Balls & Stuff

Appears in

Published 2014

About

One of our favourite restaurants in the world is called Restaurant Margaret and Victor (RIP) Tayar. It is little more than a hut on the beach in Jaffa, an ugly concrete balcony facing the most beautiful sea scene. The humble plastic tables and chairs are dressed in tablecloths that look like, and indeed are, old bed sheets. The brilliance of the food comes as an utter surprise, as does the magnitude of the bill.

The food you eat there is the stuff of dreams – charred peppers with preserved lemon and mint sauce, sweet and spicy beets with currants, white aubergine purée, red aubergine purée, fried marinated aubergines, vine leaves, gorgeous hummus. . . and these are just the starters. The couscous dishes are second to none. The grouper kofta are legendary. There are sardines stuffed with coriander and cod’s roe, and beef and potato mafrum, everything bright and electric with flavour.