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Dining Out / La dolce vita in Tel Aviv By Daniel Rogov In the beginning, there was Vince and Tamar, a bistro-style restaurant where chefs Vince Mustar and Tamar Cohen-Zedek ruled in relative harmony. Mustar was responsible for the venue's noteworthy sausages and cured and smoked meats, whereas Cohen-Zedek focused on the antipasti, pasta and other Italian dishes she perfected over a five-year stay in Italy. That the restaurant was a culinary success from the time it opened nearly four years ago was beyond question, but not long ago, Mustar moved on to open Charcuterie. Cohen-Zedek stayed put, changed the name of the restaurant to Cucina Tamar and took the bistro in a clearly Italian direction. The venue was renovated, with the large kitchen still open to plain view but spruced up, a new, attractive bar and small, intimate tables. The upstairs dining room is still approachable only by ducking one's head while walking up a narrow staircase. The main addition is a deck for outdoor dining and personal menus (in the Vince and Tamar days, the only menu was written on a large blackboard). Better yet, the tables, even outdoors, are set with well-ironed white tablecloths and linen napkins. All in all, Cucina Tamar is quite charming and still a bit funky. If there is any jarring note at all, it was only that the banal pop music playing in the background seemed more than a bit inappropriate. Advertisement We opened with two pastas. The first, triangular-shaped raviolis, were filled with Parmesan and ricotta cheese, which had been blended with bits of black truffles. Served in a light brown, butter truffle sauce, the raviolis melted in the mouth and were full of rich flavor. Considered a delicacy and an aphrodisiac since Roman times, black truffles, whether fresh or stored in oil can add marvelously to many dishes, their almost pungent earthy aromas tantalizing both the nose and the palate, and this dish was no exception to that rule. The second dish we tried was of tortellini, small pasta pockets that in this case were filled with a mixture of artichokes and Parmesan cheese and served with a garlic and olive oil sauce. Again, a relatively simple dish but one that had been well prepared and was thoroughly enjoyable. Being both a carnivore and a person who relishes innards, I continued with yet another first-course offering - lamb brain. Done in the style of the lake country in northern Italy by coating the bite-sized cubes of brain in breadcrumbs, cooking them gently in a veal stock and then treating them to a sauce of lemon, butter, parsley and breadcrumbs, the meat was rich and full of flavor, soft enough to almost melt in the mouth. Served with julienned strips of carrots, parsley root and turnip, the dish was a treat, going splendidly as did the earlier dishes with the bottle of the 2005 Yiron red wine from the Galil Mountain Winery. For my entree, I opted for the scaloppine of veal. Served in a generous portion, with the veal cut thin and then pounded with a wooden mallet to make it even thinner and softer, and served precisely as it should have been with a sauce of white wine, butter, sage and lemon juice, the dish was a treat. To add to my pleasure, the meat was accompanied by a heap of mashed potatoes, which was seasoned nicely with salt and pepper and whipped until quite smooth. To my pleasure, there was quite enough sauce on the plate to even further enrich the potatoes. My companion, who ordered the bass fillets, did not fare quite as well. The fillets themselves were good, having been sprinkled over generously with Mediterranean herbs before being fried in butter and olive oil. What somewhat spoiled the dish was the hodgepodge of vegetables that dominated the plate; these included lubia beans, Jerusalem artichokes, cauliflower, broccoli, Swiss chard and tomatoes, which were piled haphazardly on the plate with not nearly enough consideration for either aesthetics or the fusion of flavors and textures. We closed our meal with four scoops of homemade ice cream, of which three flavors were delicious. The guava falvor was somewhat bitter and did not appeal. From the time we arrived until we had finished our meal, the service was warm and responsive. The wine list, of both Israeli and Italian wines, is short but appropriate and offers several good wines at reasonable prices. Our food bill came to NIS 385, to which was added a reasonable NIS 35 charge for corkage, as we had brought our own bottle of wine with us. All in all, this is a traditional Italian cookery and Cohen-Zedek's inspired execution produces dishes that leaves one wanting more. I will definitely return. Cucina Tamar: 10 Hatsfira St. (near Yad Charutzim), Tel Aviv. Open daily 6 P.M.- midnight. Tel: (03) 639-0407. Bookmark to del.icio.us   The King is dead Archeologists find new evidence for King Herod's tomb site. Al-Hasbara Israel launches Arabic YouTube channel to bypass Arab media.

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