"BIGA" Meal in The Grand Kenyon, Beersheva, Waste of Food

I wrote here and on Shiloh Musings about my trip to Beersheva last week. Besides a bit of touring around we had a late lunch in the BIGA dairy restaurant in the Grand Kenyon Mall.

The menu had a great variety of salads and other dishes. They also had a choice of luncheon specials, "business lunch," which offered a first course, main course and a drink, for either ns49, ns59 and ns69. I went for the ns59 and took beet and kolrabi salad as first course with a nicoise aka tuna salad as my main course. I took the selzer as my drink. The coffee here was ordered by my friend.

beet and kolrabi salad

The truth is that I really should have shared the meal. The portions were so large, even I couldn't finish it. And both salads were delicious, really. Or I should have ordered a smaller meal and not the business lunch.

I had so much left over of the nicoise salad that I asked them to pack it up to take home. That's very common for me. It was going to be my dinner.

nicoise aka tuna salad

You may have noticed that I wrote "It was going to be my dinner."  If you're good at English grammar, you may have realized that by using that verb form, I'm telling you that it wasn't my dinner in the end. That's right.

A few hours later, when I got back home and opened the bag to serve it to myself, I discovered a big disgusting mess. No, I didn't take a picture of it. Unlike every other restaurant from which I've ever gotten leftovers to take home, instead of putting the food in a closed plastic container, BIGA used a cardboard box. The cardboard may be fine for bread and cake, or even pizza, but the liquid and oil in the tuna salad turned the cardboard to mush. It was no better than papier-mâché made out of wet, soppy newspapers. So, I had to throw it all out. Kapora, it certainly wasn't worth endangering my health trying to eat any of it. At least what I had eaten in BIGA was tasty, and I had food at home to heat up for dinner.

Now, I've learned that it's worth checking the container of leftover restaurant food. Make sure that pack it safely.

Good Deal on a Quiche at Sambooki

Since I really don't have much of an "eating out" budget, I try to find the best deals when meeting a friend for lunch.  A few weeks ago, a friend had time right before our lunch date and began to scour downtown Jerusalem for the best lunch deal.  She chanced upon the Jerusalem, Rechov Yaffo branch of Sambooki.  They had a "business lunch," but all of the main courses were carbohydrates.  Instead I settled on their quiche, which came with a salad.

It wasn't had for ns39.  I hadn't had a meal there for years, because one time I ate there and they refused to give me olive oil for my salad.  That caused me to boycott them. But when my friend suggested it, I figured it was a good opportunity to see if they'd changed that policy.  They were very cooperative and gave me olive oil, which is what every restaurant does nowadays.  Yes, even the small pizza/coffee shop in Shiloh gave me a generous amount of olive oil for my salad.

A Different "Alice's Restaurant"

Last week a friend and I were looking for a place to have lunch in downtown Jerusalem, and we really didn't want to spend a lot.  By chance we stumbled upon "Alice" on Rechov Shamai.  There was a sign outside offering a "business lunch" for ns39, which is ns10 less than most places in the center of Jerusalem.  And their lunch actually included more, a choice of small salad or soup, a main course pasta dish and a hot drink.

Even though I've been avoiding pasta for years, I decided to save the money and give it a try.  We rationalized that they'd probably be skimpy with the quantity, so how bad could one pasta meal in four years really be?

 

No surprise that I started with their salad, which was fresh and tasty.

My friend and I both had pasta, but with different sauces.  And no surprise that there was more than we had planned on eating.  Unfortunately I finished every drop.  It was that good.  I had the mushroom sauce and she had a tomato sauce.

We both polished our meals off with fresh mint tea.  There was a quality black teabag (not one of the cheap brands) on the plate, which I took home, since I don't like black tea with mint.  The fresh mint tea was a perfect ending to the meal. And they just let us sit and sit.  We couldn't figure out if the service was bad or they were just being polite, since we had to call them over for the bill.

When I later mentioned to someone that we had discovered a new restaurant Alice, he said that it's not new at all, but its present owners had only recently bought it.

We enjoyed ourselves and recommend it.  Next time I'll try one of their lower carbohydrate main courses.  The prices were good, less than other Jerusalem restaurants.

Sunday to Thursday, 8:00 until last customer ; Friday, 8:00 until one hour before Shabbat; Saturday, after Shabbat ends until last customerShammai St. 17City CenterKosher/Rabbinate