car, on the hands, wherever possible.

This corrupt shell is perfected with the help of Heba, Walid's wife, who replied to change the precision of his knapa with continuous effort on her part - in pastry studies.

The result is a western mirror image of a showcase, loaded with chocolate temptations, diet-traps of yeast and strip cakes, creams and fillings and countless other surprises.

To look to the left, to look to the right, to sit down and realize that you never leave this place.

Travelers Hotel, Kibbutz Ilon

Travelers hotel in Kibbutz Ilon (Photo: Aya Ben Azri)

The northern hotel chain that hosted us on this food trip presents in its Kibbutz Elon branch the same successful and sympathetic DNA that the travelers of the country have come to know.

In essence - a smile, silence, and a return to sanity.

The guest rooms here do not pretend, but they also do not compromise.

They blend in wonderfully with the Galilee-kibbutz atmosphere, provide a very green and peaceful hospitality experience, and in return will charge you prices that seem to have already disappeared from our domestic tourism map (starting from NIS 427 per couple on a bed and breakfast basis in the middle of the week during this period, starting at NIS 635 per couple per night on a bed and breakfast basis on weekends).

The staff is excellent, genuinely friendly, the breakfast is fresh and satisfying (and on Fridays it even steps up a gear with an even more indulgent mini-buffet), the surrounding seating areas make smart use of the trees, the barbecue stations are ready to be stormed, and the entire complex functions well as a point of departure for worthwhile regional attractions such as Ein Hadralit , Merat Keshet, Achziv beaches and the wet and fun part of Nahal Batsat.

Hummus Abu Berry

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After a lifetime of responding to the family name and not the first name, experienced from many years of improving a home recipe, and seven from at least two years of Corona, Guy Berry decided to do the only logical thing, and the most correct thing possible - to open "Abu Berry", to attach the phrase " Kibbutz hummus", and set off.

Less than a year and a half later, this decision appears to be successful, and there is no more restrained formulation than that.

Berry's hummus-restaurant is polished and sweet, insists on service that is hardly seen in Israel, and does not stop until you are full, satisfied, and smiling.

The menu of the hummus bowls starts with the classics (grains, tahini, beans, fresh mushrooms and shawasha), progresses to meats (chicken, ground beef, Jerusalem mix), touches the edges (hemshuka) and jumps head first to the most natural places for such a jump, with hummus Zaaluk, for example, or a bowl Hummusbih is loaded.

Apart from these, there is also crispy and hot gluten-free falafel, vine leaves stuffed by the hand of an expert, fries, an "oriental" breakfast and exits that will satisfy pious mengaves, and even more pious vegans.

On Friday, the place kicks things up a notch with "Kabbalat Shabbat", featuring a terrific family-style Jerusalemite challah, with schnitzel and matbouha, and the whole ceremony, with fish and chips, with beers and watermelons, and with small but nasty chasers of a happy Arak.

Berry closes all this with a surprising dessert section in relation to hummus establishments, including a creamy malabi (vegan as well) and a home-made knapa (yes, vegan, we also raised an eyebrow at the stretchy "cheese" and asked a thousand times), and with a secret personal ritual that is Passing his first customers from a distance, which includes a smiling glance from the kitchen to the table, a look at the first wipe, and holding fingers.

Among us, who wouldn't smile like that?

Darcha

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Next door, in what is surely one of the most affordable kibbutz food complexes in the country, a humble dough empire awaits that puts out pizzas that can happily be exaggerated.

Rotem Raviv leveraged his restaurant past and rich food experience into a fun country place that could easily fit into the busy streets of the center, but he preferred the green.

You get in return a lot of this (good food) and a lot of that (a real picnic) without giving up anything, so his decision benefits everyone.

The kosher menu includes an elaborate salad section, which is very far from the defaults usually associated with this category in other pizzerias.

There is the "autumn salad" (lettuce, radish, purple onion and parmesan in a citrus vinaigrette), and a fresca salad with shredded mozzarella, a colorful market salad and also a smart local exit in the form of a "manchego cylindrical salad" loaded with thin and crunchy vegetables, olive oil and lemon, And a mountain of sharp and good cheese.

The pizzas - Neapolitan, flexible, browned - emerge from the stone oven even bolder.

A "green" pizza alongside a margherita, a "rustic" pizza alongside an artichoke, and also a Greek pizza with kalamata olives and red onion, a tangy Balkan pizza with eggplant and Bulgarian and garlic confit and green onion, and also a sweet and excellent farm model with sweet potato, goat cheese and onion jam - all, by the way, at my prices Personally funny, and family prices are even funnier (or sad, if for some reason you need to return to the center sometime).

At the end, if you have room left, there is of course "chocolate pizza", a bastardized and intelligent version of an Italian mess consisting of bites of warm dough, and a sweet, brown-white ocean.

Dirty, rewarding, lecturing.

Raviv promises an adjacent deli here that will expand options with elaborate sandwiches and wine and cheese dates, a future pasta menu and also a regular guest appearance by Father Yaakov - who finishes a day's work in Nahariya and never misses a shift helping his son.

There are those who promise a family-community atmosphere,

Mica

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Across the street (we already said culinary center, didn't we?), and with at least six years of experience, Dalit and Maor Hed are waiting with their "Mika", the middle daughter and also the country cafe they own, which is everything you imagine when you imagine a country cafe.

The two exchanged turbulent residences in Gush Dan for kibbutz "Zimmer Life", and stable careers in the worlds of insurance and sales in a day-to-day that consists of doing good and tasty things for people.

It started from the house, continued to what used to be the mythical bakery space of the kibbutz, and closed with moving and respectful nostalgic gestures - and especially with the hand, and with the heart.

"We started with a store of spices and infusions, and we made some coffee from capsules, for those who wanted," Maor repeated, "we made cookies, to have something with the coffee, and the day someone sat down with a cucumber and said she needed vegetables for her breakfast, we understood everything."

This understanding developed into a kosher and varied menu, based on oven and talent.

There is a "morning at the kibbutz" meal here, of course, parna or croissant sandwiches, quiches and shakes, frittatas and salads - and that's even before you approach the display case and have to choose something that has just been baked, and just what you want.

The challenging Corona period managed to take effort and sweat out of the business, but also strengthened its community ties, turning it into a local go-to.

So, for example, Dalit and Maor also offer dairy catering and birthday cakes, chocolate workshops for those looking for activities, as well as complete meals that are sent to B&B vacationers in the area.

Home, we already said.

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• Hummus

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