The Restaurant at the End of the Universe Pt. 2

At the end of the last post I had decided to ditch the food tour and go out on my own.

The story continues...

I did some quick research and found that the place to go was called Shtisel (like the show I hope you all saw. It is on Netflix). It was a 2-minute walk away.

As we started walking a Hasidic man grabs my arm and says” can you do me a favor and smile” At first I was taken aback and realized I, being nauseous and hangry, must look like a crazy angry person ( my grandkids call me grumps after all).

I stopped, gave him a smile and thanked him for the advice.

It was one of the nicest things someone has done for me in a while.

We got to Shtisel and looked around. The person behind the counter tells us that the cholent is coming soon and suggests we have some gefilte fish while we wait. I am still nauseous , but agree.

We took one piece to share with horse radish on the side.

It was very good.

When we were done the cholent had arrived and we got some . It was fully loaded with meat and Kishke (look it up). We also had some potato kugel and Jerusalem kugel.

The cholent was great. The kugels were good, but as my parents always said, everything tastes good when you are hangry ( ok they said hungry).

When we finished, some people on the tour contacted my son, who,  being in the mood to torture some people, had been sending pictures of the food we were eating. They replied, that other than the rolls, they had not eaten yet.

They should have come with us.

I could not end the evening after going to just one place. I went online and found another one called " The Jewish Restaurant" and we decided to take the 20 minute walk to check it out.

It was now around 10 pm. The place was packed. We got the last two seats in the back room. We decided to order some chicken soup, more cholent and a yaptzik (potato Kugel with meat that is cooked over night). I was still nauseous and decided to order a coke zero, which I should have done right away. That really helped.

My son had the soup. He said it was ok (both his mom and wife make wicked good chicken soup).

The cholent was good and the Yaptzik was amazing. I wish I could have eaten more but I was stuffed. It reminded me of the Yaptzik that my sisters mother in law used to make which was the best there was.

While we were eating my son kept torturing his friends with pictures. They said they had finally gotten to the restaurant they were supposed to but it was too crowded so they went to another one that was less crowded. They thought it might have been vegetarian, but they were not sure.

Glad we decided to bolt.

We asked for the check, which disturbed the waiter as we didn’t eat most of what we had ordered. We assured him that it was great but we were stuffed. We asked him to pack the leftovers. While we were waiting, my son's friends informed him that the tour company had sent the wrong guide. The guide that was sent thought he was giving a tour of Bnei Brak not a food tour.

Explains a lot.

Again, very glad my hangryness and impatience won out.

We were done at 1030 pm, the place was still packed and people were still coming in.

How come I never heard of this place?

Now that we are familiar with some of the hot spots, I am sure we will be back to do a more extensive tour in the near future.

No guide needed.

Shabbat Shalom