The protected space. Pescado (Photo: Yaniv Granot)
Last Wednesday was the day Ashdod stood still. She stood, and waited. The echoes of Operation Shield and Arrow have not yet spilled over beyond the borders of the Gaza Strip, but a morning tour of the city made it very clear that the most experienced, wise and just security analysts are not wasting television screen time for them and us, but are manning the businesses in the large southern city. And they knew.
To all the "eaters go"
columns, they knew that rockets were a matter of time. They knew not to turn on the noisy fans outside so everyone could hear the sirens. They knew that it was better to release workers home so that they would be with the children and not spend time in false cleaning, and they knew, in blood and fire, that Home Front Command orders were not a game. The only thing they didn't know was what would happen to the stock, the meat and vegetables, the fresh fish and the food already waiting. I write "they didn't know," but I know they knew that too. Just suppress a little.
And so, at noon, the first alarm pierced Pescado's dark glass doors, letting out a sigh of "At least now we don't wait anymore." How unsurprising that only one person was delayed on the way to the restaurant's safe space, refusing to leave behind full plates for the sake of the unknown. Would you blame me?
Delicious festival schemes. Pescado
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Yaniv Granot (@yanivgranot)
We'll be back in that bag, after the alarm. We will return to it days later, in dreams
Long live Zino manned what he calls "the office" in those seconds, and in fact is a corner table for the six, available for him only on days when his old restaurant is not overflowing. That is, only on days of alarms, and even that with difficulty.
Pescado was full, but its managers and employees, hostesses and waitresses almost laughed in my face when I was surprised, making it clear that what I was seeing was far from busy, maximum half the glass full.
Zeno himself did not laugh, but neither did he waste time on depression and despair. In front of him were piles of pages, plans and menus planned for two food festivals in which he would be attending for the first time, as well as a transparent bag with thick, bright green leaves that swept him every few seconds into delicious thoughts and schemes. We'll be back in that bag, after the alarm. We will return to it days later, in dreams.
Trust us, come early
A few minutes here is the difference between Paris and Tel Aviv
See full article >
How fun you came. Pescado (Photo: Yaniv Granot)
"We brought in reservists to reinforce the restaurant, people who worked with us 14 years ago and were happy to help."
At the end of the month, Ashdod is expected to be washed away by "Peoples and Flavors", its largest municipal food festival, which will offer dishes from dozens of local stalls, at an unreasonable price and requiring a re-examination of NIS 15 per serving. Zino, at least as much of the city as its leveled sea line, decided to join. Without him, it would be a celebration. With him, it's already a family meal with that boy who returned as a surprise from a post-army trip.
Even before that - tomorrow, to be precise - he will pack Pescado's commando unit ("We brought in reservists to reinforce the restaurant, people who worked with us 14 years ago and were happy to help"), anchor on the Tel Aviv beach opposite Charles Clore Park, and set up there (together with Asteria Dame beer) one of the mandatory points of the Tel Aviv EAT festival. Without him, it would have been a celebration, of course. With him it is already "yes, it is real, Pescado is coming to Tel Aviv, the God of food, what great is your deeds".
Simple and focused. Pescado (Photo: Yaniv Granot)
Four days of the festival will surely be enough for her to be the best sandwich in Tel Aviv. Then you'll have to go to Ashdod and try to convince him to come back
Zeno and Pescado's festival menu is simple and focused - two dishes in a burger bun, one of them without it, and one snack that screams beer.
The first is a kind of salad with pickled fish, red onions, greens and tomatoes and some chili, which can come on a plate (if you keep your carbs for other stands) and can come in the same bun (if you're smart and don't keep anything because you came to *that* stand, and rightly so), while staining it with olive oil and lemon and marine freshness that is the real deal.
The second is an "Ashdod dish", as Zino defines it, of Moroccan fish that comes in Pescado on roasted challah or in a milk bun, and here will receive a slightly different configuration on the outside, and the same charm on the inside. That is, medium-sized chunks—a big bite, as you feel like pinning—of poached red tuna in reddish but mild chili oil, roasted pepper and coriander, on a thick spread of eggplant-mayonnaise. Four days of the festival will surely be enough for her to be the best sandwich in Tel Aviv. Then you'll have to go to Ashdod and try to convince him to come back.
The real deal. Pescado
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Yaniv Granot (@yanivgranot)
"He worked here for a year on the grill, stood hard and didn't complain. I realized that I had discovered something in him, and when the place became available, I let him run the kitchen."
Besides these, there will also be Pescado's famous roasted almonds, which are mixed on the spot with olive oil, sea salt and a little spicy, just to the point where you are comfortable with tears, and even more so exactly to the point where you need another beer. The cooperation with the Barcelona beer giant will get you there quickly, and that's a good thing.
At the same time, Zeno is trying to decipher the large wasabi leaves that landed in his office, and mainly to figure out what will work best with them. Finally, he calls Osher Cohen ("He worked here for a year on the grill, stood hard and didn't complain. I realized that I had discovered something in him, and when the place became available I let him run the kitchen") and asked him to treat them like stuffed, take fish tartare and add "only half a tablespoon of rice, nothing more".
In the meantime, he lets me taste the local wonder - bite green and with only a slight pinch at the end - as he is and smiles when the "stuffed" arrives, which represents a miraculous game of textures, but also much more than a game or gimmick, being fresh and tasty, the result of thought and imagination and also what the hand of happiness knew how to do.
Answer. Pescado (Photo: Yaniv Granot)
Between alarms and alarms, and between festivals, Zeno allows himself to sit continuously in one place, and on one chair, for something like 12 seconds and nothing more. It's enough for me to ask a question, to see him get up to hug some old customer, or to explain something to the hostess that no other restaurant bothers to explain to the hostesses anymore, to take advantage of the break to eat something from the busy table, and to see him come back with an answer.
The words are articulated and reasoned, with depth and worldview and a smile, but the truth is that the answer is that it is him, and he is the answer. Anyone who hasn't been to Pescado until now won't understand it, but now he can understand it in Tel Aviv.
The Tel Aviv EAT Festival, Monday-Thursday (May 15-18), 18:00-23:00, Charles Clore Park, Tel Aviv, will include countless stalls, food trucks, chefs and restaurant branches, as well as Pescado and Yachi Zeno of course
- food
- Food reviews
Tags
- Street food
- Pescado
- Ashdod
- Tel Aviv EAT