Lat, the 2024 winter menu of Restaurant 02, Inbal Hotel, Jerusalem/Restaurant 02
This is a meeting from which films are made.
If it had taken place in any other city outside of Israel, it is likely that a docu contract with Netflix would have already been signed because of it, at least four episodes that sum up a few minutes of conversation, on the street.
52 minutes for each of them, probably.
Even for the last episode, the one from which you can usually cut a third, if not completely cancel,
on the one hand Nimrod Norman, the chef of the 02 restaurant in the Inbal Hotel in Jerusalem.
On the other hand, Shavei Shrapler, one of the pillars that holds the Azora restaurant in the Mahane Yehuda market in the city.
In the middle of decades of shared food, and thick cables that connect the food of the laborers of this to the modern plates of that.
I write "on the one hand" and "on the other hand", but there are really no sides here.
Only one wall, built in this complex city, managed to survive everything and is not going to fall apart.
This is a meeting from which films are made.
Goat so you can just taste it.
And thanks for the boring February.
"Lat" menu of the 02/Itamar Ginzburg restaurant
Norman and 02's "slow" menu was born because of winter and because of the city and because of its people, as part of the brainstorming that characterizes the restaurant twice a year or so, at least.
"February is usually a pretty boring month," he admitted, "so we started thinking about a special menu that would interest the residents and challenge us."
This thinking has led to great exits in the past.
A menu of skewers and barbecues last summer, for example, a descent into the depth of Armenian cuisine and also cooking inspired by Spanish exiles.
This time, Norman explained, "we decided to focus more inward, take into account the period and the weather, and roll from there."
It turned out, as he defined it, "escapism combined with comfort".
Are there any more delicious words than these?
And it's not just the steak
Denver is all that Jerusalem needed
To the full article
The era, the mood, the city.
The "Lat" menu of the 02 restaurant/Walla! system will generate profits
"The wicks represent something else. Long cooking in liquids, smells that rise and fill the space, a very strong and very universal romance"
The basis that lights a fire under the food of "Lat" is the smell of the sectarian stews of Israel, and especially of Jerusalem.
Norman talks about the distinct aroma of heating with gas, but also about endless patience, long hours of waiting, and the wonderful ability to derive pleasure from these and those, even before the plate (pot, actually) reaches the table.
"The wicks represent something else," he described, "long cooking in liquids, smells that rise and fill the space, a very strong and very universal romance. It's not just in Jerusalem. It's true, it's very much associated with 'Azura' and 'Rahmo' and the Ha'alim restaurants of the market and the street , but there are those everywhere."
Travel, and now.
The "Lat" menu of the 02 restaurant/Walla! system will generate profits
And so, that unfolding turned into a strong downward spiral, and the slow menu arrived, only to quickly disappear from 02, and from our lives, with a deadline that would not pass the end of February, and requiring a quick trip to the capital.
now.
It starts with a big and hot homemade challah, and with it a bright red Matbucha salad and egg salad (45 NIS) and continues with a huge cigar cheek in a thick and sweet sauce and a shawarma of Ma'ale from lamb neck meat, with soft chickpeas, pine nuts and bitter tahini (74 NIS).
We are also talking about a black bean mesbah with a "perfect egg", a lot of good olive oil on top and challah for wiping of course (30 NIS), and apart from that, there is also a terrific dish of Asado Aga with Jerusalem artichokes, leeks and plums (220 NIS, at a price that reflects the size the dish and the pot. That is, for at least a few people), a double or more platter of lamb shoulder with kokla and smoked purple cabbage (NIS 420), wagtail roast with mushrooms, frika and apricot (NIS 188), the slow version of the locust fish that adds leeks, peppers and potatoes to it, And also vegetable lamb osobuku with herbs and meatballs (NIS 196).
Yes, Kneidlach.
Mish-mesh classics and pots.
The "Lat" menu of the 02 restaurant/Walla! system will generate profits
"The truth is that when I met Shabi from Azura, this menu was already out there and known, so I used the opportunity to explain how unlikely it is that I am going to compete with it now"
Norman is an amazing cook, with impressive virtuosity he skips over the trap that in many similar cases flattens the flavors into "dismembered meat with a sweet brown sauce", and effectively dismantles the mine that is a modern restaurant that lifts pop-up fuses in the heart of Jerusalem.
"The truth is that when I met Shabi from Azura, this menu was already out there and known, so I used the opportunity to explain how there is no way I'm going to compete with it now," he laughs, "They've been doing this thing for fifty years and more, very Accurate and very knowledgeable, and our menu was created from a place of great respect for them."
And so, he clarified, "There is no intention to make Azura's Cuba Hamousta. Why should we? After all, it's better for us to stay away from the familiar and the well-known and bring things that are a little different."
When I can move.
"Lat" menu of the 02/Itamar Ginzburg restaurant
Norman describes how he avoided in advance any place that might have created an overlap between him and these mythological dining institutions, and illustrates the solutions using the same Kneidleach.
"We did a little mish-mash of things to connect classics to the pots of now," he repeated, "and there is no doubt that we walked a very tightrope."
He talks about the food from the thought stage to the execution stage, and knows how to pour wisdom and logic into the dishes in a way that makes them even more delicious.
No matter how deep the spoon does not reach, this depth expands below it.
"I am indeed a chef, but first and foremost a cook and a craftsman," he explained, "there will be no vegetable whipping here, the kind that loses the essence of stews and slow cooking. Yes, you can play with things a bit, show that food moves and can move, and that's a good thing."
He realizes that in 2024 he has no need to cook on actual wicks, but realizes at the same time that this is both a disadvantage and an advantage, and that the heavy red French pot in his possession is no guarantee of anything except more hard work.
"Slow cooking is something that exists everywhere, certainly in a place like Jerusalem, but the means, the tools, are neither the thing nor the thing. The thing is the food," he concluded.
"We walked a very tightrope."
Norman/Itamar Ginzburg
When February ends, and with it "slowly", he will find himself again in the market, and in Azura.
"There are few experiences that translate into the world of tourism and don't automatically make you a tourist," he said, "One of them allows you to eat Cuban on Friday at the market, and yet not come off as a tourist. This is present in everyone who lives here."
So, in about a month, it will be possible to make another film from this reunion, but it is best to imagine the words, the smell and the tastes.
A chef, cook and craftsman sits down to eat, what's more.
The wick menu of the 02 restaurant, February 2024, Inbal Hotel, 3 Ze'ev Jabotinsky Street, Jerusalem, 02-6756649
More on the same topic:
Jerusalem