A direct line between the incarnation of the Hapoalim restaurant and the incarnation of Hapoel in Israel (Photo: Nimrod Saunders)
What is a Poalim restaurant in Israel?
Seemingly, a simple question, a common concept, which brings up associations of homely and simple food, of pots with dishes made from cheap raw materials;
A place whose purpose is to provide a quick and satisfying meal during the day.
But isn't a restaurant meant for entertainment?
Do the workers have time to sit in a restaurant in the middle of the workday?
Who are today's workers anyway?
And what about the ethnic restaurants of Neve Shanan, are they the working restaurants of 2023?
A new exhibition at the Asif Center for Food Culture in Israel, "A Home Away From Home Away From Home: A Tribute to Working Restaurants", is an ongoing discussion of this question and the questions that arise from it.
It traces the history and the many incarnations of the Hapoel restaurants in Israel and thus also draws a direct line towards the incarnation of the Hapoel in the Land of Israel, through which one can learn about the social and economic changes that have taken place here over the years, about the multiculturalism that is an integral part of our lives and the attitude towards the newcomer and the immigrant - About the need for home food, away from home.
Thus, during the Asif team's research on the exhibition and the accompanying content, this recipe from the Iraqi cuisine for Langrei was also found - a dish consisting of eggplants and meatballs in a sweet and sour sauce, as a tribute to the working restaurants that served Iraqi food.
What are the Hapoalim restaurants of 2023?
The Makati Kablan restaurant at the new central station (Photo: Noam Frisman)
Ephraim Kishvan's Koskosol
Searching for references to working restaurants in literature, we found a section by the writer Ephraim Kishon called "Shishlick. Some Sum. Zif Zif", from the book "Not Terrible".
Kishon, born in Hungary, tells in his homerish way in the same passage about a new workers' restaurant under the newspaper system where he worked, whose owner of Iraqi origin serves dishes that are unfamiliar to him.
This is how he describes how motivated he and his stomach are to experiment with a variety of dishes and dishes, which he calls by invented names.
One of the dishes he orders, he calls, "Couscousul" - meat in eggplant served with "fantastic amounts" of rice.
Inspired by Kishon's piece, Asif found the recipe for an eggplant and meat stew from the Iraqi cuisine commonly known as Angrei.
The recipe found in the recipe book "EshtiDach" (Iraqi cooking) published by Lunch Box and written by Shushi Oren and her sister-in-law Lauren Ravid, is a new version of the traditional dish.
It is interesting to discover that Oren herself, as she tells in the introduction to the book, grew up on the purity of Hungarian cuisine and only with her marriage did she become aware of, fell in love with and learned from her mother-in-law the secrets of Iraqi cuisine.
The incarnation of the food, like this symbolic circularity, is no less heartwarming than the delicious dish in front of you.
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Angrei - a meat stew with eggplants from the Iraqi kitchen (photo: Sivan Moloko, styling: Guy Cohen)
Ingredients
For eggplants and tomatoes:
2 beautiful eggplants
Coarse salt
½ cup of oil
3 tomatoes
For the meatballs:
500 grams of ground beef
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 tomato paste
4 tablespoons chopped parsley
Salt
black pepper
For the sauce:
4 tablespoons of oil
2 finely chopped onions
½ 1 box tomato puree (5 tablespoons)
1 tablespoon dried mint
5 tablespoons of sugar
½ freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 buckwheat
Salt
black pepper
For the conversion table click here >
Preparation
How do you prepare eggplants with meat Iraqi style (angrei)?
1 Slice the eggplants into 1 cm thick slices (you should get at least 14 slices). Sprinkle coarse salt over them and place in a colander for about half an hour.
2Wipe the eggplants well with absorbent paper.
Heat the oil in a pan on a high flame and fry the eggplants on both sides, half - that is, they will soften just a little.
Lightly salt and transfer to a tray lined with absorbent paper.
3 Slice the tomatoes crosswise and lightly fry them in the same pan - about half a minute on each side.
Season and keep aside.
4 Prepare the meatballs: mix well with your hands all the ingredients of the meatballs so that you get a uniform and slightly crumbly mixture (the prolonged processing with your hands will combine the ingredients into one mixture).
Cut 14 round patties from the mixture, the size of ping pong balls and flatten them slightly.
5
Cook the sauce:
heat the oil in a wide, low pot (like a saute), which can contain all the eggplant slices in one layer.
Add the onion and brown slowly on a medium flame for about 5 minutes.
Add the tomato paste, mix and brown.
Pour the water and mix well, season generously with salt and pepper.
6
Assemble the dish:
arrange the eggplant slices in the pot with the sauce in one layer.
Put a slice of tomato and a ball of meat on top of each eggplant slice.
Sprinkle the dry mint and sugar over everything, pour the lemon juice and cover with a lid or aluminum foil.
Cook on low heat for 30 minutes.
*Alternatively, you can arrange in a large pan and roast in the oven:
preheat the oven to 180 degrees in turbo mode (or 190 in top and bottom heat mode).
Transfer the sauce to a roasting pan, arrange the eggplant slices on top in one layer and continue the same process.
Cover with aluminum foil and roast for 45 minutes.
7 Serve with rice in fantastic quantities.
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