Buzzy new restaurant is keeping it Israel
Arguably the ultimate hybrid cuisine, Israeli food is really taking off in the melting-pot metropolis of NYC.
Last week, Meir Adoni, Israel’s most high-profile chef, opened Nur in the Flatiron District, bringing his vibrant, creative fare from the Holy Land to Gotham.
“Middle Eastern cuisine has been slowly seeping into the American palate,” says 44-year-old Adoni.
Nur (“light” in Arabic) offers a thoroughly global take on Adoni’s Middle East-meets- West cooking. There’s hummus, of course, along with other Middle Eastern staples. But basics are given unique spins in Adoni’s hands, which have trained in the world’s most innovative kitchens, including at Alinea in Chicago and at Copenhagen’s Noma.
The kibbe, for instance, is crafted from fluke rather than beef or lamb. The hummus is made with lima beans instead of chickpeas, and Adoni trades carp for shrimp in his newfangled gefilte fish.There are also menu items that many New Yorkers won’t be familiar with in any form, such as a signature dish, kubaneh — addictive Yemenite-style brioche dipped in grated tomatoes and fiery hot sauce.
The dishes were mostly developed back in Israel, where Adoni has two restaurants in Tel Aviv’s Carlton Hotel and is a popular contestant and judge on the country’s top cooking shows.
The charming chef imports many of Nur’s ingredients straight from his homeland, but he’s also become a fan of NYC’s local bounty.
“I particularly love the local seafood,” he says. The restaurant’s breads come from beloved Union Square carb purveyor Breads Bakery, another Israeli import.
Nur’s opening has been highly anticipated for more than a year, but Adoni says it’s been decades in the making.
“After 22 years of cooking, it was a challenge to decide what [dishes] make the most impact,” he says. “There were so many ideas I wanted to get across.”