Dizengoff Food Fair - Just like mama use to cook

... well, not EXACTLY! but maybe? well YES! Tel Aviv culinary world has one of the most diverse cultural backgrounds you can find. The only problem is that you have to travel all over town to sample from African to American, Asian to European... except on Thursdays and Fridays when the food fair at Dizengoff center goes into action. Some 40 to 50 vendors sell from Moroccan and Libyan traditional dishes to Argentinian Chorisso and Empanadas, Chinese Dim-Sum to traditional eastern European Jewish delicacies. Add Sushi, fresh baked Druze pittas, American style baked potatoes, and various sweets like mini-pancakes and old fashion middle-eastern baklava in Iraqi style. Well, you get the point of the title, no matter where your 'mama' came from, you would probably find something traditional and familiar.
Freshly steamed Chinese Dim_Sum, absolutely wonderful.
On a recent Friday afternoon I headed to Dizengoff center for a snack or two. There are so many things here and some have become a favorite, that I have to admit of not sampling many of the stands. On the first floor near entrance #6 you have a small clump of stands away from the main push and shove center (that's on the bottom floor next to Ace hardware). Here I found a Dim-Sum stand with freshly steaming bamboo trays teaming with a dozen different dumplings (both vegetarian and meat). Right next to it is the baked potato stand with a large iron oven and rows of toppings. A few steps away is a cookie stand with a selection of fat free and sugar free cookies besides the traditional ones. Finally you find a cheese stand where you can buy about a dozen specialty cheeses, mostly European.
Dishing out some traditional north African comfort food
But the real action is downstairs. Here in a little corner of this vast cavern of a space are about 20 stands who serve north African (4 stands), Asian (3 stands), south American, fruit salads and shakes, deserts (3 stands) and various other ethnic creations. Most of the dishes are warm and just been cooked in the morning. The sushi is rolled right in front of your eyes and you can even choose the ingredients yourself. Juices and shakes are mixed to your taste. Basically you are not going to leave hungry ;8~)'' ~~ and if you don't want to heat here, just ask the vendor to pack-it up "TO-GO" and you are free from the toil of cooking this evening. Well, that's all for today...
Next: sampling the big-HEAVY dishes, because there is nothing like mama's cookin'
Next-Next: and let the sweet tooth decide, in search for the perfect small sweet...
Next-Next-Next: walking around the mall, the food all over the walkways - little surprises behind every turn... or something else.

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