He had always loved cooking – “my wife says I take food too seriously,” says the 32-year-old Mednick – so he decided to turn what was a hobby into his new occupation. With a wife and three young children to support, he was determined to make it a success.
Even he was surprised by the speed with which his new project caught on with fellow citizens in Ramat Poleg and beyond.
“Within an hour of putting up my first post on Facebook, I’d received over a hundred orders,” he says.
News traveled fast about the new food delivery company in town, and today he almost can’t keep up with the demand. All the dishes are prepared in his home kitchen, and he makes everything himself, even the buns that accompanied our dinner.
The first course on the menu was listed as “Peking Duck,” but Daniel hastened to point out that real duck would have made the dish far too expensive, and turkey meat is substituted. The dish has to be assembled by the eater, and all the elements are delivered separately – the small flat pancakes, the hoisin sauce and the spring onion and cucumber garnish, as well as the spiced turkey meat.
I found this a fascinating dish, where all the ingredients blended together into a great mouthful of taste (NIS 75 for 10).
The other starter consisted of slider buns (homemade), a small burger bun for those, like me, who have never encountered the word “slider” before in this context, and these were to be filled with BBQ pulled brisket, which came separately. The shredded meat had been cooked over time with caramelized onions and was very soft with a mild smoky flavor. The dish was accompanied with aioli and spiced mayonnaise (NIS 65 for 6).
The main course was chicken tikka masala, a dish much loved by expatriate Brits in Israel, Daniel tells me. This comes with yellow pilau rice, which is a star in its own right – flavored with a multitude of spices.
The chicken pieces were mixed with chunks of potato, chick peas and sweet potato, and were tender and tasty. Altogether a very satisfying main course (NIS 39 or 45, depending on if collected or delivered).
Daniel also supplies a dessert in the shape of luscious homemade brownies garnished with broken-up Oreo cookies (NIS 40). Very good with a glass of mint tea, which I was compelled to make myself.
Although he is not under kosher supervision, we had no problem eating the food Daniel serves up. He explained that anyone cooking from home cannot get official kashrut certification, but many ultra-Orthodox people in his community order his food, including orthodox rabbis.
To order: 058-550-0803.
The writer was a guest of the caterer.