Asi’s favourite restaurants are those where 20 types of salads are set out on the table even before one says hello. My opinion on these types of restaurants is a bit more ambivalent. On one hand, I really love appetizers, and salads are a type of appetizer; on the other hand, I always fill up on the salads really quickly and then I can’t enjoy the main dish. No more than 2 minutes passed from the time we sat down at Hazaken Vehayam (The Old Man and the Sea) before our table was filled with dozens of little dishes. Asi sat back comfortably in his seat, but I started getting nervous. It all looked so tasty – how on earth would I save any space!?!
Hazaken Vehayam (The Old Man and the Sea), as you might imagine, is located right on the sea. It’s a very large restaurant with tons of waiters running around – enough so that there isn’t even a small chance that if you need something one of them won’t immediately notice and get right on top of it. Our waiter noticed my case of nerves, and apparently interpreted them to be related to the pita shortage on our table, because he immediately placed a basket of special large and fresh pitas amongst the salads. That’s it, I decided, I’m giving up. There’s no point in trying to fight it – it’s stronger than I am. I decided to dig in. There was cabbage salad, eggplant salad, wonderful tehina, fried cabbage, excellent homemade hummus, falafel, tabouleh, beet salad, green salad, mushroom salad, vegetable salad in tehina, fennel salad, and a number of others. We piled more and more onto pieces of the tasty pita and the moment any one of the little dishes emptied, a full one was immediately delivered – automatically, without having to ask.
-aus: Restaurants in Israel
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Hazaken Vehayam (The Old Man and the Sea)
83 Kedem Street, Jaffa, Tel Aviv
Tel: 03-6818699