Dining

For our significant anniversary, we wanted to combine a good food experience, our dearest friends and the fact of a Sunday night event (most restaurants are closed on Sundays). We decided upon La Table de Joel Robuchon, where we enjoyed a lovely, beautifully served light meal (they have both small and regular portions). Highly recommended. 16, ave Bugeaud (16th) 01.56.28.16.16.

Le Comptoir was as enjoyable as ever, delicious and personable, with the restaurant seating only about 25. The meal included leeks, foie gras, baby pigeon, cheese and dessert. If you have dietary issues (is only the one meal served), you can let them know ahead of time and they will try and attend to it. (the restaurant is in the Hotel Relais Saint-Germain, where we always stay. Great people and location, large rooms and contemporary bathrooms. 9, Carrefour de l’Odeon (6th) 01.43.29.12.05.

The Mini Palais au Grand Palais proved to be unimpressive, although it was nice to sit outside among the columns of the Grand Palais. Perron Alexandre III/ Ave Winston Churchill (8th) 01.42.56.42.42.

The new Gordon Ramsay restaurant at the Trianon in Versailles served well-presented and prepared food; the amuses-bouches were more interesting than anything we ordered from the menu. OK and quite pricey. 1 boulevard de la Reine, Versailles 01.30.84.55.55.

Shopping

Repetto. Ballet flats, ballet flats and ballet flats.
Lilith. Funky chic clothing.

Vanessa Bruno and Isabel Marant. Two young designers.
Berenice. Cottons and cashmere blends, nicely and interestingly designed, and reasonably priced.

Petit Bateau. The usual.

Fabrice. Good costume jewelry. 33,54 rue Bonaparte (6th).
Sobral. Lucite and plastic jewelry, sophisticated and pas cher. 79, rue St Louis en L’Ile.

Cairo

Dining

Spice. Great Chinese food in the Four Seasons Nile Plaza. Expensive but worth it.

Abu el Sid. Very attractive in an Egyptian theatrical kind of way and very crowded. The food was only okay (our consensus about Egyptian food in general) but the place was “buzzy” and fun.

Shopping

The souk had mostly crap. I did find a shop called Turquoise, where they sold and strung stones. (say that fast). 19 Khan el Khalili.

The most interesting jewelry that I saw on the entire trip was at Azza Fahmy. Her pieces are contemporary, well-priced and mostly in silver. Multiple locations.

Jerash

Great mezes at The Lebanese House. 635-1301.

Petra

Not many options. The food at The Movenpick Hotel is unremarkable. The food from the bar menu is better than that from the fancy restaurant. We didn’t try the buffet. One stays at the hotel because it is within walking distance of the historic site. (the food at the site itself is beyond unremarkable).

Eating

Breakfasts were enormous buffets. Mind-boggling in amount and type of food displayed.

Lunch was what you would expect, but better. Hummus, falafel, hot sauces, pita, etc., every day. Haven’t been able to replicate it in New York, hummus-wise, except maybe at The Hummus Place, multiple locations.

Dinners

Jerusalem

Adom. Pleasant, nice space. We started with cheese ravioli and wild eggplant and Jerusalem artichokes in yoghurt tahini sauce. Main courses were chicken livers in a maple glaze with mashed potatoes and calamari and rice with olives and peppers. Of course a bottle of Israeli red. (being ignorant regarding boutique Israeli wines, we ordered a different mid-priced red wine every night and had good experiences. The couple of times we splurged, the wines were exceptional.) 31 Jaffa Road, in Feingold courtyard 02-624-6242.

Chakra

We could only get a reservation at the bar for this “buzzy” restaurant. We shared a vegetable antipasti plate composed of cauliflower, zucchini, eggplant, peppers, beets, bulgar, sweet potatoes, tomato salad, and very thin sheets of Iranian pita bread. Our chicken cordon bleu was dry, but the salad that accompanied it was terrific. The food was well-priced for Israel, where you tend to pay the same for a meal as you do in NYC. 18 Shlomzion Street 02-625-2733.
New Dolphin. Lebanese cuisine. Shared mezes, then had grilled fish. The fish was excellent; the vegetable accompaniments dull and overcooked. Sheikh Jarrah-Shimon Hatsedic 7 02-532-2001.

