Metuko, Tel Aviv/Metuko
There is no harsher and more difficult area in the State of Israel than the central station area in Tel Aviv, which brings together the old and the new together.
The aesthetics of the residences and businesses are terrible (despite new real estate projects that love the roughness) and the difficult mix of drug dealers and the homeless is not going anywhere, while the state and the municipality enjoy sweeping the phenomenon under the carpet, and fighting over responsibility.
But there is also good. Neve Pedestrian Shanan, which starts at the new station and ends at the old one, offers a rich culinary uniqueness like no other, and over the years has become a magnet for lovers of Asian restaurants, while being careful, and rightly so, to divide them into the countries of origin and not to spread flavors and dishes over an entire continent. There
is no "Asian restaurant" here. Generic. There is a Vietnamese and a Chinese and of course a Filipino, as well as supermarkets and delicatessens with different and unusual products, and also a respectable African representation with a multitude of cheap and delicious Sudanese and Eritrean restaurants that receive Israelis with a hearty welcome. And, there are still Sabrian initiatives that insist on "blooming the wilderness".
Don't skimp on the toppings.
Metuko/Ofir Abramov's cookies
"For about six months we worked on a recipe for a perfect Melbi and then we went out with it on Facebook and the thing exploded"
One such initiative is "Matoko", a factory for cookies and decadent desserts and also a not bad coffee spot located on Salomon Street at the corner of the Negev.
It was opened about three years ago by Avitar and Lian Ben Baruch, a couple who, without any other word, I would call them in the cliché "young and nice", who found themselves in mid-life moving from their previous careers (the world of advertising for Avitar and shopping for Lian) to the especially sweet food business.
"We started just before the corona virus in Yehud, where we live," they tell me, as we warm up in the pleasant winter sun outside the sweet home, "Lian participated in the first season of the reality show 'Bake Off' and we really liked Melbi. For about six months we worked on a perfect Melbi recipe and then we left with him on Facebook and the matter exploded."
Leanne continues to tell about her husband's dreams as she is in charge of the performance.
"One day he got up with a dream, to bake a huge cookie the size of a pizza tray. This initiative also exploded really quickly and under our house people were standing and eating huge cookies in groups leaning on their cars. We did everything by ourselves, from the moment we received the order to the delivery of the cookies. The audience was safe That we are a factory, when all in all we were a couple baking in their home kitchen."
Western with a happy ending
A must stop that started off great, and somehow manages to keep getting better
To the full article
Bringing a lot of happiness to the area.
Liane and Avitar Ben Baruch/Ofir Abramov
"And if we're going to be good, then in the strongest city, Tel Aviv"
At this point, the corona virus arrived in full force, the shipments stopped a little and the couple recalculated the route.
"We could no longer bake at our house and we decided to rent our own place and be the best possible. And if we have to be good, then in the most powerful city, Tel Aviv."
They initially thought of opening a place that would function as a kind of ghost kitchen and not be exposed to customers, but in the end they realized that there was a demand for a real coffee shop in the southern neighborhood of the city.
"When we opened, everything was dirty all around, syringes everywhere and garbage. I started to catch the street cleaning vehicle that would give more attention to the corner, and after a year all kinds of office workers and businesses around asked that I already add tables and chairs, to have a place to sit with coffee and pastries. Suddenly they started arriving Families with children from the area and a neighborhood cafe was born."
Good coffee and a nice pastry on the side were just the beginning, and Mokoo quickly added crazy cookies that were baked on the premises, exactly according to the customer's request.
"Our dream cookie is made just the way you like it. We don't like to limit the selection. It's a concept in three simple steps - you choose the type of dough (classic, cocoa or vegan), continue to the types of chocolate chips you want, and finish with unlimited toppings in the form of candies colors, or dark, milk or white chocolate coins and there is also a pretzel or Oreo addition. So you wait 7 minutes for baking and get the cookie of your dreams."
Can't believe that the old station has such a place.
Metuko/Ofir Abramov
"Opposite a new building was built whose developers welcome my place, for them it is proof of a normal life"
Proper nutrition is not exactly what the couple has in mind, but they like to do good for the heart.
On their website you will also find a dizzying abundance of small cookie combinations, the giant trays in question, the famous Melbi and many options for personal assembly in deliveries or self-collection.
Outside, around us, the local election posters are still hanging, almost cynical.
I wish that everyone who promised to take care of the Neve Shanan neighborhood would really nurture it and take care of it.
"We've been here for three years, and I'm the only one who initiates things here in an attempt to make the neighborhood more pleasant," Ben Baruch tells me, "the sweet goods that are left at the end of the day go to the children of the area and I see the sparkle in their eyes, but when I wanted them to draw here with chalks on the sidewalk, to give them some other activity, they told me that it was possible on the condition that I don't take them and advertise, so that they don't know. I find out in retrospect that there are events here in the evening, instead of cooperating with me so that I stay open. Urban initiatives are being hidden from me. A new building is being built opposite, whose developers welcome my place , for them it's proof of a normal life, it praises their real estate, who doesn't want a nice neighborhood coffee shop in the middle of a not-so-simple neighborhood?
" Just like a cafe in the State Square, I feel that I don't get the same treatment, and in the end they will make me focus only on my corner, and that's it.
is not that a loss?".
Metoko, Salomon 7, Tel Aviv, 03-7558555
More on the same topic:
The food news
cookies
Chocolate chips