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Dining Out Column / Fine Arab dining - in Petah Tikva By Daniel Rogov If one wants to eat fine Arab dishes that are more complex than hummus, kubbeh and kebabs, you usually must go to Acco, Nazareth or the Upper Galilee. It is no great secret that the vast majority of such restaurants in the center of the country offer food that is rarely exciting, and at best "standard" and just a bit boring. It was thus with more than a bit of trepidation that I made my way to Petah Tikva's Lebanese restaurant, Arabeska. One simply does not anticipate finding really good Arab cuisine in Petah Tikva. The restaurant specializes in Lebanese cuisine, and has a pleasing Arabesque decor of heavy drapes, filigreed woodwork and heavy stained glass light fixtures. The simply set wood tables announce that this is a place without pretension, as do two kinds of hot pita that appear almost immediately - the usual pita, alongside toasted pita halves spread with garlic. Advertisement We were four for lunch and opened with the standard meze, which was a clear cut above those at most such restaurants. One dish was of sorrel leaves (chamtzitz) tossed with finely chopped parsley and pickled lemons, and sprinkled with olive oil and lemon juice; the pleasing sourness of both the herbs and the lemon was thoroughly refreshing. Another combination, green onions seasoned with sumac, was equally rewarding and noteworthy. Also included were two eggplant dishes - one with small cubes of grilled eggplant tossed with tehina, and the other mixed with cubed red pepper, peeled tomatoes, carrots and cucumbers. Both were pleasantly chunky, chewy and full of flavor. None of the other meze offerings fell in quality or grace: The tabbouleh was rich with lemon, the fried cauliflower in tehina was just crisp and flavorful enough, the tomato and parsley salad with chopped coriander leaves was very refreshing, and bite-sized bits of zucchini in tehina had a pleasant, minty touch. We went on to several more appetizers: kubbeh filled with chopped mutton, onions and pine nuts, and sambusac filo-dough pastries, filled with either spinach or ground mutton. All were served piping hot, with crispy crusts, full of rich, fresh flavor. From there it was on to a whole eggplant had been split open and set on a bed of especially thick and rich tehina, sprinkled with a hint of reduced pomegranate sauce. The combination of bitter and sweet came together beautifully. And, because it is impossible to visit an Arab restaurant without tasting the hummus, we had some of that, too. And we did not regret it: The hummus was rich, thick and full of flavor, topped with fine Syrian olive oil, hot chickpeas and a generous seasoning of pepper and sumac. One dish that stood out as especially good was the fateh, a traditional Lebanese dish of ground beef topped with thick tehina, chickpeas and pine nuts. If the truth be told, we already had had more than enough food for the four of us, so we took a 15-minute break at an outdoor table to sip coffee and smoke a cigarette. When we returned, our main courses were on the table, and if the first courses had been large, these were huge. We ordered two different tangines of mutton: The first was a mansaf of slow-cooked meat served on a bed of rice and pine nuts. The second was a sinya of soft, fatty meat mixed with tehina baked into a thick, almost solid crust. Both dishes were succulent and rich. Nor did we find any complaints with an order of pleasantly spicy beef kebabs, which were impaled on foot-long cinnamon sticks and grilled. The only dish that was faulted was the machmar, a baked laffa topped with chicken, onions, sumac and pine nuts: The chicken was dry and lacking flavor. We moved outdoors once again to finish with strong, lightly sweetened Turkish coffees and a shared dessert of large knafeh pastries filled with pistachios and served alongside a truly delicious shredded halvah. Although the restaurant offers beer and wine, we decided to settle for the good ice-cold lemonade and equally cold minted water. The food was country-style and simple but delicious, and throughout our meal the service was warm and responsive. The food we received would have been quite adequate for six to eight hungry diners. An average dinner for two will total a quite reasonable NIS 250, and business lunches are offered for NIS 50-60 per person. Worth a visit. Arabeska: 4 Ben-Tzion Galis Street, Tzomet Sgula, Petah Tikva. Open daily noon-midnight. Tel. (03) 904-4242. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Hezbollah abduction How the Lebanese militia captured two IDF reservists in 2006, illustrated in pictures. Kuntar's crimes Israeli YouTube video details the 1979 terror attack perpetrated by Samir Kuntar.

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