How’s this for timing? The weekend before Israeli Independents Day (Yom Ha’atzmaut) our culinary journey brought us to Israel. How’s this for bad timing? Our original destination, Sabra Café, was closed due to the Jewish Sabbath (Shabbat) not finishing early enough for the restaurant to be ready for dinner. So instead, we walked five minutes down the road to Wallah – ahh… the joys of Melbourne’s Jewish precinct (known ironically to its locals as the “ghetto”).
WallahFalafel and Grill
302 Carlisle St. Balaclava
Open 7 days for lunch and dinner
Israel is melting point of different cuisines due to the many cultures that reside there. This is demonstrated by Wallah’s menu, which although heavily influenced by Sefardi (Arab Jews) flavours, also had dishes based on Ashkenazi (European Jews), Arab, and Modern Western cuisines.
The décor was simple and inoffensive, with the main wall of the dining area being covered in funky insect paintings. Although the main dinning area of Wallah is relatively small, reminiscent of a café, there is a separate back room reserved for larger bookings – unfortunately, as we had not booked ahead, we had to make do with two smaller tables being pushed together. This week’s insatiable Israeli ingestors were, Paul (birthday boy!), Deb, Caroline, Rami, Sai and Nick.
Entrées/Dips:
Hommus – Chickpea, tahina, lemon blend
Tahina – Sesame, lemon, whipped
Matbucha – Spicy tomato make with out special recipe
Middle Eastern Eggplant Salad – Spicy grilled eggplant and capsicum
Pita Bread
Mains:
Falafel Pita Pocket – with hommus, tahina and tabouleh (parsley based salad)
Beef Kebab Pita Pocket – with babaganoush (eggplant dip)
Chicken Schnitzel Platter – Chicken breast with handmade crumbed spice coating
Chilli Chicken Burger – Marinated pieces of chicken served with caramelised onion, lettuce and chilli mayonnaise
Warm Chicken Salad – Spicy chicken breast fillet on a bed of fresh cut salad with a chilli mustard sauce
Wallah Salad – Finely chopped capsicum, onion, lettuce, tomato, olives, cucumber, tahina, served with 4 falafel balls
Sides:
Chips
Majaddarah – Lentil rice
Arisa – Authentic Moroccan recipe, homemade, extra hot chilli paste
Entrée:
The hommus was good, not great (although it is tough to get great hommus outside of Israel and the Middle East); the tahina was surprisingly green, yet tasty; the matbucha was spicy, light, and had a strong hit of coriander; but the best of the dips was the Middle Eastern Eggplant Salad, spicy and filling. The dips were so good that we had to order extra pita bread so that we could make sure that none was wasted.
Mains:
Although the pita pockets were served without the quintessentially Israeli ingredient – hot potato chips – this was quickly rectified by stuffing as many chips (ordered as a side dish) as we could fit into the pita pockets. Magically, what were good Australian pita pockets became great Israeli pita pockets!
Chicken schnitzel is a staple dish for the Ashkenazi, and Wallah’s version was a hit, especially due to the unusual, but rewarding, use of cumin in the crumbed coating. This meal was served with rice and Israeli salad – a traditional salad made from lettuce, onion, tomato and cucumber.
The two salads and the chilli chicken burger were all hits (although the chilli chicken burger was not spicy) and are great examples of the Western influence on modern Israeli cuisine.
Overall:
Wallah offers a great variety of dishes that successfully highlight all the different influences to modern Israeli cuisine. The wait staff are Israeli (this being a popular area for Israeli backpackers to find work) and their accent and attitude helped to give the restaurant a more authentic feel. The meals are well priced, with most dishes under $10, although the larger mains are about $18.
9 comments:
Interesting that you criticise other restaurants for being "too Western", and yet, this one is praised for its "Western influences". Any reason?
^ Because, as mentioned in the review, Israel (and thus its cuisine) is strongly influenced by the West (in fact I'd go as far as to say that Israel is a Western country).
