Purple Haze

Toasted beet and cheese sandwich

Place: Café Flora, Ganei Tal

When: Monday afternoon

Environment: This “café” is actually a bright blue food truck, situated outdoors in a nursery. It has a striped red and white awning and a vitrine of desserts, with the rotating offerings scratched out on a chalkboard menu. The ambience was marred by the noise of generators or trucks or something else loud, underscored by unnecessary music playing. The seating was under a tent at wooden tables decorated with small potted plants, flanked by a hodgepodge of chairs, on gravel. Hanging greenery was suspended against the walls of the tent. There were a few lower tables right in front of the food truck, outside of the tent. Everyone was there: There was a mix of young people, religious and not religious people, friends, soldiers, and families. A scent of weed wafted by, possibly from the people comfortably seated right by the truck. Since everything was outdoors, flies were a nuisance. Ordering was done at the truck, and they gave you a beeper to notify you to come get your food when it was ready. Café Flora has a popular gimmick with Korean whipped coffee and boba tea where the customer chooses what goes in the drink, which is served in an open “can”; you then take the can to a special machine that seals a top onto it so that you can shake it up, and pop it open like a Coke when you want to drink it.

My Order: Toasted beet sandwich (NIS 45), cappuccino (NIS 12), purple sponge cake with vanilla cream, white chocolate ganache and blueberry mousse (NIS 36).

The low-down: When I placed my order, they asked how I like my cappuccino – which was a first for me, and I appreciated it. That said, if what I got was “strong”, I can’t imagine what the “weak” tastes like. The coffee was fine, but not what I would call strong. At least it wasn’t milky. The cake was sweet but good. The sponge cake was soaked in some kind of blueberry syrup, but it held together, and was a pretty purple color. There were two layers of cream inside – one white (vanilla) and one light purple (blueberry), with a crumbled cookie crust (like graham crackers) at the bottom. The top layer was white chocolate with a pretty berry swirl and dollop of cream. If the coffee had been stronger, it would have been helpful to offset the sweet dessert. The sandwich was well toasted, on the verge of burned. It had a crispy outside, and a tangy inside. There was a nice Bulgarian cheese texture and flavor inside, with walnuts and beets. The whole sandwich was served steaming hot. In all, the food was good. But the atmosphere was not exactly calm and quiet.

Who else was there: Three young men shared a table; they looked like they were still in high school, but they were actually home on leave from the army. They all had dark skin and dark hair, one wore a black kipa. Two were in sweatshirts with their sleeves pushed up, and one was in a t-shirt. They all had traces of facial hair on their chins and lips. One sported a floral tattoo on the back of his hand. Their footwear ran the gamut: one guy was in a pair of army boots, one had on gym shoes, and the last was in flip flops. A couple packs of cigarettes and lighters were strewn on the table beside them. They were looking at their phones and their hands, but interacting with each other as well.

The guys had an easy comfort among them, like they’d been friends for a long time. They grew up on a kibbutz nearby, and often found ways to kill time together. Their parents know the three of them can always be found together. No one bothers them when they sit here. It’s hard for them to figure out how to be. It’s hard to focus on anything now. It’s always been hard, but add the war to that, and the fact that their buddies are out there fighting and they will be going back soon. They’ve been under stress and pressure and enemy fire, and then they sit in a peaceful nursery among citrus trees and people sipping cold coffee. The future seems a bit grim, but the present is quiet. So they’re taking comfort together, enjoying the simplicity of sitting at a table with friends, even if they’re not saying much.

Bluberry cake