20 Dishes

Andy requested that I blog everyday so I'll try to do so.

My new boss is in town and invited everyone to go to dinner at a place in Jaffa which is located in southern Tel Aviv about a 10 minute walk south from my hotel. Now I've heard good reviews from this place which is known to us AMAT folk as the 20 Dishes place. We call it this because rumor is you're served many dishes (probably 20 dishes for a large group) of salads and other small eats.

So we get there and are greeted by an English bouncer. Oh and FYI all places have security guards. Every time you enter any building you are checked for explosives and it doesn't matter where. Restaurants, clubs, hotels....they all have security guards that check backpacks. So we sit down and look at the menu.

It's primarily a Kabob restaurant with other local Israeli/Mediterranean dishes which we kinda skipped as recommended by my boss. I'll have to come back later with Mel. So as we're looking at the menu sure enough many small dishes are placed at the center of the table and warm flat bread is also served on the side. We had various salads, slaws, falafel, humus, tuna salads (tuna salad with cheese is a big thing here), beets, fried eggplant, and many other dishes which I could not reach on the other side of the table. It was a lot. So while we nibbled and drank some beer we ordered some kabobs. The list includes chicken, lamb, chicken heart and liver, goose liver, turkey testicles, goat testicles, and a few more. Of course I stopped after I saw the testicles.

Now I'm adventurous and for a split second I considered ordering the testicles but I must say that after a few seconds I think I snapped out of it and clearly decided to pass. The group ordered the safe bets which were the chicken and lamb but I could not be so boring. I had to try something new. So I requested the goose liver. Everyone looked at me and since we were doing this family style kind of pushed back as I would be the only one eating it. Luckily one of my coworkers said he would try it and it was done.

Now just eating the appetizers can fill you up. I wanted to try everything although I would then have no room to taste/eat my single order of goose liver. So I stopped and waited and later came a huge plate of meat.....mmmmmmm. All of the meats tasted sooo good but I know you're waiting to hear about the goose liver. Now I've had liver many ways. Beef both raw and cooked (raw is better! I had it in Japan), chicken liver, duck liver (Foie gras - awesome), and now goose liver. So the goose liver has the same color as the chicken on the plate so the guys had a some difficulty distinguishing the two. The liver was soft, easily cut with a fork, and after I put it to my mouth......mmmmmmm. Tastes like foie gras! No metallic sick taste. Just soft delicate liver.

Maybe Mel will eat the testicles when she visits.