One of my favorite things about traveling internationally is discovering new foods. While I was in Israel in May I had my first taste of haloumi cheese. Have you ever had it before?
Israelis are very fond of haloumi and they put it on everything - eggs, breakfast sandwiches, salads and more. Even better, many restaurants like to serve it fried.
While I was in the city of Be'er Sheva, my friend and I did a ton of shopping. After many exciting purchases and lots of dressing room cardio, we were ready to sit down and rest our feet.
We had lunch at a placed Cafe Cafe, which is actually chain. From inside the shopping plaza you follow the blue tile path to the front door. I couldn't resist singing, "Follow the blue brick road! Follow the blue brick road!"
Cafe Cafe has a beautiful outdoor patio. It's next to one of the mall's fountains, but the fountain happened to be drained and off that day.
The menu is huge and has some hilarious descriptions next to its cocktails. For example, beneath the exotic fruit granita it says, "Add a little vodka and a good mood" or under the lemon and passionfruit granita it reads, "Extra rum for those in the know."
After placing our lunch order, our waitress brought a beautiful loaf of bread. We wound up only eating one piece and she offered to let us take the whole thing home. I've never seen a server offer the free bread as part of your doggy bag.
For lunch we each had one menu item centered around haloumi cheese. My lunch date ordered the haloumi salad which was topped with fried haloumi balls. They almost looked like falafel from far away. How delicious does that look?
I ordered the haloumi sandwich which was layers of cheese, juicy red tomato, red onion and roasted red peppers. It came served with a side salad and a handful of Lays potato chips.
The sandwich was packed with bold flavors and served on that delicious seeded bread.
After my first haloumi cheese encounter, I'm now seeking it out back here in the States. So far I've only found it at Sofra in Watertown.
Have you made a new food discovery while traveling?
