Bust, but not totally ...

The first part of the day can pretty much be best summed up as a bust. We wanted to go to the Israel Museum but that didn't happen because the bus never came.

We decided to ditch the plans described and try again with an earlier start in the morning. Instead, we thought it a nice idea to head over to Darna; a Moroccan restaurant which came highly recommended by the tour book as well as a few other people recommended it too.

It was late lunch time when we went so we were a bit hungry and hoped that perhaps they were open. Turns out that we had to make a reservation and come back. No problem. There was a Bar Mitzvah going on.

So we made our reservation and went home and ate some of the yummies we purchased earlier at the shuk. Also, we took a bit of a nap. Michael was a bit tired because he woke up about 4am so a nap was surely needed.

I woke him up at about 6:30pm so we could make our way over to Darna. We got there about 10 mins before 7pm and they seated us.

Just a head's up warning for those intending to possibly eat here, this place is expensive. We knew that going in. We figured since we've been surviving on street food all this time, (and since, well, we live in San Diego -- the land of no fancy restaurants and few restaurants in general) we deserved a bit of a splurge. This was definately a splurge, as I'll soon explain. (ADDITIONAL WARNING: lots of pictures of food to follow). Forgive me if I don't know the exact names of all the dishes, for they are Moroccan and unfamiliar. Thus, I forgot.

We decided to go with the Traditional Menu, which involved choices of appetizers, main courses, and deserts.

First up was the soup. It was a savery lentil soup with beef. You squeeze the lemon into the soup and then as you have it, you take a bite of the date so that you get the balance of the sour and the sweet. This is how they eat it in Morocco.

This soup was fantastic! It was very delicate in flavor and rather surprisingly light. It had lentils and chickpeas in it as well. It also had almost an eggdrop soup element to it, which I found rather interesting, conceptually as well as texturally within a North African soup dish. Most soup courses I will finish and say, "That was a meal in and of itself!" Not this one, however. Because it was so light it was not going to weigh the rest of the meal down and, thus, it enabled you to be still hungry for the next course. I don't think I've ever been able to say that of a restaurant's or anyone's soup course, for that matter.















After that it was the salads and appetizers! The salads were laid out on a lazy susan meant for sharing. I also had a pastilla with Cornish hen and cinnamon that we split. OMG was it good! We also got a bottle of Yarden Merlot that complimented things rather well.

There was a spicy pepper salad that Michael ate a huge fork full of and it "kicked [his] butt." I personally like the cucumber in rose water and I'm not even a fan of rose water. But this was so lovely.

Then, of course, it was time for the main course. Michael ordered the Tangia of Veal in a savory sauce and I the Tangia of Lamb Shoulder in sweet fruit sauce. We both ended up liking the lamb better, but that is simply because we're lamb people. However, both dishes were so good. The veal and the lamb were both very tender and delicious. The meat practically melted in your mouth.

The lamb, together with the wine, was an incredible sensation for the tongue. The sweetness of the fruits together with the acid and spice of the wine was an unstoppable combination of pure happiness on a dinner table. It was at this piont that we were pretty full. The portions were great sized and the courses were plentiful. But there was still more!

We took a bit of a break before dessert came out and were served lovely Moroccan pulled mint tea. It is called pulled tea because they pour it from up really high away from the glass so that it cools slightly and becomes a bit frothy. It was so soothing and delicious. It hit the spot with its minty and slightly sweet aroma and its full-bodied tea flavor.

The presentation of all the food was lovely, of course, but I especially loved the presentation of the tea, served in its glasses with a metal pitcher. It was really lovely.
















Then, of course, there was dessert!!! A lovely array of Moroccan pastries and Toubkal, which is filo with soy milk (instead of real milk) and cinnamon and sugar. What other words could I use to describe this other than, "MMMMM!!!" Exquisite. All told, the meal was not too heavy and wonderfully filling, all at the same time.

I was, needless to say, a happy foodie camper.

But now a few more words about price, as promised. Just to give you a better idea of how expensive is expensive when I say expensive (did I mention expensive?) -- and now that you've seen for lack of experiencing what we ate, dinner came to about $100 US per person.

That's right. No, I'm not joking. And that bottle of wine ended up being $60 US. This is why I say, it was a serious splurge. We won't be eating there every night. It's even doubtful we'll eat there again this trip (notice I said this trip. Oh, we will be back eventually. It was that good!).

I do believe this was most likely the most expensive meal I have ever or will ever eat. But, it was also one of the best meals I have ever or most likely will ever eat. In my opinion, it was worth the splurge. And be reminded, we pretty much knew what we were getting into when we booked a reservation.

We did take home some leftovers. And we totally walked out with that $60 bottle of wine. Heck, we paid for it! There was a little more than half the bottle left too. Cool thing about Israel, you can walk with opened alcohol in the street and no one really batts an eyelash, not that we were drinking it in the street. We were merely escorting our new $60 friend home, safely.

Anyhoo, if anyone is interested for when they come to Israel, you can click here for the website for Darna. You can see more pictures, details, and history behind and about the restaurant.

As I am now finishing this blog entry, the morning lights of Tuesday are upon me. So I'll try and get a couple more hours of sleep in before we start our day once again and attempt to get to that museum. Wish us luck with those buses!!!