Mish Mash

Antipasto sandwich

Place: Bluma, Kiryat Tivon

When: Monday, early afternoon

Environment: Bluma is a combo bakery-café, where you can buy breads or other baked goods to take home. However, they didn’t seem to have much on offer in the “take-home” category on the day of my visit. The shelves were sparse, bearing just a few loaves of bread and some packaged cakes. The café portion had tables spread in a long line outside, with some more tables in a tent enclosure outside the door of the establishment. It looked a bit haphazard, but it was likely intentional. Nearly all of the patrons were women when I was there. Meanwhile, the man running the place seemed overwhelmed and frazzled, and wasn’t the friendliest I’ve encountered (probably as a result of being overwhelmed). I sat outside at a table, which should have been pleasant and peaceful, with the green of late winter blooming, and the flowers and sun around me (but shaded by awnings), and butterflies flitting about. Lemon trees hung with fruit along the length of the “patio.” But it wasn’t the nicest environment, due to the roar of air conditioners or whatever machinery I heard emanating from nearby buildings I couldn’t see. I could also hear the clanking from inside the kitchen. I probably should have chosen a table farther from the building, up top at the picnic tables, but then I would have been closer to parking lot. At Bluma, ordering is done at counter, and diners are given a beeper that notifies them when to go in and pick up their food. There is also self-service cutlery and water, and patrons bus their own tables.

My Order: Small cappuccino (NIS 13); oatmeal chocolate peanut butter cookie (NIS 14); antipasto sandwich (NIS 45).

The low-down: The coffee was ready first, and it was nothing special; it was mainly milky. The soft cookie was good and fun, though the chocolate part got a bit melty in the unseasonably warm winter weather. It was a good excuse to lick my fingers. Meanwhile, the parsley-mint pesto (or whatever it was) inside the antipasto sandwich was quite good, fresh and interesting. Like the cookie, the sandwich was a bit messy to eat. And like the cookie, it was tasty. The sandwich was made on pretzel bread, which was also special, and it was sprinkled with some coarse salt. The bread was fresh, not too chewy, and not too light. Along with the pesto, the sandwich included slightly caramelized sweet potato, which was fairly dominant, and some other vegetables. The sandwich was served with a lightly dressed fresh salad on the side, made of salanova (butter) lettuce and Lalique lettuce, red pepper, cherry tomato, red onion, cucumbers. The tomatoes were oddly tasteless, which is not typical in Israel, but perhaps it’s excusable in the winter.

Who else was there: A grandmother and granddaughter sat across from each other at a small table. The grandmother wore a blue sweatshirt, black pants, and black gym shoes. Her short hair was dyed brown, adorned by sunglasses perched on top. Her granddaughter’s hair reached down to the middle of her back and was dyed as well, but blonde. She wore a white, half-zip sweatshirt and wide black pants. Though in her early 20s, her face still evidenced some acne.

The pair sat and ate their salads and talked in a way that showed they were close, and they were used to having real conversations. They weren’t overly animated or excited. The grandmother was sharing with her granddaughter about what happened to her friend’s husband: He woke up one morning with unexplained pains and ended up in the hospital. Now her friend is back and forth between the house and hospital, and the grandmother doesn’t envy her. She expressed gratitude that she was spared all of that, as her husband died suddenly instead of being confined to a hospital while he faded away. Her granddaughter listened patiently, not saying much. She was there mainly as an outlet for her grandmother to talk, to have company. And it was a nice day for a late lunch.