Good news for kosher observants who visit or live in the Dublin area of Ireland: Earlier this year, a kosher restaurant and deli opened in the city – for the first time in more than half a century. Deli 613 (named after the geometric value of <> mitzvahs) is located at the Chabad House in the Irish capital, and offers a variety of kosher, Ashkenazi and Oriental dishes and delicacies, such as chicken soup with candelach, hummus, falafel, sabih, shawarma and a variety of sandwiches and pastries - including bagels imported especially from New York.
Alongside all these you will find shelves full of kosher ingredients, including snacks such as Bamba and Beasley, wines and other blue-and-white foods. Run by Rebbetzin Riki Lent and her husband, Rabbi Zalman Lent, the place serves breakfast, brunch and lunch on all days of the week – except Saturdays and holidays, of course.
Kosher in Ireland, photo: from the restaurant's website
Amazingly, Deli 613 is establishing itself in the local Dubliner culinary scene, and not necessarily only among Jews. Recently, the restaurant received a particularly rave review in the popular Irish Times, praising its corned beef sandwiches, the Sabich pita ("into which pieces of hard-boiled egg, green cucumbers and pickles, fried eggplant, amba and chickpeas were crammed"), and the warm potato pancakes that come with applesauce.
Quite a few local celebs also frequented the restaurant, including actor Colm Minnie (the legendary Chief O'Brien from Star Trek), former footballer Graeme Souness, and none other than Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, who descended with his entourage over a bowl of soup, pancakes and a corned beef sandwich. Enjoy.
And there's also Kneidlach, photo: from
And there's also news from New Jersey
From the observant restaurant in Dublin, we will skip across the ocean to New Jersey in the United States, where a kosher and vegan Chinese restaurant was chosen as one of the fifty "most exciting restaurants in the United States," according to a comprehensive ranking article published in The New York Times.
This is Fat Choy World in Englewood, the new location of the original (but non-kosher) Fat Choy, which closed last year in New York. The Times' ranking of the 50 most exciting restaurants includes additional vegan locations, but Fat Choy World is the only one on the list that also boasts a kosher certificate.
"If we're lucky, then the future might look something like Fat Choy," restaurant critic Pete Wells wrote in his review.
And what else do you eat at this kosher and exciting restaurant? Singaporean rice and curry noodles, edamame dim sum, fried rice with tofu in mushroom sauce, mushroom bans in barbecue sauce, spicy-sour soup based on tofu and ear mushrooms, spring rolls filled with sauerkraut and caraway, and cashew milk-based vanilla ice cream for dessert are just a few suggestions. Have we already congratulated on winning?
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