Arcadia

A very well-known “chef restaurant”. The dinner was very expensive prix fixe and a great disappointment. The restaurant is small and was only half-filled when we were there. They served an amuse of cold yoghurt soup with spices; hummus and red pepper dip. I had a shellfish plate which was excellent, but R’s lamb stew was a dull small portion. Certainly not worth the price. 10 Agrippas Street 02-624-9138.

Darna

Kosher, Moroccan “chef restaurant”. Not as good as the food in Morocco, but not bad.
3 Horkanos Street 02-624-5406.

Tel Aviv

Rafael. Excellent, from the service to the food to the wine. Great goat cheese, beet and endive salad, superb lamb chops and liver. 87 Hayarkon Street (in a high rise attached to the Dan Hotel) 03-522-6464.

Manta Ray. On the beach, near the Dan Panorama Hotel. A fish restaurant with good octopus and fish. Nice salads. Very casual and pleasant. Almah beach 03-517-4774.

Rosh Pina

Our base on the Galilee was Mizpe Hayamim, a spa hotel and member of Relais & Chateaux. Lovely facials, lovely junior suite and terrific food (says R: “best tomato soup ever”). Almost everything came from their farm, their garden, or a local kibbutz. We paid a supplement to eat in the restaurant rather than at the buffet. 04-699-4555.

Shopping

Michal Negrin everywhere (including Madison Avenue)(also including a discount store at the airport in Tel Aviv). Cool Victorian jewelry; some clothes and accessories. A must visit (great for gifts). You can also look for Gottex bathing suits in Israel, and Naot sandals.

Jerusalem

Heifetz

Contemporary Judaica crafted of silver and metal, and very exciting jewelry. 24 Tiferet Israel Road (Jewish quarter) 02-628-0061.

Safed

Sarah’s Tent. Terrific art and jewelry, mostly contemporary. 56 Alkabets Street 04-692-3378.

Safed Candle Shop. 04-692-1093.

Tel Aviv

On Tuesdays and Fridays go to the craft market between Allenby Street and the Carmel Market. It has “good” things. The first table when I got there (away from the Carmel Market) was occupied by a woman selling rings, necklaces, bracelets, etc, out of paper mache and plaster. Brightly colored and very appealing, as well as inexpensive.

Well not exactly, but close. The two of us went down for four days and had a magical time. The only hassle about the place is getting there. JFK to Miami to Belize City, and then a small plane that runs a continuous multi-stop loop from the top to the bottom of the country. The good news is that our hotel, The Turtle Inn, was a literally two-minute drive from the Placencia airport (read, living room).

The Turtle Inn turned out to be terrific. Owned by Francis Ford Coppola, attention has been paid to every detail. His wife picked out the artwork in each of the cottages and villas, and it was good enough for us to want to take it home. He has to approve every dish on the menu of the restaurant, and we have never had such good food at a resort. The wine list is made up completely of Coppola wines, of course, in a wide range of prices and styles. In addition to his Italian restaurant (the resort’s main one), there are a Belizean restaurant and a fish grill on the premises. For those, guests need to make reservations in advance.

The spa was lovely—and the Thai massages heavenly. Very highly recommended.

The beach there is more for snorkeling and scuba diving than for swimming. The dive shop on the premises arranges boat trips for that, and also lends out masks, snorkels and fins for the hotel’s beach. The pools, however, easily satisfy one’s lounging needs.

Happy hour, with half-price rum drinks and beer, occurs every day from 4 to 6. Since the hotel accommodates less than sixty guests, it is not a raucous affair. We met some interesting (in a good way) people, but if you want privacy there is also plenty of that. Once a week there is a reggae-ish band and hors d’oeuvres are served. Altogether a blast. (Also, Sunday night is all-you-can-eat pizza night at the restaurant. The pizza ovens are imported wood-burning ones, and the pizzas they produce are delicious.)

We went into Placencia to shop and have dinner. The town is a (scuba) dive town, and a ‘60’s throwback. You can purchase Mayan crafts and local artwork. One shop we especially liked was the Sunova Gift Shop. Don’t miss the Barefoot Beach Bar for cocktails.

The best thing about The Turtle Inn was the service. The staff could not have been more wonderful. From the waiters to the guys at the pool to the people at the front desk, everyone was smiling and gracious. The front desk, in fact, went well beyond the call of duty to help me acquire a drum from a local artisan and, when he was late in delivering it, sent it to me in New York.

In a nutshell, a GREAT place.