Chef Elior Balbul learned and worked under Chef Meir Adoni and even managed the Blue Sky restaurant in Tel Aviv. A year and a half ago, he fulfilled his dream and opened Alenbi, a modern Israeli restaurant serving the Jewish community in Brooklyn.
Elior Balbul: Alenbi is a kosher Israeli restaurant with a modern twist. We combine the familiar foods from home with new looks and a different point of view.
Wines of Isreal: What is your signature dish?
EB: ‘Deconstructed Falafel’– three balls of un-fried falafel made from green fava beans, served on white tahina with marinated onion and amba sauce, and topped with dry hummus crumble and panko crumbs.
What does the term ‘Israeli kitchen’ mean to you? Israeli cuisine is very young and at the same time ancient, with a lot of tradition behind it. It is a kitchen which is really the ingathering of exiled peoples from many countries and cultures, an ancient kitchen without borders.
WoI: What excites you about Israeli cuisine?
EB: That it is never-ending, and we can do with it anything we want. It is a place of creativity because it is a work in progress and what we are doing now is creating it again.
WoI: Any plans for the future?
EB: To continue progressing. We are expanding to a new place in New York. And at the end. . . go back home.