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Jacko
Hanan Sher
(May 8, 2000) The original Jacko, in an alley off Haifa�s produce market, gained considerable local fame and a loyal Northern clientele by serving fresh fish and seafood at modest prices. The Tel Aviv branch is newer, but every bit as popular.
In moving to the big city, the proprietors tried to replicate Jacko�s big-time lack of decor or style; both places have long wooden tables covered with white paper right off a long roll, and start off by placing an assortment of mezze - humus, matjes herring, grilled peppers, finely chopped cucumber-and-tomato salad and ikra, or fish roe in mayonnaise that�s sometimes called the poor man�s caviar, on the table.
There�s no menu, either; in Tel Aviv, a burly man who might be called the ma�tre d� if he weren�t unshaven and wearing a stained T-shirt, pops up to describe what's offered. "I have big fish, and small fish," he begins, inexplicably in English even to Hebrew-speaking diners. On prompting, he owns up to the fact that you can also get calamari, shrimp and crab claws. Our party of five resisted his efforts to sell us the big fish - which turned out to be grouper - in favor of an assortment of dishes. Particularly good were the scampi, made of American-sized shrimp rather than the tiny-but-tasty variety usually offered in these parts; a denise, or sea bream, split and grilled to near perfection; and barbounia, finger-sized reddish Mediterranean fish dipped in a little flour and deep-fried that send my palate into flights of ecstasy.
At the close of our most satisfying meal, we expected a scribbled-out bill on a stained slip of paper that we were accustomed to getting in Haifa. To our surprise, the account (a modest $22 a head, including beverages and dessert) had been itemized and printed out by an ultra-modern touch-screen computerized cash register. It was proof that even authenticity has its limits.
6 Balfour St., Tel Aviv. Tel. (03) 525-9604. Open daily, noon -1 a.m.
Good Taste
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