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I’d been
anxious to eat at Honey &
Co. in London, which was at the top of my list of places to
try there, but never made it. One of the underrepresented foods in Paris
is Middle Eastern food. With a large population from that part of the
world, most of the restaurants are snack bar-like stands. And even at the
standard Middle Eastern restaurants, I suspect they get their hummus, baba
ganoush and other dips, from elsewhere. The knees on
my pants are all worn down from begging people like Yotam Ottolenghi and
Sami Tamimi of Ottolenghi
and Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich, the owners of Honey & Co., to
open a branch in Paris. But so far, they’re staying on the other side of
the Channel.
My last
trip to London was only twenty-four hours (too many places…not enough
time!) and as much as I tried to get to Honey & Co., and a few other
places, it didn’t happen. And before I knew it, I was back on the
Eurostar train, heading home. But proof that if you wish for
something hard enough, when I was in Ireland at Ballymaloe,
spending time in the kitchen early one morning with the head baker, in
walked Sarit and Itamar, who started to prepare a generous lunch of all
the Middle Eastern foods that I love. And a few hours later, I was
sitting around an amazing table loaded with gorgeous salads, spreads, and
long-roasted lamb, prepared by the talented team themselves!
And proof
that double-dreams do come true, Sarit
and Itamar
recently came to Paris and we had a lovely lunch together.
They’re had a little difficulty adjusting to all the rich foods, but
were troopers. And when we parted, again, they handed me a copy of Honey &
Co. The Baking Book, which I was planning on picking up
the next time I was in the U.S. or England, along with a bag of their
chocolate and pistachio cookies (page 202) that were loaded with
beautiful, bright green pistachio nuts.
The book
was named the Food Book
of the Year by the Sunday Times and it’s easy to see why: If I
had more time on my hands, and I hadn’t been laid up for three months
with a bum knee that eventually needed surgery, sitting around eating
chocolate on my couch, I’d be able to eat everything in the book.
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