City Poyke

To whom that was an expert in Poyka, was glad on the import, so I brought him all the way from Jerusalem to visit the “Poyka Bar” in Jaffa to taste how the city people do the Poyka. Not to discriminate but to give it a chance. The experience of the city Poyke that we were about to embark didn’t resemble to nothing we know.

The experience of the city Poyke that we were about to embark didn’t resemble to nothing we know.
We are used to a pot that slowly cooking on charcoal in a corner of the edges of the Banias River, farmers in sandals and dirty working trousers bending over the dish tasting and stirring it. Here we have an elegant bar that’s lit in red and a large chef with a flirtatious barman whom is serving us the delicacies on the bar where we sitting.
In short we had to put the old time Poyke cooking fantasy aside and give the modern one a chance.
The “Poyke” in the Noga neighbourhood in Jaffa, next to the “Gesher” Theatre is a meat bar that tries to give a meaning to the cauldron cooking.
The Poyke comes from South Africa and it’s usually used when out on open sites. It’s a classic way to cook all kind of stews, but in Jaffa its used to roast Antricot and Sinta but they promise a bigger variety in the winter.
My expert is sitting with pleasure as the first portions are served. More that he loves Poyke he simply loves meat, so we start tasting from the three heavy and very hot pans.
One is Jinja which is a big Prtobelo mushroom, red peppers and fresh spinach – roasted. We open the mushroom in half and I get all the spinach.
In the second pan we have Sintana squares roasted with lenthiles and butter. The Sintana was not bad but the highlight were the lenthils.
But in no doubt that the pick of the first course was the Burger Cape which are small burgers made out of beef and sheep fat. “Good burgers” I say to the expert so he answers “burgers are good, its an insult to those delightful balls”.
For the main course we waited quite a while for the Sinta but in the mean time the barman was filling us with drinks and gave the expert to try is hand made Vodka that burnt his throat abit and made me offer some indecent proposals.
After the barman treatment we were ready for some more meat and that came in a baby Poyke, full of potatos that tasted roasted from a fire. That alone could have ended my meal. The expert carved the Sinta meat that was soft to the exact. A few minutes of silence and chewing and then he drank from his beer and I from my cocktail.
On the bus back to Jerusalem I’m sure the expert was wondering not only how much of a great of meal we had but also the wonderful evening we spend.
The warm nights on the edges of the “Banias” we will never replace, but for the rest of the nights, the Poyke Bar in Tel-Aviv will enter with honor to our option list for a good meal and a good night out.
Poyke
14,Tirtza Street
Jaffa
Tel:03-6814622