Artists aim to hook gefilte fish fiends

Gefilte fish is the poached fish ball that everyone loves, or loves to hate. Now it’s being worshiped at the Gefilterama, Tel Aviv’s first pop-up shop dedicated to all things gefilte fish, for the duration of Polish Culinary Week.

“We wanted to celebrate it,” said Roni Levit, the infographic artist and Bezalel lecturer who helped conceive the pop-up shop and the temporary gallery that goes with it.

Situated in the Allenby passage, a pedestrian-only byway underneath the busy Tel Aviv street of the same name, the Gefilterama is open for four evenings only, through December 4, serving several types of gefilte fish and appropriate side dishes, such as potato salad, herring and shots of vodka.

The Polish Institute — which sponsors the week-long event — had hired Levit to create a gefilte fish art gallery as part of its efforts to talk about contemporary Polish cuisine. She found, however, that “there’s lots of meaning in gefilte fish,” she said. “It’s all about Ashkenazim and poverty, and it’s encapsulated in this modest dish.”

The pop-up shop is a synthesis of all that, said Levit, taking works of art, merchandise and the dish itself, and celebrating it. “I wanted to do something a little bigger.”

Most of the events for Polish Culinary Week are being held in Haifa, on the streets and alleyways near the city’s slowly gentrifying port area. Activities include baking and cooking workshops, book readings, a workshop on honey and its place in the Polish kitchen, and, of course, meals based on Polish cuisine.

There are also events in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, including a herring dinner on Tuesday in Tel Aviv and klezmer music in Haifa, as well as lectures on the Jerusalem shtetl on Thursday in Jerusalem, and a culinary tour in Bnei Brak. The culinary week’s activities continue through next weekend.

The idea of the four-day pop-up shop came to pass when Levit and Polish Culinary Week organizer Arieh Rosen were in Bnei Brak over Sukkot, figuring out the best stops for the tour.

The town had lots of pop-up shops, marveled Levit, though they were selling palm fronds and citrons for Sukkot rather than the usual pop-up shop fare of designer jewelry or shoes.

They decided to create the Gefilterama in Tel Aviv’s Allenby passage, once the location of the city’s mythic Polish Library, said Levit. She liked the idea of melding old and new in the temporary store.

As for the fish, prepared daily by Tel Aviv chef Yonatan Borowitz, Levit wouldn’t offer her own review.

“You know how it is with gefilte fish — I love my Grandma’s,” she said.

Gefilterama, 94 Allenby, through December 4, 5-11 pm. For more information on Polish Culinary Week events, go to the Polish Culinary Institute website.