Hey, at least we know someone's reading our blog!
Okay, but why is it a good thing that Israel is influenced by the West, while it's considered bad that other countries (and therefore, some of their dishes) are influenced by the West? Just curious...
I definitely agree, you frequently criticise other restauarants for being too western. Maybe the other countries, also heavily influnced by Western culture, should now be classified as Westerrn countries too. It seems to be a matter of your expectations; as you already KNOW of the western influence on Israel, you expect and feel comfortable with it. But with countries you don't know so much about, perhapsthe western elements don't fit your ideal?
Also, just curious; should it be 'Independents Day'? 'Independance Day'? Independents' Day'?or 'Independent's Day'?
^hey girls, thanks for your input :)
its the subtle difference of restuarants that are catering for western tastes in their clientel, versus restuarnats that aren't because the cuisine from that country already has a western influence. For example Hong Kong had western influences, but thats ok considering its history (or vietnamese having french influence etc), where as if a Thai restaurant had overtly western influences then thats bad because of their history.
As said in the Next Stop and the review, Israel is a melting pot of cultures (sephardic, ashkenazi, arab and western) and its cuisine reflects this. (soon the Ethiopian influence, due to the migration of Ethiopian Jews, will be evident in the cuisine too)
Saying that its bad for Israel to have Western influences in its cuisine, is like saying that its bad that Australia has Western influences in its cuisine...
(and thanks Nai for being the ever watchfull English teacher... I think it might be Independance Day, but then that might just be a bad movie with Aliens and Wil Smith...)
It's Independence Day and it's Will Smith.
I think we're talking about two different kinds of "Western influences" here.
There are "Western influences" in Thai food to make it more palatable for the average Westerner. This is the kind of "Western influence" that is considered bad.
Then, there are "Western influences" in certain cuisines that are supposed to be there. For example, chicken schnitzels, in Israeli cuisine. This is the kind of "Western influence" that is considered good.
When the Jews were kicked out of Israel, they went to Europe. During the thousand or so years they were there, they didn't live on a diet of falafels and hummus alone. They learnt to make chicken schnitzel and all kinds of other dishes from the Hungarians and Poles and other Europeans they were living amongst. Then, in the 1940's when they were kicked out,(to put it mildly), of Europe, they went back to Israel. But they'd been away from home for so long that, when they got there, they didn't revert back to a purely Middle-Eastern diet. They made "Western" dishes like chicken schnitzel. As a result, the local Israeli cuisine became infused with "Western influences".
It is an interesting distinction, because all cuisines are heavily influenced by other cultures. Anthropologists always shy away from the concept of "traditional" and it is wise to do so. Is chilli not authentically Indian or Sichuanese because it had to come from South America via western traders? Or is tea not traditionally British because it came from China?
It is a sad fact that you could have "authentic" food from anywhere in the world by going to Macca's - after all, it forms a significant part of the diet of many of the countries we've been to. But around the world in 80 macca'ses would be a lot less fun than this.
The important factor really is if the food is good. Where the chef has skilfully mixed modern and traditional styles and artfully blended different cultural influences, than we praise that. If they get it wrong, and the food is bad, then we find words for how it was bad, whether that is "too westernised" (eg Djakarta) or "too authentic" (eg Minang) or "just plain disastrous" (eg Bopha Devi).
Interesting post (even over 2 years after). I love how the ever-smart Caroline doesn't even have an inkling of understanding in regards to Jewish history.
Yes, of course, all Jewish people moved to Europe once they "were kicked out of Israel". She clearly knows nothing about the millions of Jewish Iranians, Iraqis, Moroccans, Yemenites, etc. And the fact that she basically tries to explain the history of the Jewish people in two sentences.
Caroline - wherever you are today - I hope you speak more than one language and have grown to be older and wiser. Then you might just understand that correcting people's misspelling of celebrity names is really not all that important.
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