I have been a fan of Eucalyptus for more than 30 years – since it was a tiny place in the parking lot of what is today Supersol Deal in the Talpiot neighborhood, with a eucalyptus tree growing in the middle of the place. It had red-and-white checkered vinyl tablecloths and some of the same amazing food that chef Moshe Basson serves up in his high-end restaurant today at the top of the Hutzot Hayotzer Artists’ Colony.
In fact, Basson remembers my visiting the restaurant with my favorite husband and my favorite daughter (she’s still my favorite daughter – not sure about the husband), with her sitting on his shoulders when we then had only had one child, who still managed to take all of our attention.
Recently, Basson has begun offering special events in the upstairs area of the restaurant, often accompanied by a glass of wine. I attended a fascinating discussion between him and journalist Yossi Klein Halevi titled “What Is Israeli Food?” that touched on issues like cultural appropriation, Israeli vs Palestinian food, and changing Israeli cuisine.
There were about 40 people who attended, and the participants received a coupon for 15% off dinner any time within the next two weeks. Many attendees chose to stay for dinner that night.
“Israeli cuisine is like makluba,” Basson said, referring to one of his signature dishes that I’ll write about a little later. “We shouldn’t try to mix it all up and make one thing but preserve our differences, and then the whole comes together in a series of layers.”
The chef also offers “biblical cuisine,” serving dishes like freekeh, or cracked green wheat, known as “carmel” in the Bible. There is khubeizeh, a green vegetable that grew wild in the Jerusalem area and that residents ate during the siege of Jerusalem in 1948. You can order a la carte, but take my advice and splurge on the Shir Hashirim Feast (NIS 327); but don’t make the same mistake that we did with this sumptuous tasting menu.
The delicious food at Eucalyptus
By the time we sat down we were really hungry, and the freshly baked focaccia with three dips – a garlic aioli, a roasted red pepper spread, and a pesto with za’atar – was irresistible.
A little while later, Basson passed by and stopped at our table, as he does with all the guests when he is there, and shook his head in disappointment.
“You ate the bread?” he asked sadly. “You should know not to fill up on bread.”
The tasting menu changes daily and is an endless procession of dishes. We started with the roasted cauliflower in tehina, which was delicious, and then moved on to one of my favorite dishes of the night – the Oriental ceviche, which was Asian sea bass with fruit and caviar made from seaweed. We also had the fire-roasted eggplant with raw tehina and pomegranate syrup, and the wild spinach with mushrooms and tehina.
One of the most unique appetizers was pâté macaron, which was chicken liver pâté on a sweet berry-flavored macaron. There was also Azura eggplant, named after the iconic Azura restaurant in the Mahaneh Yehuda market, which was eggplant filled with beef and spices and topped with amba aioli. Perhaps the most unique dish was kube-niya, a Syrian-style beef tartare.
Even though the dishes were served in small tasting portions, by this time I was so full that I asked the server to stop bringing us food.
“What about the makluba?” he asked.
Well, who am I to say no to makluba? He brought us an adorable little frying pan of chicken, rice, and vegetables. While each element maintained its integrity, the flavors had melded together into a delicious dish.
If you’d like to take Eucalyptus home with you, pick up a copy of The Eucalyptus Cookbook.
- Eucalyptus
- Felt Alley (between 14 Hativat Yerushalayim and Dror Eliel Street), top of Hutzot Hayotzer, Jerusalem
- Sunday-Thursday, 6 p.m.-11 p.m.
- Phone: (02) 624-4331
- Kashrut: Tzohar
The writer was a guest of the restaurant.