Ananda: Joyful, vegan and Indian

• Published date: 07 January 2021
• Author: GLORIA DEUTSCH
• Date: 07 January 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

With a vegan son and several vegetarian grandchildren, it's always good to discover yet another vegetarian hot spot – and Ananda certainly qualifies as one.

The two partners who own and run it are Allon Sarkin and Raji Gotti, both trained chefs who merged their different culinary backgrounds – South African for Allon and South Indian for Raji – to create the menu for Ananda, open now for nearly two years.

Driving through lovely Israeli countryside, it takes about 40 minutes to get to Ananda from Netanya. The place was crowded with locals picking up their lunch and is obviously very popular.

While waiting for our food, we checked out the shops in the Artists Stables where Ananda is situated.

They are literally converted stables, once used to keep the horses that belonged to the nearby Rothschild Agricultural School – only recently closed – now housing a variety of arty boutiques. There are clothes shops, a plant nursery, an old long-playing records store and a ladies underwear shop labeled "breathing lingerie," among others.

We picked up our meal and carted it back to Netanya to enjoy in the privacy of our home.

We began this vegan feast with samosa, triangular-shaped fried pastries filled with mashed potato, cashew nuts, peas and flavored with fresh ginger (NIS 15, 2 for 25).

"For these we use ordinary flour," explains Sirkin, "but for everything else the flour is gluten-free.

Reheated in the oven, these were predictably delicious, with crispy batter enclosing the pungent filling.

Dosa are the South Indian version of pancakes but, of course, made without eggs. At Ananda they are made by soaking rice and lentils overnight...