Starters

Chopped Liver

£12.50

Chicken livers, gingerbread, grapes and foie gras foam

A favourite Ashkenazi starter, Gehakte Leber or chopped liver is one of the best known of all Jewish dishes because of repeated references by Jewish comics. The dish dates back to the medieval Alsatian communities where, of course, foie gras also originated.

Pastilla

£10.95

Braised lamb neck in phyllo pastry, spiced nuts, parsnip purée, capers and golden raisin jus

After arriving in the Ottoman Empire and discovering phyllo, Sephardi Jews sometimes substituted it for the pastry in their pies. Moroccan pastilla is the phyllo pie traditionally made with pigeon filling and served on special occasions.

Pastrami on Rye

£12.50

Pickled tongue, Asian pear, pickled walnuts, mustard seeds and horseradish

Sussman Volk is generally credited with producing the first pastrami sandwich in 1887 in New York. Volk, a kosher butcher, claimed he got the recipe from a Romanian friend in exchange for storing the friend’s luggage while the friend returned to Romania. The sandwich was so popular that Volk converted the butcher shop into a restaurant to sell pastrami sandwiches.

Starters

Moroccan Carrot Salad (v)

£8.50

Heritage carrots, Korean chilli, Persian lemon and cumin

Jews of Moroccan descent are one of the largest ethnic groups in Israel and this popular Sabbath lunch dish from their homes has made its mark in a cuisine that also now enjoys couscous, preserved lemons and harissa.

Sabich (v)

£8.50

Miso infused aubergine, slow cooked egg yolk, pickled brown mushrooms and ‘tahini’

Sabich was brought to Israel by Iraqi Jews in the 1940s and 1950s. On the Sabbath, when no cooking is allowed, Iraqi Jews ate a cold meal of precooked fried eggplant, cooked potatoes and hard-boiled eggs. One theory is that the name Sabich comes from the Arabic word sabah, which means “morning”.

Jewish Penicillin

£9.50

Chicken consommé with chicken ravioli and mandlen

Often referred to as Jewish penicillin because of its perceived medicinal qualities, in many Ashkenazi households no Friday night meal can begin without a bowl of golden chicken soup.

Baccala

£10.50

Salt Cod, chickpea pancake, fennel, olives and orange

An ancient method of preserving fish survives in the form of baccala (salt cod), used to make a variety of Jewish dishes. Beginning in the eleventh century, this abundant fish became the staple of much of Western Europe, including Sephardim.