Yesterday I had the pleasure to go out and have lunch with my wife. For a long time now I had been wanting and craving Asian style fast food. As we all know, sadly in Israel, they never understood the concept of Asian fast food. The Israeli weren’t able to differentiate between: Chinese, Thai, Japanese and so forth. So after living here for almost 20 years, I have come to peace with it, and tried to enjoy it as much as I can.
Lately, for the past couple of years, the flavors in these fast food places have been amped up by so much MSG, that the taste of the food is purely based on soy and MSG. But, I have found a place that actually uses spices in their food, and not just MSG. The take out place is called Chooka (mychooka.co.il). It is located in the Hadar mall in Jerusalem. Their menu is split up into 3 categories: Stir fries, Sushi and beef or chicken dishes with a side of noodles or rice.
What is great about this specific take out is a couple of things: They call themselves an Asian Kitchen, so you know what to expect and not get disappointed They have an online takeout menu that you can order from! No more phone ordering!; They use fresh ingredients! They have an open kitchen so you can actually see what goes in your food.; The portions are HUGE! I needed to share a main course with my wife the portion was so big; The have a 10 shekel menu appetizer menu if you order a main course.
So what did we order? The business lunch for 50 shekels, plus an appetizer for another 10. We ordered Lemon Chicken strips that were battered and glazed beautifully, wit a side of Pad Kavu stir fried noodles that were just excellent. For a starter I asked for wings because I love deep fried anything. They also threw in for us a eggplant pancake that was just delicious. I know it’s just take out fast food but they really hit the nail on the head with their Asian flavor profile.
We didn’t order sushi but the menu looked really good and so did the sushi that they rolled out for other customers.
All in all, if you are looking for a decent priced Asian style take out, this is a great choice.
And remember, ” eat well, so you don’t get food poisoning”.
The Israeli Foodie 