Magazine is a Food Tour of Israel

By COLlive reporter

You can take a flight to enjoy the best delicacies Israel has to offer or you can get a copy of the new issue of the leading Jewish food magazine Joy of Kosher.

The magazine’s editor of chief Shifra Klein has led a 7-day food journey with her staff to discover the best of what the Holy Land has to offer. And it’s all presented in the new mid-winter issue, dubbed the #israelissue.

Going far beyond putting recipes on a page, the latest visually stunning issue will transport readers to the markets, vineyards, farms, and fine dining destinations of Israel through a day-by-day account of the magazine team’s trip.

Paging through the magazine is a virtual tour through the shuk of Machane Yehuda, the streets of Tel Aviv, the hills of the Shiloh winery and beyond, making this a useful guide for future trips to the Holy Land.

Meir Adoni, chef of Blue Sky & Lumina at the Carlton Hotel in Tel Aviv, gave them an inside look at what it takes to run a restaurant empire, while Eli Mizrahi shared his tale of revolutionizing the famous and colorful Shuk Machne Yehuda.

Tom Franz, MasterChef winner of the popular MasterChef Israel TV competition, shared his favorite pastry spots throughout the Land of Israel. Using his multitude of connections, Franz collected secret recipes from the best pastry chefs around.

The issue is a compilation of this trip and provides a feast for the senses, functioning as both a food guide of Israel and as a way of bringing the flavors of Israel into your kitchen.

“This was a daunting trip to plan,” Klein told COLlive.com. “We spent 14-16 hours each day food touring Israel, and we left with a book of stories, recipes, and rich, heartwarming tales from the many food personalities we met.”

Amichai Luria, winemaker of the award-winning Shiloh Winery shares winemaking secrets, tips, and wonderful recipes. “We visited Shilo winery in the Shtachim which really had us nervous for the few minutes when we left “Israel” till we actually got into the Yishuv,” she said.

The recipes featured in this issue include a mix of classics —like falafel, hummus, and pita—and modern Israeli cuisine, like Druze-inspired toast and red-beet mostarda pasta. This magazine is a adventure, complemented with beautiful images from across Israel. Filled with tips, tricks, and ideas, this magazine is a great gift idea for the kosher cook in your life.

But the most difficult challenge was deciding what to publish. “Condensing our trip into one issue was a challenge that resulted in an issue jam-packed with lots to read and over 45 Israel-inspired recipes,” she says.

“One of the reasons we decided to do this now was because of the situation in Israel,” Klein said. “We have wanted to do it for a long time and when we saw what was going on we decided, there couldn’t be a better time to go than now and planned the whole trip within less than a month of actually going.”

Klein told COLlive that “we realized we can come back once a year and do an Israel issue as there is so much going on in the food world there and every person has their own unique sometimes hilarious story to share.”

She said they might “turn this into one of many issues and make it an annual issue (although we will probably do it at different times of the year to change it up) but are still working on details for that.”

Joy of Kosher magazine is offering a subscription special in honor of Purim on their website www.joyofkosher.com/subscribe or call 1-855-JOY-OF-KOSHER (1855-569-6356). Email: [email protected] for bulk orders or to add a copy or Gift Subscription to your Mishloach Manot baskets.