Nostalgia Sunday – Snacks n’ shtetls
Filed under: Business, Entertainment, Food, General, History and Culture, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture
Israel’s latest in laugh-out-loud commercials was broadcast about a week ago and immediately went viral.
The TV spot, for baked goods manufacturer Bagel & Bagel’s latest offering, Bagel Dak Dak, (meaning: thin, thin pretzels) is a best described as a 21st century re-imagining of the modern State of Israel’s 19th century roots. It could also be described as the native Israeli sabra’s idea of life in the Pale of Settlement, with an approximation of Yiddish and every Israeli immigrant stereotype thrown in for good measure.
Watch first; a translation follows below. And keep in mind: in Israel, the words beigeleh (singular) and beigelach (plural) refer to pretzels.
Title: Bagel & Bagel bakery, Poland 1880
Son: Father! Mother! I have an idea! Thin, thin beigelach… with flavors!!!
All: [Shocked] What?
Father: Flavored beigelach?
Son: Yes, yes. With peppers… with cheddar cheese… with spices!
Father: Pepper? That’s for Moroccans!
Mother: Flavor… in food?! We’re Polish!
Father: Sweetie, on the day that little Ben Gurion over there is Prime Minister in the Land of Israel… then we will make beigelach with flavors. [Aside] What a golem.
Voice Over: Nation of Israel! The time has come for flavored thin, thin beigelach! New from Bagel & Bagel. Thin, thin pretzels in a variety of flavors.
The ad is rife with historical inaccuracies: flat pretzels (also known as pretzel crisps or pretzel chips) were patented in the US in 2004, Ben Gurion was born in 1886, he grew up under Russian rule, his father was a lawyer and there is plenty of photographic evidence to prove he was not a bald-headed child. But despite these, or perhaps because of them, the commercial has become a wild success.
According to survey company Geocartogaphy’s weekly listing of Best Loved and Most Memorable commercial advertisements of the week, as published by Globes, “Bagel & Bagel’s commercial for thin flavored pretzels, produced by Baumann-Ber-Rivnay, heads the list of the week’s most memorable commercials. The memorable nature of the commercial was 50% higher than the semi-annual average. The company invested $794 million the commercial.”
To my mind, the flat pretzel is genius, eliminating all unnecessary parts of the pretzel, leaving only crunch, and salt. There are several such products on the local market: Meir Bagel’s Shtuchaleh (which captured 26% of the entire flat pretzel market within one month of launching), Osem’s Shtuchim crispy smashed beigeleh, and the new flavored Dakim Dakim by Bagel & Bagel, which is owned by Unilever.
In honor of the launch, Bagel & Bagel issued some interesting stats about the Israeli snack food market: pretzels are mostly consumed by adult consumers (25-55) in Israel. Older consumers tend to consume pretzels as a snack on a regular basis. Of these, about 90% combine personal pretzel consumption with pretzels served to guests. Adults with families tend to buy pretzels at a higher rate (84%), as compared with singles / couples without children (76%). (TNS Monitor, December 2010).
The company further pointed out that, to date, innovations in the pretzel category had to do with shape only and that studies indicated the main obstacle to pretzel consumption was that their taste could be perceived as boring. Hence, the introduction of a flavor component which was not invented by an excitable young man running down the muddy shtetl streets, but chosen by taste tests and focus groups.
The snack food wars are on! We’re looking forward to the next installment.
Squeeze your chummous
Filed under: Business, design, Food, General, History and Culture, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life, Movies
Having a quick visit in NYC, and I was both charmed and dismayed to discover a new product at the hotdog stands — an always expected sight on the New York streets — squeeze chummous in a bottle. It seems that Squeeze-Z Chummous has already been on the market about a year, a creation of a former Israeli, Ami Blashkovsky, who has been living in New York for the last 25 years and was looking for a new adventure.
