Friday, November 18, almost a month from today, very early in the morning before the hot spring, a taxi picked me up at Ben-Gurion Airport.
The excitement was great, mainly because of the World Cup experience and the fact that I was trusted by the people of the corporation, who allowed me to interpret 20 plus games, including the opening and final games.
But also the fact that I get to visit a very complex country, which I probably would never have come to if it weren't for football, was part of the excitement.
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Since we are now in calmer days, without the pressure of games, so I will put our football experiences aside for a moment and tell you a little about a field that I like very much, but understand much less about - the culinary field.
We sleep on the pearl island, which is an artificial island inaugurated in 2004.
A very touristic place that mainly contains accommodation for tourists and restaurants of all kinds and species.
At the beginning of the tournament, when the pressure of the games and broadcasts was great, most of our meals were at crazy nighttime in fast food restaurants - pizza (there are significantly better pizzas in Israel), Pat Burger (a kind of upgraded and greasy McDonald's), shawarma of course and imitations of KFC.
Later, when my schedule started allowing me to do it, I started looking at restaurants of all kinds, both in the vicinity of our accommodation but also in places that are an easy Uber ride away from us.
So we ate at a wonderful Turkish restaurant, Hasan Kulkoglu, where every dish, including the starters, is served heartily and every main dish hides a show by the waiters, whether it's a special serving or whether it's drumming with spoons, a fire show, etc.
Uri Ozan, Dor Hoffman, Nadav Jacobi, and Oren Yosifovitz in Qatar, photo: Uri Ozan
Later we went to a good Indian restaurant, where we also saw two games on the days we aired the early games, and again we got a lot of authenticity and enjoyed wonderful biryani rice.
One of the places where we ate simple and delicious food was Shuk Vakif, where Tal Berman and I arrived, and we also enjoyed a kind of authenticity (not really, but in relation to what is happening around it is also something), also a good, tasty and cheap skewer (for NIS 50 we were bombarded with quantities food that closed us until the next day), and later a very tasty mechnapa, which we ate while sharing a table with a nice Saudi guy, who came to console himself with sweets after his team finished its way in the tournament.
Obviously, Qatar is also full of luxury restaurants, those that excel in PR as much as the quality of the food (Nusirat, the man, the steaks and the coarse salt), and those that provide an unusual and unusual culinary experience. The Novikov restaurant in Qatar is one of them, and it delivered the goods in a huge amount of dishes specialties and tastes that are not experienced every day.
Magnificent cuisine in Qatar, photo: Uri Ozan
Magnificent cuisine in Qatar, photo: Uri Ozan
Magnificent cuisine in Qatar, photo: Uri Ozan
Magnificent cuisine in Qatar, photo: Uri Ozan
But in the end, as a fan of cooking and order in the kitchen, a month without a kitchen made me miss it.
So last week I decided to change direction, take advantage of the fact that the supermarket near our accommodation sells wonderful products, I went back to the pots and pans and started preparing food (I will save the cooking for the children at home), both for me and for some of our travel partners.
Some meat, some salads, later I'll add a touch of pasta, I want to feel at home.
Because in the end, with all the fun, football, experiences, restaurants - home is the thing that is missing the most, and there is nothing like cooking, smells, colors that food produces and even washing dishes to feel a little at home.
And with all due respect to the market, restaurants, skewers and Novikov, these meals, here at the hotel, were the most satisfying culinary experience in Qatar because, after all, there is nothing like home food.
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