Once upon a time, the children of the city of Ashdod would play in the open areas surrounding it, according to the Ashdods, and the Xos sticks that grow in them, which are reminiscent of licorice in their taste, they used to pick and suck on the way. Over the years, the stick also entered the desert, which can be found today in many restaurants and homes in Ashdod. "Cheers to fish and sea," says Tomer Jano, pouring the dark desert in the family's new place into small glasses. The fish shop and restaurant "Jeannot in the City" opened only eight months ago. Between it and the sea separates Ashdod's promenade street. On the table outside the store are already several mezes: fish cigars, two spicy fish kebabs, ceviche with lettuce leaf and a saucer of vegetables and fennel coarsely cut, seasoned with correspondence with the breeze and weather.
Ceviche Bejano,
This place of Jano is one of those that symbolizes the culinary flourishing of the city. The family's flagship store was opened by Tomer's father, Jacob Jano – a fisherman for 47 years – 30 years ago in the city's industrial zone. Thus, alongside well-known institutions such as Idi Dagim, which celebrated its 40th anniversary this year since it first opened, or Pescado, which was crowned one of the 50 best restaurants in the Middle East, more and more new places have opened in the past three years (it is estimated that there are about twenty businesses) that pay homage to local produce, to the flavors of the city, to the variety of ethnic groups that live in it, to the salty aromas from the sea.
All of these will take part this week, from May 31 to June 1, in the "Peoples and Flavors" food festival, which is taking place for the fifth time. This year's event will feature over 50 food stands of restaurants, patisserie, cafes and bars from Ashdod, carefully curated by entrepreneur and culinary consultant David Kichka. The audience coming to the festival will enjoy free entrance and dishes priced at only 15 NIS.
Peoples and Flavors Festival, Photo: Amichai Hadad
"Everywhere in the world, on a coastal strip like there is in Israel, there are also countless restaurants that specialize in fish. Surprisingly, in Israel we have almost no such thing except in the city of Ashdod, which is an empire of fish," says Kichka, and Tomer Jano adds another plate to the table - this time of Blue Fin tuna, which we chose in the store and from which they prepared a wonderful ceviche.
Blue Finn tuna dish,
"The Promenade" is one of the most culinary streets in Ashdod. In the background of the spectacular beaches you can find along it, for example, Namaste - the only kosher Indian meat restaurant in the country, Aladdin on the Boulevard, Porto and Alma. Most of the nightlife and bars are also concentrated here, and due to the fact that the life span of restaurants in the city is long, even small sisters of old places have recently opened, such as "Zeti", the new pizzeria of the owners of the successful meat restaurant "It".
The kosher chef restaurant "Lola", located on the seafront, is also a little sister to the three-year-old "Fishzone" restaurant. Nissim and Daniel Lanki, father and son, opened it together. Sitting on Lola's outdoor terrace you can hear and smell the sea, and enjoy a variety of brunch dishes and dishes inspired by Italian and Mediterranean cuisine. In the blue-yellow background we ate "mountain salad from the field" and bruschetta with shreds of fresh buffalo mozzarella, chunks of anchovies and spicy salton that will also be served at the festival. Next to her we sipped wine from Marsha, a family-run boutique winery from the south. This is just one of the selection of local wines the restaurant boasts of.
Lola
"Almost our entire family comes from the restaurant industry. My mother was a chef at the Zohar Hotel in Beer Sheva even before I was born," Nissim Lankri says, detailing that the Casablanca and Marrakech restaurants in Tel Aviv are also some of the examples. "Daniel, my son, got these genes and at my age swept me there with him," the father added with a smile. "He prepares food from my heart and I'm good now with the sea and my son by my side. Fishenson and Aunt Lola, by the way, refer to characters from Israeli films."
If you are tired of fish and the sea made you appetite for pizza, not far from the promenade area you can find one of the best pizzas in the city at the Barberini restaurant. One of the partners there, Shai Amar, is Pizziolo who traveled, researched the secrets of the dough and worked the recipe. Barberini opened five years ago named after a square in Rome in Ashdod Square - at Rogozin 74.
Pizza in Barberini,
Before that, the Casa Ono restaurant operated in the same space, serving classic Italian food for 30 years. The restaurant also serves Italian food with a Mediterranean touch. We also ate a polenta dish from fresh corn cobs to be served at the festival and cheese-filled crescents made with cheeses.
Barberini,
Food places in the city you won't often find intertwined with the residential neighborhoods. It has small commercial centers where culinary gems can be unexpectedly found. This is how Touro, an Asian fusion restaurant, hid between a synagogue and a hairdresser on a slightly deserted road in the center of the Kirya. Beyond a large door we discovered an air-conditioned and slightly dark space with a cherry tree in the center and a spacious bar.
The Kirya Center where Toro is hiding,
"I've always had a dream to dabble in Asian food. The Corona period allowed me to open a 30-meter place that can only produce takeaway," says Yaron Ben Hamo, the owner. "I recently opened the restaurant and I still have a limited number of rolls on the menu - in one I will take diners to a place of truffles, in another to a place of tartar, in a third to sour, in a fourth to burn - specific and focused experiences."
We ate instead of Som Tam Thai salad that will be served at the festival, a salad traditionally prepared in Makhtesh and Ali. The cavalier dish combined roots, such as papaya, beets and carrots, and combined mint and peanut butter sauce. We also tried the edamame dim sum and beef dim sum to be served at the festival.
Yaron Ben Hamo in his column,
Alongside all this, the Ashdods began to see the buds of small cafes and patisserie in their neighborhoods and on main streets. Many professionals who initially worked from home, have recently dared to open their own places. For example, the café and patisserie "Rothschild 30" named after his address or "Daniella Boutique Patisserie" at 43 Zionist Street.
Daniella Nissim,
"Even when I was little, I was a very independent person," says Daniella Nissim, 23, adding: "My mother is less of a kitchen type, so I would go in there myself and do anything. At the age of 16 I took a workshop in the field and fell in love with this world." Before she joined the IDF, Nissim had already started selling her desserts.
Precise textures combined with textures and taste,
"When I was released, I opened a studio in the house and used to take orders out of it until I opened here a few months ago." Her desserts are precise in terms of textures and taste. The combinations she creates are also interesting. We tasted with her espresso, a dessert of caramelized puff pastry with layers of patisserie cream in the center and over vanilla shanti and a puff filled with caramel cream. So for our enjoyment, on one of the main streets in Ashdod - and we didn't feel in Paris and we didn't feel in Tel Aviv, we felt that we had reached a new culinary stronghold that was just developing.
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