When he saw the success of various chummous joints around the city (I’ve been noticing the various Aroma-alike coffee places around the city, owned by Israelis), as well as the American love of condiments, he hit upon chummous in a bottle. According to this Ynet story, he first called the business Zohan Hummus (note the hummus rather than chummous), after the Adam Sandler movie in which the character uses ‘hummus’ in every facet of life.
But, long story short, he couldn’t use the name Zohan so went with a more onomatopoeic name, describing the product and its service. So he went for Squeeze-Z. It’s appropriate, really, given that he’s not the first Israeli to put a condiment in a squeeze bottle. There was Yad Mordechai, the Israeli kibbutz that put honey into a squeeze container, modeled on a shampoo bottle. And I blogged here about silan, date honey, in a squeeze bottle, my new fave.
I’m not sure how I feel about chummous and hot dogs, but I definitely like the idea of chummous on a New York hot dog cart. For Blashkovsky, who clearly has the entrepreneurial spirit, like his wife, Emily Frances, a former New York broadcaster who just started her own production company, it’s all about finding what pleases the local palate. More power to him.
Crosby, Stills and Nash play Jerusalem shuk
Filed under: A New Reality, Business, Entertainment, Food, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Music
Long Time Gone playing in front of the Zavit Hamidrash synagogue in Mahane Yehuda.
In the last few years, the venerable ‘old world’ market that has been a Jerusalem institution since long before the state was established, has become a nightlife magnet. Cafes, pubs, tapas bars and chic restaurants have opened their doors attracting a young, hip clientele.
Being neither young nor hip, my wife and nonetheless ventured out after dark into the shuk, and made our way to the Que Pasa tapas bar. Situated in an alley between Mahane Yehuda’s two main streets, the bar is directly across from an old, hole in the wall synagogue.
About 50 patrons were sitting out in the alley at tables to listen to a set by Long Time Gone, a well-known local trio who do a spot on acoustic show of songs by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. They were smoking and the audience was grooving for a good two hours in the cool, but refreshing, Jerusalem evening air.
The band was set up directly in front of the synagogue entrance, which had been closed for the evening after Ma’ariv services. I thought the juxtaposition of the tapas bar, the band and the synagogue perfectly reflected the irresistible mosaic that encapsulates Jerusalem life. May it ‘carry on’ for a long time comin’.
An Israeli Halloween
Filed under: A New Reality, Art, Business, Entertainment, Environment, Food, General, History and Culture, Holidays, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life, Movies, Pop Culture
Halloween cookies from the Cupcake Caterers
Not having celebrated myself growing up — rabbi’s kid, although we did hand out candy to all the neighborhood kids — I don’t have any strong connections to the holiday. And because we were the rabbi’s family, our house did not usually get pelted by raw eggs and such — neighborhood protection. So it was the best of all worlds; appreciating someone else’s ‘chag‘, despite the anti-Semitic associations (we lived in a fairly non-Jewish neighborhood) but not having to take it on ourselves.
Living in Israel, I haven’t really given it much thought, except for cruising through various online store catalogs for Halloween costumes that could work well for Purim. But something’s happening this year, at least through my lens. Halloween has always been different for me than Thanksgiving, which I’ve always celebrated here in Israel, and have continued to do so, despite light censure from Israeli-born nieces, nephews and stepdaughters who think that the American-born adults in their lives are crazy to continue with such a blatantly chulnik (Israeli slangish for ‘foreigner’) celebration.\
Maybe it’s Facebook, and the exposure offered to what other people are doing and celebrating. Or perhaps it’s that global village thing, in which we adapt and adopt others’ trends and rituals because they seem worthwhile. All I know is, Halloween is out there, now translated to ליל כל הקדושים, All Hallows Eve.
There are parties advertised online, mostly hosted by Americans, exhorting invitees to “Do it the same in Israel as we would at home!!” There’s also the potential for doubling up on costumes, wearing what you wore for Purim on Halloween, and vice versa. And there are the comments from many, missing that easy availability of candy corn, half off Halloween candy the day after.
