CATERED DINNER AT THE INBAL HOTEL, JERUSALEM

It is important to remember that the menu at a catered affair is based on what the sponsors are willing to spend. As a result, we review the food itself.

Let’s start at the end. How was the dinner? Meh.

The evening began with a cocktail hour. There was a wine and beverage bar. At each bar, there were fresh crudites and nuts. Passed foods included: stuffed mushrooms, schnitzel tidbits, grilled pieces of marinated chicken on a small skewer, pieces of battered, fried fish, and pigs in a blanket. All were good, and all were tasty.

Then came dinner.

The first course was a salmon and avocado tartar with pieces of smoked salmon. We found it to be much too salty, but we admit, that is a matter of taste.

The second course was a greenleaf salad with walnuts. The salad was a mixture of back yard greens, weeds, and other stringy things. Some salads had two half cherry tomatoes, others had three. Apparently, there was a tiny dollop of dressing in the bottom of the bowl. It was so small, that it could not dress the entire salad. Great rabbit food. Not so great for a fancy dinner.

The main course consisted of “Beef medallion & chicken filled with veal & spinach served with sweet potato puree, broccoli, cauliflower, and wine sauce.”

There was one very small sprig of broccoli and one of cauliflower. The puree was like drinking a beverage, and simply leaked through the tines of the fork. The chicken was one half of a very small chicken breast, deboned, and stuffed. The chicken was actually tasty, if very small.

The beef must have been from a clearance sale. The piece was about one inch by one and a half inches. It was covered with the so-called wine sauce. The meat was so stringy, that it appeared to have been left over from someone’s over boiled soup meat. The meat was essentially bland, and had an annoying habit of getting stuck between teeth. Plus, it very clearly was not a medallion of beef. A true medallion would have been insulted to be compared to that piece of cheap meat.

Dessert was served on long pieces of slate- a nice touch. There was a tasty mango sorbet, and two other pieces. All were, thankfully,quite good.

We went home and had a small snack before bed time. As we said, merely meh.