Culinary festivals season at the Sheraton Tel Aviv
Review: Following its recent successful festival of Peruvian cuisine, the Sheraton’s Olive Leaf Restaurant is hosting a Sri Lankan food festival through May 18.
The Sheraton Tel Aviv Hotel, in partnership with the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Israel and the Sri Lankan Tourism Bureau, is hosting a 12-day celebration of Sri Lankan cuisine prepared by visiting Chefs Kamal Surendrajith and Iyadurai Madasami. The festival features special lunches and dinners at the hotel’s signature restaurant, The Olive Leaf, as well as a tourism booth and Sri Lankan market in the Sheraton lobby.
The festival began on Sunday, May 7, at a reception in the presence of guest of honor H.E. Mr. Selvaraj Periyasamy Pillai, the Ambassador of Sri Lanka in Israel. The festival was organized by the hotel’s executive assistant manager, Mr. Patrick Mudalige, himself a native of Sri Lanka.
On their first visit to Israel, Chefs Surendrajith and Madasami have designed menus based on traditional Sri Lankan products to create authentic Sri Lanka dishes. On the opening evening, a three-course meal was served to invited guests, reflecting the kind of cuisine prepared at Colombo’s luxury Kingsbury Hotel, the guest chefs’ home kitchen.
During the remainder of the festival, according to Mudalige, more common, everyday Sri Lankan foods—including street food—will take center stage.
The first of the three courses of the opening night dinner reflected influences of South India, Sri Lanka’s immediate neighbor. A sushi-like roll made with sticky rice came in two versions, one stuffed with shredded spiced chicken and the other with potato similar to the filling of a masala dosa. This was accompanied by a tasty vegetable cutlet reminiscent of yellow dal, as well as cubed mixed vegetables that had been in pickled in a delicate solution redolent of clove.
The three-part dessert featured the versatility and ubiquity of the coconut in Sri Lankan cuisine: a crepe, sweetened with coconut treacle; a reddish-pink square of coconut confection; and strips of kalu dodo, a gel of passion fruit candy.
The Sri Lankan festival is taking place a mere 10 days after the Sheraton’s festival of Peruvian cuisine, featuring visiting Chef Pedro Luis Guimet, of the acclaimed Peruvian-Japanese fusion restaurant Niqei in Lima. Held in collaboration with the Embassy of Peru in Israel, and co-sponsored by Air France-KLM, this was the second year in a row that the Sheraton has hosted a Peruvian culinary festival.
Chef Guimet’s menu comprised four starters, all featuring fish—three of them raw fish, a staple of Peruvian cuisine. Interestingly, classic ceviche was not one of them; but my Peruvian friends (the local Peruvian community turns out in force for these festivals) had placed a special order, and the perfectly marinated morsels of white sea fish practically transported me back to Lima.
My own order, meanwhile, was the tiradito salmon in huancaina sauce, with herbs and kernels of corn. Huancaina is one of Peru’s most popular sauces, made with the ubiquitous aji amarillo (yellow pepper), and it enhanced the extremely fresh salmon nicely
There was an ample variety of main courses, one each of chicken, lamb, beef and fish. Our waiter recommended what the menu described as filet of beef with Lima-style vegetables, which actually turned out to be lomo saltado, which, along with ceviche, is unofficially considered to be the national dish of Peru. Once again, the highly seasoned strips of beef sautéed with bell peppers and pea pods was authentically rendered and delicious.
There were two desserts, representing two products from the Peruvian rainforest: cacau (cocoa) and lucuma, a tropical fruit, both of which are nutritional powerhouses that are being imported into Israel as South American “superfoods.” The cacau mousse was an intense version of our more familiar chocolate mousse, while the rice pudding cooked in lucuma nectar was an exotic treat.
There were no specialty cocktails in the framework of the festival, as the Peruvian national liquor Pisco is still awaiting kashrut certification. But there was a special selection of Flam wines that paired well with the fine examples of Peruvian cuisine.
For lunch and dinner reservations during the Sri Lanka festival, call (03) 521-9300.
Olive Leaf Restaurant
Kosher
Sheraton Hotel
115 Hayarkon St., Tel Aviv
Tel: (03) 521-9300
