Kukla also celebrates Christmas: special menu, gift boxes and scratch cards (with prize). Ayelet and Ronen’s “house” continues to be a place where the best of two worlds converge, now also with a menu in Valencian. Among the restaurant’s novelties, there is now a menu that allows you to enjoy food with your hands and loyalty vouchers for regular customers. Although it does not stop looking back to its origins, Kukla is a window to the most authentic València. The one that resides in the neighbourhood of El Carmen, in the historic centre, and feels it as if it were its home. The house of Ayelet and Ronen Reiss, the faces and hands behind Kukla since 2019, wants to be a special, generous, comfortable and free space. Both are working to bring a piece of their customs and gastronomy to our land, also during the Christmas season, in which they have come up with many novelties in the form of special menus and gift boxes to buy both on the premises and in the new web shop. But let’s take it step by step.

Kukla is about sharing…

Its recipes, characteristic of the Middle East, go hand in hand with sharing. Because at Kukla (Calle Palomino, 8), as tradition dictates, everything that is eaten is shared. That’s why its menus are mezze: everything in the centre and to be enjoyed with friends or family. Menus such as, for example, the one they have prepared with great care for the approaching dates, with the aim of “presenting unknown flavours, but very typical for the festive season”. Their Christmas menu, which can be enjoyed from 1 to 31 December, in groups of at least 4 people and with prior reservation, features new dishes such as:

Beetroot soup with sweet potato kibbe. Kibbe is one of the most common foods in the Middle East. With a light spicy touch, this homemade recipe substitutes sweet potato for the original minced meat.

The aubergine and feta brûlée. After a crunchy first layer, the softest vegetable cream. A light dish to complete the Christmas menu. 

And the basbusa, to sweeten the after-dinner meal, which is prepared with semolina dipped in syrup and added coconut. One of the most popular in the Mediterranean area.

Aubergine brûlée (left) and corn polenta with mushrooms (right), dishes included in the Christmas menu.

Dishes that are traditionally eaten with the hands -or with cutlery, always at the diner’s choice-, and which can also be ordered this December, at least the most special ones, off the Christmas menu. So that no one is left without trying them. Their original names, by the way, remain unchanged in the Valencian menu, which is one of the main novelties of the restaurant this season. Now, Kukla “wants to welcome you to its home. A place to enjoy, eat and laugh through simple dishes, full of tradition and cooked with a lot of affection”. You can consult it both in digital format and on paper at the establishment itself.

In addition, this Christmas the restaurant has launched a dynamic for its most loyal customers. Under the name ‘Scratch and Win’ by Kukla, and for a specific period of time, customers will receive, along with their bill, a very special version of the surprise card. It contains prizes as delicious as a falafel tapa, a jar of tahini or, if we want to go all out, even a dinner for two.

But also to surprise…

Kukla’s gastronomic experience can be savoured at home thanks to the gift boxes they want you to surprise your loved ones with at Christmas. “It’s a different kind of gift for people who like to learn about other cultures and try new ways of cooking,” say the owners. Inside? A delicious jar of tahini for making hummus and various spices for cooking and seasoning recipes. These are on sale at the restaurant itself – you can check availability here – and at Kukla’s new online shop (you can pick them up at the restaurant), which wants to open the doors to its gastronomy for you to enjoy it wherever, whenever and with whomever you want. In fact, the boxes are not the only novelty in the shop, as gift cards are also available for purchase. The way it works is very simple: the buyer chooses the person they want the voucher to go to, selects the amount of the voucher, and surprise! It will go directly to the email address requested. This way, once it is in the hands of the recipient, it can be exchanged at the restaurant. It’s that easy and appetising.

What’s to come…

Kukla has always been that home to come back to. Where you can feel the shelter of its authentic and familiar dining room, while playing with a culture that is inspiring. However, Kukla is not only a storyteller of her roots. For Ayelet and Ronen, the present is just as important as the past. So, it is not surprising that they are now turning the page to a much more current and meaningful chapter… to express what they are experiencing at any given moment. In short, what moves them to continue growing. A way of being and doing things that has already earned them a Solete Repsol in 2021 -which they have revalidated in the latest editions of the event-, as well as a place in the Hedonista Guide yearbooks for 2023 and 2024. Looking ahead to next year, the restaurant has prepared several things with which it wants to liven up the calendar of events for the local and foreign public. The closest one? The one that will take place during the first months of 2024 and which will focus on Kukla’s catering. Thus demonstrating that its recipes can be transported and tasted wherever you go.

Report by ‘24/7 Valencia’

Article copyright ‘24/7 Valencia’