Halloween isn’t the American version of Purim, as Senator John McCain once mistakenly noted, despite the similarities. But it does have its appeal, particularly to those of us who hail from the land of the U.S.A. Check out the cookies made by Sidra Collins Muoio, owner of Cupcake Caterers, for her co-workers.
And, finally, there’s Rabies, Israel’s first horror film, which had its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival last May and played in Toronto in honor of Halloween.
If it’s a celebration of candy, costumes and good times, I’m actually all for it. And I can never argue with an Israeli film that succeeds on North American terms.
Nostalgia Sunday – Tmol Shilshom
Filed under: Art, Food, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture, Profiles, Travel
Some places some are born nostalgic, some achieve nostalgia and some have nostalgia thrust upon them. Bookstore-cafe Tmol Shilshom is all three. Founded in 1994, the location alone — a 130 year-old building on Jerusalem’s winding cobblestone Nahalat Shiva street — would be enough to guarantee a sense of days gone by. And then there’s the name, the phrase “tmol-shilshom” which can be translated as “those were the days”. See? Born nostalgic.
Tmol Shilshom quickly became a fixture on Jerusalem’s literary landscape as a venue for Israel’s best known writers to read from their works. The late Yehuda Amichai, who read from his poetry at the cafe’s opening, was one of its major patrons: his favorite chair still stands in the corner. And so, despite its youth (as compared with other of the city’s older establishments), Tmol Shilshom has acquired a antiqued patina.
In 1996, the cafe expanded to include two separate seating areas, one hall frequently accommodating literary or other events, the other serving regular customers.
Like most public venues in Jerusalem, particularly those in the center of town, Tmol Shilshom was greatly affected by the second Intifada. Frequent terrorist attacks made people afraid to venture out. Many businesses closed but Tmol Shilshom weathered the storm, or, as their website pluckily puts it: “Having survived all that, we’re now one of the veteran and favorite cafes in town. Some people like us for the food, others for the books, and others yet for the atmosphere. There`s always something to do at Tmol Shilshom.”
Despite being classified as a bookstore-cafe, Tmol Shilshom is really more of a bistro if you look at the menu (highly recommended), and their Friday morning breakfast buffet is legendary.
The interior is lined with bookshelves, framed pictures, snapshots of famous patrons and even the menus, covered with images from literary classics, hark back to yesteryear. And then there are the plates — decorated with quotations — and of course, the hot beverage glasses with their metal holders, just like grandma’s.
And the place-mats, which quote both Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and The Jefferson Airplane’s Go Ask Alice. (Click on image to view full-sized). Trippy…
Other well-know authors and poets — Amos Oz, A.B. Yehoshua, Batya Gur, David Grossman, Jonathan Safran-Foer and others — have frequented Tmol Shilshom as well; the place prides itself on being an inspiring atmosphere in which writers can park themselves at a table and nurse a cup of coffee for hours upon hours.
Tmol Shilshom also encourages talent by hosting writers groups and classes. Upcoming is The Book of Beginnings: From the first family’s story to your own (26 October – 28 December 2011) is an English-language creative writing workshop with writer Ilene Prusher, who will guide students in writing fiction and/or nonfiction works inspired by the family stories, inter-generational struggles and complicated relationships in the Book of Genesis.
Writer Judy Labensohn has for several years been conducting an English-language “Writing Gym” at Tmol Shilshom, where she promises there will be “No sore muscles, as in other gyms”. Called Loosen Up, the program is scheduled to resume in 2012.
You can check out CultureKey Jerusalem for other upcoming events at Tmol Shilshom.
Tmol Shilshom is located at 5 Yoel Solomon Street. Open Sunday-Thursday, 9 a.m. till 1 a.m. Closes early on Fridays, closed on Shabbat. Click here for 10% discount coupon from Eluna.com.
Photos by Ella Cohen, Ivan Tihienko
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