Foto Friday – Apples & Honey
One of the more lovely traditions of Rosh Hashana is eating apples dipped honey to symbolize our hopes for a sweet new year. At this season, you start seeing apples and honey everywhere. Body artist Flora certainly does…
Dorit “Dot” Malin, a talented architectural and stage lighting designer, created this lovely image incorporating dance and light.
Israel’s Fruit Production and Marketing Board has chosen to market apples the old-fashioned way…
And there are a slew of apple-themed New Year’s animations on YouTube! A small selection follows. Enjoy! And a healthy, happy and prosperous Shana Tova to all.
Picking apples for New Year at Kibbutz Malkiya
Apples and Honey
Shana Tova – the Apple’s Perspective
Shana Tova – Another Apple
Happy Holidays
You can tell Rosh Hashana is nearing when guards at restaurant entrances and parking lot attendants merrily say “Hag Semach” to their customers. Radio and TV talk shows also sign off with “Shana Tova”, and in the work place, the well wishing already began a couple weeks ago.
In empty lots and corners around Jerusalem, vendor are already out selling supplies for Succahs, with the holiday of Succot right around the corner. It’s another sight that might seem out of place anywhere elese, but feels perfectly natural here.
And the supermarkets, let’s not get started on that… ok we will. Israelis must think that there’s going to be a food ban after the two days of Rosh Hashana, because for the last week or so, the parking lots and aisles of all the food emporiums have been jam packed, from morning til night. If you have to do some last minute shopping on Friday morning (erev chag), it’s best to bring an army helmet and some elbow pads. We Israelis are serious about our food.
But, by late Friday afternoon, a sense of serenity will begin to spread, and by nightfall families around the country will be gathering for their Rosh Hashana dinner – part 1. Another year, harder than most, has come to an end, and Israelis will collectively be commemorating it.
All of the above are some of the endearing aspects of holiday time in Israel, and a timely reminder of why we live here, moving to the rhythm of the Jewish holiday cycle. May we all move together toward a better year ahead. Shana Tova!
The Milkman
Filed under: Business, Food, History and Culture, Israeliness
I’ve written before about Eilam Omer and his extensive grocery delivery service, but now he’s added a hilarious offer to his list of fresh bread, cheese, produce, meat, fish and staples purveyors.
Each morning, as the daily newspaper plops in front of your door, add fresh chocolate milk and rolls to your morning deliveries. If you live in Herzliya, Ra’anana, Hod Hasharon, Shoham, Mevasseret Zion, Jerusalem or Efrat, you — and your kids — can have milk-in-a-bag delivered right to your door every morning. The Milkman, as this latest vendor is called, delivers the Milk Man bag to each customer’s door by 6:00 am, well before school starts.
You can choose from 12 different types of rolls, including the classic all-white roll that is most often paired with a bag of chocolate milk, as well as a challah roll, ciabatta, baguette and several others. As for the chocolate milk, choose your favorite brand, Yotvata or Tara, and flavor, because there’s also banana milk available on the market.
Of course there’s nothing quite like chocolate milk in a bag, a takeoff of the original milk in a bag concept. I can’t say that chocolate milk in a bag is an Israel-only concept, but the pairing of a roll with chocolate milk for the walk to school — or drive to work – is a brilliant one. Combining the comforting carb of the roll with the cool freshness of the sweet chocolate milk is the ultimate way to begin one’s morning. It’s such an Israeli fave that ‘shoko b’sakit’, as it’s called in Hebrew, has its own Facebook page, Wikipedia entry and blog entries.
Milkman isn’t the first Israeli entrepreneur to benefit from the Israeli obsession with dairy products. Two Tiberias yeshiva students last year devised the Kankomat, an improved version of the milk container that it comes complete with its own knife.
As for Milkman, all new customers receive a Milkman tee-shirt, which is always a bonus.
Tarantino takes a stab at Israel
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Movies, Pop Culture, War
Quentin Tarantino in Tel Aviv tries to get a waiter's attention. (Photo: AP)
The lauded filmmaker was making his first trip here to promote the Israeli premiere of his latest film “Inglourious Basterds,” his typically violent, quirky World Warr II-based epic that depicts a fictional Jewish-American band of vigilantes who take revenge on Nazis
Wearing an AC/DC shirt, Tarantino met reporters in Tel Aviv on Tuesday and said that the most important part of his visit was to gauge the Israeli audience’s reaction to the boundary-breaking film.
In an AP report, Tarantino called the bloodbath of the Nazi characters a different brand of World War II film.
“To me, taboos are made to be broken. They’re meant to be pushed over,” Tarantino said. “One of the things that I think is a drag a little bit about movies dealing with World War II for the last 20 years is that … all the movies have really focused in on the victimization of World War II.”
“I’ll be seeing it for the first time in an Israeli cinema. I’ll be seeing it for the first time with an Israeli audience,” Tarantino said. “I’m interested to see, ‘OK, are there laughs here? Does the suspense work here as well as it works somewhere else?’”
Appearing with Christoph Waltz, who plays a Nazi in the film, and Lawrence Bender, the film’s producer, Tarantino insisted that the film was an adventure story and not a Holocaust film.
It’s a bunch-of-guys-on-a-mission movie.” In writing it, he said, “I wasn’t influenced by Holocaust movies, I was influenced by adventure films.”
The Jerusalem Post reported that when asked why he made the character of the Nazi colonel played by Waltz (and nicknamed the Jew Hunter) so charming, Tarantino said, “I don’t judge my characters. I’m always surprised by my characters. Each of them has his reasons why. There are no heroes or villains [in the film].”
When a reporter wanted to know what the moral of his film was, Tarantino laughed. “I’m not a moralist. I don’t believe in morals.”
We Israelis are a tad touchy on the Holocaust subject, so Tarantino, who also visited Yad Vashem on his stay here, may be in for a few surprises at the screening on Thursday. However, most reviews agree that the overly gory film is more of an adventure film that won’t offend an Holocaust sensibilities.
Tarantino might also be surprised to discover, if he ventures out to a restaurant or orders room service, that most milk shakes on menus here actually cost more than $5 – and they’re not such “f***** good shakes”
“Garcon!!”
Picture of the week
I want to be alone: A Canadian Sphinx takes a rest from the judging at the International Cat Show held in Rishon Letzion near Tel Aviv this week.
This is the first time the event has been organized in Israel. It was also the first time unpedigreed cats were allowed to compete for prizes in an Israeli show.
One hundred and twenty-five cats from all over the world took part in the competition, organized by the New Israeli Cat Alliance (NICA) at the Neve Shikma sports arena. Visitors were asked to vote for the most beautiful cat of their choice.
The Sphynx, also known as the Canadian hairless, is a rare breed of cat. It appears to be hairless, but is actually covered with a very soft, fine down which is almost imperceptible to both the eye and touch.
People describe them as part monkey, pig and human because they are intelligent, extroverted, affectionate, and let’s face it – not exactly the most attractive of beasts.
People seem to love them though. Check out the video here .
Photo by Lior Mizrahi/Flash90.
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