Super Soups at Alma's

Yesterday when my friend and I were walking around center/downtown Jerusalem, we needed an early lunch. The numerous Alma soup stands caught our eyes. Neither of us had ever tasted any of the Alma soups, considering that the weather beginning to chill, hot soup seemed perfect.

The hardest task was choosing a soup. As you can see, there's a great variety of parve vegetable/lentil/bean soups plus meat/fleishik kubeh* (kube/kubbe/kubbeh) soups, which also have a lot of vegetable.

Since we both follow the principle of not ordering out what we make at home, we chose kubeh soups. My friend chose the beet, and I chose pumpkin. Usually I find restaurant soups much too salty, but mine was perfect, and my friend also enjoyed hers. We sat outside at one of their tables, which was very pleasant. Jaffa Street has become very peaceful since the lightrail now travels on it instead of buses, cars and taxis.

Alma soup stands are at a number of locations along the main streets downtown. We definitely recommend it. Which is your favorite? Please let me know in the comments.

*I consider kubeh to be the most accurate spelling, since it's pronounced with a long "u" and short "e." For those not familiar with them, a kubeh can be considered an Iraqi dumpling, kreplach or wonton.

Discovered Kubeh! Restaurant Review

Just a week after my friend and I discovered how inexpensive, satisfying and diet-friendly eating at a typical Israeli "meat restaurant" could be, we met again for lunch. This time we started searching for a place on the Gan (Park) Sacker end of Rechov Agrippas, a short walk from the shuk. Obviously the ambiance was quite different from the recently expanded Hadar Mall where we had eaten the week before, but since the shuk is known as a great place for reasonably priced food, we were optimistic.

A sign advertising kubeh caught our eyes. Just like the week before when we ordered liver because it's not in our kitchen repertoire. The big advantage of eating out is to order what you don't need at home! Kubeh is definitely something we don't know how to make. It's a mid-eastern "dumpling" generally served in a soup. Neither of us had any real memories of eating any, which was the perfect reason to go into מסעדת מורדוך Mis'adat Morduch. It's a small restaurant, and the staff let us look at the menu before we sat down.  We do that a lot, and we sometimes walk out without ordering if the prices and selection aren't acceptable.

We were hungry and curious so we decided to stay. It just didn't seem worthwhile to walk up and down the street looking to save a bit of money, if that was possible.

We ordered one Red Kubeh Soup and one Kabbob, skewer of dark chicken and decided to share it all. We had to pay NS5 each for a selection of "salads" in small plates and some pittot. I must admit that the salads were nothing special. I don't think that the best was as good as the worst one we had tasted last week.

When the large bowl of soup arrived we asked for a second bowl and were given two normal sized soup bowls, which we filled up.

The soup and kubeh really were delicious! The chicken was, too. As a large lunch, it was very filling and satisfying. The total bill came to NS62, meaning just NS31 each before the tip. Considering how disappointing the salads were, I'd skip them if returning there to eat. Other customers liked them, so I do recommend trying them and making your own decision.

מסעדת מורדוך Mis'adat Morduch   70 Agrippas Street, Jerusalem. 02-6245169. They offer catering and Take Out.