Any way you examine it, it’s a logical circulate. The diner – that traditional American group that in Israel tends to mix elements of a quick-food restaurant, a regular eating place, street meals and frequently a bar in addition – has come to be the remaining area to enjoy absolutely everyone’s favorite junk food (burgers and pizza, of path), wrapped in a groovy label with an attractive ecosystem. After vegan restaurants began to spring up, it became only a count of time before diners with a similar agenda would appear – and the reaction changed into now not lengthy in coming, with locations like Goodness, Nature Boys, Rainbow, and Sultana Shawarma, which all offer vegan adaptations of popular speedy-meals dishes.
The new addition to the listing is Hakatzav Hayarok (“The Green Butcher”), which lately opened on Ben-Yehuda Street in Tel Aviv. This area additionally follows the rules of the style, with a colorful American-style design and a menu that offers burgers, hot dogs, arayes (floor meat in a pita) and kebabs as unmarried gadgets for 35 shekels or as part of a meal with a facet dish and a drink for 49 shekels.
With the exception of the new puppies, all the items are based on the Beyond Burger, a plant-based meat alternative from the American employer Beyond Meat that pursuits to recreate the experience of eating meat as tons as viable – in phrases of appearance, texture, color and aroma – in the course of and after grilling, inclusive of the “bloody” impact.
What’s exciting at Hakatzav Hayarok is the way they use Beyond Meat, which became available in Israel numerous months in the past, as an element. You can order a healthy burger, but it’s advocated to attempt the opposite dishes wherein the burgers are broken apart, pro and transformed right into a something greater original. We tried the arayes with fries, the Hakatzav Hayarok meal – a pro Beyond Burger – with highly spiced fries, and hot puppies in Moroccan french bread with roasted greens at the facet.
A short wait after placing our orders at Hakatzav Hayarok, my vegan partners and I acquired our meals. The look changed into convincing. It gave the impression of meat, smelled (lots) like meat and, most importantly, efficaciously met the challenge for any diner – all the more so a vegan one: creating an amusing ingesting experience even before the primary chew. All that become left became to flavor it.
What I’m about to put in writing is at risk of being perceived as a negative assessment, but it should be studied in an effective context: The Beyond Burger, in its gift incarnation as a minimum, is no replacement for clean beef, irrespective of the way it’s pro and served. However – and here is where it excels – it does pretty an overpowering task of imitating a real frozen hamburger. And that’s nothing to sneeze at. Okay, so hamburger fans who’ve grown aware of a highly fashionable of fresh pork gained’t be rushing to transform to veganism for the sake of this feature, but they may sometimes keep in mind deserting to the Beyond Burger, especially while out with a vegan friend.
The improve that Hakatzav Hayarok makes to the Beyond Burger is attractive, with the seasoning blend making it a bit spicier and greater enjoyable. The hassle is that they might have long gone lots also. Instead, they use the equal seasoning for the hamburger, the kebab, and the arayes – most effective the form changes. Instead of distinguishing the arayes and kebab with the aid of some parsley and onion, as of their “actual” variations, they taste precisely like the hamburger. What accompanies them is pretty exact on its terms – the smooth hamburger bun, the seared and toasted pita, the salads and the sauces (we especially preferred the pickled lemon “aioli”), but a bit greater creativity ought to have long past an extended manner.
The hot dogs at Hakatzav Hayarok have been the weakest link. Instead of long, grilled hot puppies cradled in a bun, they came sliced, which made the entire business of having them from the tray to the mouth a little trickier, even though it turned into pretty a beneficiant portion. They are based on pea protein and had been harking back to a number of the much less a success meat substitutes accessible. The stir-fried vegetables that came on the side – a partially beneath-seasoned and partially over-seasoned mix of frozen broccoli and inexperienced beans – had been no purpose for exhilaration both.
We left no longer glad however enormously thrilled with Hakatzav Hayarok, a diner with an authentic idea and an in large part alluring menu heading inside the right path. And it’s still now not too late to improve or even experiment a touch – no animals will be harm inside the technique.
