Brosh,
8 Suffolk Parade,
Cheltenham
(01242 227 277).
Three courses, including wine and service, £70. Cheaper lunch options
Israel, though geographically a Middle Eastern country, started out, intellectually, as a European project. It was European Ashkenazi Jews (and American Jews of European descent) who led the campaign for its creation.
It was therefore the food of the Ashkenazi - chopped liver and gefilte fish, salt beef and latkes, cholent and borscht - which predominated there for many years. Like so many things associated with Israel, this was, of course, complete and utter madness. Who wants to sit in a parched desert state, beneath a broiling sun, eating food so heavy it has its own gravitational field?
Neurotic European Jews, pining for the taste of the old country, whatever the thermometer says - that's who. It would take waves of immigration and a certain cultural maturity to embed itself before Israeli food would shift to the far more logical cooking of the Sephardi - the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Jews.
Chef Raviv Hadad grew up on a kibbutz, soaking up the flavours of the Sephardi, and when he came to Britain, ended up working at the River Cafe and Moro in London - flipsides of the same Mediterranean coin. Now he has his own place in Cheltenham called Brosh, which is the Hebrew word for a kind of Cypress tree. (It is also, as it happens, the Armenian word for lips; pure coincidence, I'm sure, but I do so hate to waste a good bit of research.)
Though Brosh is not kosher, the Israeli influence is clear - particularly at the pudding stage. The savouries are more a grand tour of the Mediterranean and, for the most part, are very successful. The duff notes - a salad of braised wild garlic with anchovies and olives which was oversalted, and a 'kugel' of vermicelli and peas, which was solid but unremarkable - were far outweighed by the ones that rang clear.
A brik, one of those crisp filo pastry parcels the Levant has made its own, came filled with fine shreds of white crab meat, sensitively spiced to allow the fish its voice. A salad of barley, dried figs and pistachios was a smart combination of chewy and sweet. A rustling plateful of deep-fried whitebait with anchovies and a red onion dressing screamed out for a smack of chilli, but was still pleasing for all that.
Veal sweetbreads with a light cumin-infused batter showed an understanding of just how much of that spice you need to make your point, which is to say not much at all, and a piece of marinated lamb was crisp without and pink within.
If anything, the puddings showed even finer judgment. Haroset is a paste of dried fruits, nuts and spices, served as part of the Passover meal to symbolise the mortar the children of Israel were forced to use to build the pyramids, and in my memory has all the grace notes you'd expect of such a blunt culinary metaphor. Made into ice cream, however, it is a thing of wonder. A bitter chocolate cake, with a base of almonds and dates, was surprisingly light and tart.
Brosh is a rare creature: a restaurant of real character, serving food which is an expression of the chef's experiences. The room is simple enough, being just white walls and dark wood tables; but when there is so much personality on the plate, the fripperies of design become redundant. It's the food that matters - and that's the way it should be in a restaurant.
Three places that conjure up the Middle East
Ottolenghi,
287 Upper Street,
London N1
(020 7288 1454)
Towering pyramids of chocolate and raspberry meringues grace the windows of this ultra-modern, Israeli-owned bakery-cum-restaurant - the newer sibling of its namesake in Notting Hill.
If the patisserie seems European, the savoury food has a distinct Middle Eastern feel. The fashionable clientele prefers bean-based salads for lunch with roasted aubergine, parsley and feta, while dinner consists of mezze such as seabass with labenah, followed by Turkish Delight ice cream.
Saha Cafe,
12-15 Waterloo Street,
Bristol
(0117 317 9696)
An intriguing Moroccan-influenced enclave in Clifton which seduces lovers of exotica with its deli selling coffee flavoured with cinnamon and nutmeg, its incense-filled gallery of tribal rugs and lamps, its cookshop and cafe. It's great for vegetarians, offering everything from salads with pine nuts and peppers to roast vegetable briouates. But omnivores will be pleased with chicken and herb patties, saffron and star anise monkfish and Moroccan serpent cake.
Armenian Taverna,
3 Princess Street,
Manchester
(0161 834 9025)
Masis Kalanyan has been cooking superbly healthy Armenian food for more than 30 years in this unpretentious city-centre eatery. This is the place for 'the Rolls Royce' of chargrilled kebabs, baba ganoush, proper hummus, Armenian sausages, cinnamon-dusted rice and rich tomato sauce. And the Armenian goulash of lamb with red wine melts in the mouth.
Sue Webster
