Address: Moshav HaYogev, Israel, 19232
Lunch at icook was a very unique experience, a dining experience that I have never tried before! Situated in a moshav (village/settlement), it immediately brings you back to what Singaporeans will term as the 'kampong style'. You will see plantations and greenery with numerous small little huts lined along the wide field and greeting you at the entrance are family dogs of the owners.
Once we arrived, we were greeted by the owners of icook, Anat and her husband who is a famous chef name Doron Bar-on. I heard Doron does cooking lessons in his restaurant as well as on television! After serving us cold lemonade to chase the summer heat away, Anat started telling us the story of how Doron came to this part of Israel because his parents survived the holocaust. It was fascinating that we were able to know Doron's life story and the story about this village in a 15 minute introduction by Anat and this instantaneously made me felt much closer and welcomed to the village!
After the background history about the village, Anat took us on a small village tour where we were introduced to the many different crops they grow in the village, using advanced technology and careful calibration of all the essential needs of the different crops including water, sun, chlorine etc. They even invented special crops that can be found exclusively in their village where they will export to many different supermarkets! I can't imagine myself staying in such a place doing nursery work everyday but a big applause to the young educated people living in this village who are devoting their time and youth to developing new and healthier crops!
We saw how they grew crops from sunflower seeds and to my surprise the sunflower sprouts were really yummy! Just like bean sprouts, however it gives an added sunflower seed kind of taste to it!
We also saw really pretty butter lettuce lined systematically in green and purple. How i wish I could just take some home ;)
After the informative mini tour, we are back to the restaurant to start our lunch! Oh boy, I was starving and I was just waiting to get my hands on the food, but first, let me take a selfie!
Presenting to you Doron, the chef who was really serious in his open-style kitchen where the customers could see 'live' preparation of the food we are going to be served!
For appetisers, we were served with a cold soup that had a very strong tomato taste, some chopped cucumbers and cream cheese on top! I am a major lover of tomatoes so I enjoyed this dish quite a lot although I felt it will be nicer if it was warm.
Warm breadsticks were served as well.
Salads were alsos served and personally I prefer the one on the top better because it was filled with chopped vegetables and nuts which suited my taste. I did not like the one below because it was mixed with goat cheese and I am definitely not a fan of goat cheese. The smell of the goat cheese was too overpowering and I felt like I was in a midst of chewing on a living goat. But if you are a big fan of goat cheese, this may be a wonderful dish for you!
I would say this was the best appetiser! The shrimps were nicely cooked and fresh and it was a surprise to me that it matches so well when eaten with beets. Also, the beets were very well prepared, giving it a fresh and sweet taste. I strongly recommend this!
Next up was meatballs with asparagus. It was nicely cooked. Though it was not particularly special, I have to say the sauce was deliciously done.
Here comes the veal with gnocchi. The veal was really really soft and the gnocchi was lightly salted which was not too heavy and overwhelming.
Next this was a big shocker because it's pork! I didn't know they will serve pork so maybe this restaurant isn't kosher… This was my favourite meat dish because the pork was nicely done. Just a bit of charred-grilled taste to it but the meat was still soft and chewy.
This is the lamb dish. It was acceptably tasty but I felt the herbs and vegetables were a little too overwhelming and it stole the limelight from the lamb meat.
I have forgotten the name of this vegetables but apparently, it is very much raved about now in America because of it's health benefits as well as the faint bitter aftertaste to it.
Lastly, time for desserts! This was cold chocolate topped with some sea salt! It was a nice surprise because eating a mouthful of sweet chocolate with sea salt felt like a raging war on my tongue. I would say that the chocolate tasted like melted chocolate bar which was too sweet for my liking but I really like the idea of mixing something salty with something sweet! Our sense of taste needs to be challenged sometimes.
The next dessert was personally introduced by Doron and he proudly tells us that this dessert is very special because he doesn't do it every time, only during the holidays! After tasting this, it automatically made me give a thumbs up! The semi warm orange peeled tart coupled with the icy cold vanilla ice-cream was just a perfect match! I was really satisfied after having this dessert :)
This is me and Doron! He is a really friendly chef when he is not cooking, but when he is cooking, he is 100% serious.
My final verdict: I would say it has been a very unique experience for me to observe the chef cooking while I was eating and eating in such a cosy little village was really nice. For me, the environment and the experience was more memorable than the food itself.
If you feel that those exquisite cuisine you can find in hotels or city restaurants does not excite you anymore, this will be a great place for you to explore! It is definitely out of the norm and I am sure you will have a pleasant experience in general. Come visit with a big group of friends or family and hear about the life story of the locals!
I am unable to provide the price this time round because it was a treat. However, feel free to call up the number provided at the beginning of my post and arrange with Anat. She is a really nice and friendly woman who speaks english well.
Loving good food,
Kay
