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Dine In • Catering • Take-Out • Local Delivery 20
December 2012
American mother, Kathy Leon, met her Israeli “Whenever she’d bring my grandmother a box, father, Kobi Rasner, when she came to study she would hide them in the freezer and nosh in Israel as part of an overseas program of the on them straight from the freezer, because if Zionist youth movement Young Judaea. The anyone in the family would have known that couple got married after Kobi — who fought she had them, they would vanish in 10 secin the Yom Kippur war — completed his army onds. For years, I tried to get Lea Jean to give service; they moved soon afterward to the me the recipe, but she never did. Finally, when States. Kobi opened a wholeI opened NOLA, she consale jewelry business in New ceded the recipe. I promised Orleans, while Kathy became to name them after her and active in the Jewish comto never reveal her secrets to munity, teaching Hebrew anyone.” and Israeli folk dance. Talya NOLA is also a café, servand her younger brother and ing breakfast and light meals: sister were born in New Orsandwiches, salads, and leans. even the ultimate American The family moved back comfort food, macaroni and to Israel when Rasner was cheese. The house specialty 8 years old. Except for four is called blackstone biscuit, years studying industrial NOLA’s version of eggs design in Milan, she spent benedict, in which poached most of her life in Tel Aviv eggs, bacon, and fried tomabut could never get the sweet to, dripping with Hollandaise smell of her formative years sauce, rest inside a Southern out of her mind. “It’s not that Photo by Karen Biton Cohen buttermilk biscuit, instead of you can’t get a muffin or a Talya Rasner, NOLA’s owner. the usual English muffin. cupcake in Israel — you can, Not all Israelis are partial but a lot of times they’re not exactly right,” she to NOLA’s use of bacon. “It’s this Israeli thing said. “In Israel, a lot of muffins just look like that even nonreligious people have something muffins, but they’re actually way too rich and against pork,” Rasner said. “They don’t mind heavy, and not light and fluff y, like a muffin eating shrimp, but they shudder at the thought is supposed to be. The chocolate chip cookies of bacon.” Nonetheless, NOLA has already acyou get in Israel usually aren’t crispy on the quired a loyal fan base, including observant outside and chewy on the inside. I wanted Americans living in Jerusalem, who drive all to open a place where you can get American the way to Tel Aviv for a taste of home. “They baked goods like they are supposed to be.” don’t eat bacon, but the fact that they even Still, she knew that not everything about come here is impressive,” said Rasner. “They American treats would work in Israel: “I didn’t tell me they never eat in restaurants that aren’t go overboard with American over-sizing,” she kosher, and that NOLA is the only exception.” said, “and even my large cookie isn’t the size Because Rasner had also studied design, of your head.” she was very deliberate in planning the look Rasner, who from an early age baked at for her bakery: “Since the beginning, I had a home, isn’t a professional baker, and it was very clear vision of what the place would look by chance that a mutual friend introduced like, what it would smell like, how it would her to Harriet Sternstein, a Jewish pastry chef feel,” she said. NOLA’s dining area spreads out from New York who recently made aliyah af- to the backyard and has a distinct romantic ter having lived in Paris — where she opened feel, mixing new furniture with natural wood Europe’s first gourmet dog bakery, Mon Bon pieces and vintage findings imported from Chien. Rasner found in Sternstein her culinary American flea markets to create a haven of soul mate, who understands what it is to wax old-time America in the heart of Tel Aviv. nostalgic about Pop Tarts and Peppermint “Some people tell me that the place looks EuPatties. Now NOLA’s head baker, Sternstein ropean,” she said with a giggle, “but they only happily prepares Rasner’s treasured family say that because it doesn’t subscribe to the recipes, like Grandma Nat’s poppyseed cake, stereotypical America that many Israelis have made with sherry, or “Lea Jean’s munchies,” in their mind.” which are Talya’s mother’s cousin’s version of mandelbrodt. Dana Kessler has written for Maariv, “My mom’s cousin, Lea Jean, lives in Mem- Haaretz, Yediot Aharonot, and other Israeli phis, where she’s locally famous for her special publications. She is based in Tel Aviv. This mandelbrodt cookies, which she makes with article is reprinted from Tablet Magazine, pecans — popular in the South — instead of tabletmag.com, the online magazine of Jewthe traditional almonds,” Rasner explained. ish news, ideas and culture.
Southern Jewish Life