Good Timing: A Sensual Obsession

There are both weird synergies and challenges embedding southern soul food cuisine here along the Mediterranean. You can find many of the same ingredients here in Tel Aviv, but people might be resistant to how they are prepared. Or, dishes that seem very similar — say Hoppin’ John and mujadara — but have very different taste profiles.

At the top of my list though is seasonality: As opposed to the US, where you can pretty much get anything you want any time of the year, the Israeli market is all about seasons. Try buying a persimmon or an avocado in the summer: forget about it. Want cherries in December? You must be kidding. And at the very top of the challenge for my kitchen is one of my all-time favorite salads: pink grapefruit and boquerones (white anchovies) drizzled with olive oil and topped with thinly-sliced jalapeno peppers.

Here’s the dilemma: Fresh boquerones (which you then brine) are only available for about a 3-week window of time that happens sometime in January. And, yep, you guessed it, getting good pink grapefruit this time of the year is not easy. Finding that Venn Diagram sweet spot ranks right up there with finding decent political leadership in the US during a pandemic. Never mind. Let’s just say that when two desirable but wildly dissimilar things actually do converge, the fusion is nothing short of magical.