At the new Neni Restaurant in the 25 Hours Hotel on Langstrasse, we were invited to try the Balagan Vegan Style (vegan mezze, main courses and desserts). Countless plates of delicious vegan creations from North African and Asian cuisine are served on our table in a colorful mix. Balagan, by the way, translates as sympathetic chaos. Of course, it’s most enjoyable when enjoyed as a couple, so I conveniently shared the delicious dishes with my lovely photographer Roland Soldi.
Almost all dishes are first smoked in the Josper oven before they are further processed. More about the Josper oven here. As an aperitif, we enjoyed a babaganoush (Lebanese specialty: mashed eggplants) served with NENI’s pita bread. The waiter recommended a dry Riesling from Germany called Just.
The selection of soft drinks is huge and NENI’s homemade iced tea is highly recommended! The products on the spirits menu also seem to be deliberately chosen, with the wines all coming from Europe with the exception of Lebanon, which fits in quite well with the Neni food. The waiter also assured me that the best olive oil within a radius of 20 km was found especially for the NENI on Langstrasse. So I didn’t understand why it said on the menu that the lamb came from Australia or New Zealand and the prawns from Vietnam! Since, as we all know, vegetables still don’t have to be declared in Switzerland as to where they come from, I’m no longer so sure how sustainable our vegan balagan really was.
The vegan balagan consisted of Fatoush, Mashawsha, Chickpea Salad with Har Bracha Tahina and lots of fresh herbs and Nuriel’s Favorite Falafel with Har Bracha Tahina Zhug. Pictured in the back of the vegan balagan: Curry mango hummus, sweet potato from the oven with roasted almonds and rocket and spinach salad with citrus vinaigrette. As well as the muhammara, a Syrian specialty made from oven-roasted red peppers, walnuts and pomegranate syrup. We were served NENI’s pita bread again.
Fatoush: Oriental bread salad with date tomatoes, radishes, snow peas, kohlrabi, sumac and herbs.
Sabich is a street food specialty from Tel Aviv. Baked eggplant, hummus, tomato salsa, har bracha tahina with amba (vegan without egg) on laffa bread.
My favorite was the caramelized eggplant with ginger, chili and roasted sesame seeds on Japanese rice.
For dessert, we had a caramelized pineapple carpaccio with chilli threads and olive oil. The special thing about the wafer-thin sliced pineapple carpaccio was that the pineapple was also smoked in the Jasper oven for several hours beforehand. The waiter assured us that only one other restaurateur in the city of Zurich had a Jasper oven like this! The oven impressed me, especially because I thought about how many other delicious, vegan dishes could be baked and smoked in it, beyond meat.
NENI – these are the first letters of the first names of Nuriel, Elior, Nadiv & Ilan Molcho – the four sons of Haya Molcho – the acronym reflects the philosophy of her family, as family is an essential part of her life. We always eat at a big table with the whole family and lots of friends. And this is precisely the principle on which the NENI is based.
Contribution by Lauren Wildbolz
Photos by Roland Soldi
NENI Zurich / 25HOURS HOTEL, Langstrasse 150, 8004 Zurich, Neni Webpage
