Chametz-loading
The kitchens are cleaned or getting there, people are going nuts buying food, clothing, getting their hair cut, having their cars washed (including price gouging of NIS 100 for what usually costs around NIS 50) and experiencing general panic over the upcoming 8-day holiday.
But when I was at the mall earlier — joining the hordes in some erev Pesach spring shopping — I was dismayed to find that even the food joints were closed or being cleaned, including Aroma, despite the fact that I had been long awaiting an iced Aroma Americano. True, they have to clean for Pesach like the rest of us, especially those outlets that are open on Pesach, but the days before are crucial times for eating out, when houses — and fridges — are empty and folks are whining about not having enough options for eating in their cupboards.
Check out these shuttered spaces in Jerusalem’s Malcha Mall:
Jerusalem is for the birds
Filed under: A New Reality, Environment, General, Life, Travel
What would you do if you had a few hours free in Jerusalem?
That almost fictional scenario came to pass for my wife and I this week, when the planets coinicided and we both found ourselves with a free morning to play.
Of course, a delectable Israeli breakfast is a requisite start – available at any dozens of cafes and chains like Aroma, featuring lots of fresh chopped salad, a variety delectable cheeses, eggs, and strong cafe hafuch.
Then we considered a number of options. One was a spending a couple hours at the Bible Lands Museum, where we hadn’t been in many years. Another was a trip to Yad Vashem (is it only in Israel when having a good time includes going to a Holocaust museum?). We also haven’t been there in years, since the major renovation was completed. But the day was so warm, sunny and hopeful, we decided to keep that option open for another day.
Instead, we made our way to the Rose Garden, next to the Knesset and the adjacent Jerusalem Bird Observatory. Most visitors to the Knesset are probably unaware that there’s a world of nature situated so close to the legislative center of the country.
Established in 1994 by the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, the observatory serves as the national bird banding center. It was founded, and is directed, by nature artist Amir Balaban and ornithologist Gidon Perleman. Two hundred birds are banded every day by trained volunteers during the spring and fall migrations. You can read and see all about it in Rachel’s post here
There wasn’t a lot of action during the time we strolled around the observatory, but the environment was mesmerizing and calming. Anyone with a spare hour can find an oasis of tranquility right in the middle of Jerusalem.
Happy 1st birthday, Ziv and Lev
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Israeliness, Life
Lev, Ziv and the rest of us
Ziv and Lev are a year old, and 365 days have passed since they were born, at 2 and 1.2 kilos each, respectively. We’ve gone through learning about the Hadassah NICU, how to nurse (me and them), bath and feed. We’ve figured out the tag-teaming that is twin-care, from lifting two at at time and feeding with one spoon (it’s a lot simpler) to figuring out who really needs you when both are crying and not worrying so much about favoritism issues.
We’ve become friends with our Tipat Chalav nurse, Nira; have become accustomed to the grins, smiles, stares and well-meaning strangers who constantly stop to ask if the two similar-looking boys sitting side by side in the stroller are twins; and now know that in Israel, red is considered a color for baby girls, not boys. We’re into the park and playground circuit, and despite our ‘advanced’ age as parents (and grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins), it’s kinda fun to hang out with all sorts of people at the playground. Turns out that when you have kids, you have a lot in common with anyone else who is or has ever been a parent.
Which means that if you can hack it, there’s a lot of good advice out there, which I’ve been wise enough about taking so far, and hopefully will continue to do so. If it wasn’t for my sisters and a good friend, I never would have sleep trained my boys, and consequently, wouldn’t be getting good nights of sleep for the last four months. And almost everyone, when you’re the parent of twins, has something to tell you. It can be the guy at Aroma the other day, who showed me the video on his cellphone of his 15-month-old twin girls, and he also has an older daughter, similar to our blended family situation. Or the friend who’s also a mother of 19-year-old triplets, who gave us a photo album for each boy, with a designated page for each month of their first year. Better get working on that. (Thank god for Mac and iPhoto, which separates your pics into months.) Or the neighbor who has six-year-old twins and told me — when I’d had a particularly harrowing day around five months — that things get much easier after they’re six months old. She was right.
But all in all, it’s been a fantastic year. And we’re looking forward to many, many more. Happy birthday, Ziv and Lev.
A kitchen chair
Filed under: Business, design, General, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life
This can be filed as an only-in-Israel story. I think. In any case, it goes like this: I’ve been looking for the right kitchen chair for several years now. We’ve been doing just fine with our Esther hand-me-downs, a very common wooden-frame, cushioned seat that is fairly ubiquitous in Israeli homes, but is simple, inexpensive and fairly long-lasting. And now that two of them have highchairs strapped to the seats, and food being smeared all over, I’m not unhappy to be sticking with the hand-me-downs.
However, my mother and I were looking for an outing, and I was thinking that a kitchen chair search could be just the ticket. Remembering that I’d seen chairs that I liked in my local Aroma branch — Emek Refaim in the German Colony — a smooth wooden L that is printed with an image of woven fabric, I decided to ask at Aroma where they’d purchased the chairs. No idea. So I called Aroma headquarters, pressed 1 for customer service and was very surprised to have the phone answered on the first ring by ‘Reuven’ who cheerily greeted me and asked how he could help me. I told him that I had a strange question and he told me that no question I could have would be strange. Hmm. So I asked and he told me to call the franchisee of the Emek Refaim branch, or his manager, and I’d have an answer. I did, and Asi told me that they’d bought the chairs at an all-chair store in Ga’ash, which is a shopping center mecca just north of Tel Aviv, and, incidentally, the first shopping center to be open on Shabbat.
Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised by the great customer service, and while I do love Aroma, hadn’t expected quite that level of American friendliness and professionalism. So much so, that I used this story as an example of how Israel is sometimes positively influenced by American customs, in a talk I gave to a Birthright group the other night. But back to Aroma and kitchen chairs.
We drove to Ga’ash, and given that Asi didn’t remember the name of the store or its exact location, it took about half an hour and a few false starts before the postmistress of Kibbutz Ga’ash told me that I was looking for a store called Pick-Up, located just across the parking lot from the Ga’ash Hot Springs (which were discovered when the kibbutz was digging for oil, no joke). We got there, maneuvered the stroller in, and found said Aroma chairs as well as a few other options, all currently being considered. There must have been some 500 straight-backed chairs in the store, as well as outdoor seating, in case you’re looking for chairs.
We then went to Aroma for lunch, mostly because it was easy to find– although it would have been more fun to find a different cafe in Rishpon — and as I sat on their plasticized rattan couches with white cushions, I could appreciate just how much Aroma invests in its furnishings, because now I know.
And that, is the end of the story.
Coffee roasting and other gourmet hobbies
Filed under: A New Reality, Business, Food, Israeliness
Hyper-specialized gourmet-themed hobbies are getting really big in Israel. It’s no longer enough to just be a “foodie.” I have a friend who has made really good beer, and I’ve met several people who have been involved in one way or another in boutique wine-making. Homemade-style chocolate boutiques are springing up everywhere now. Olive pressing (for olive oil) and curing is emblematic of the region’s symbology, with many of my peers debating various methods of cracking and spicing the fruit.
And then there’s coffee. Israel is one of the few countries that has actually survived an attempted Starbucks infiltration – and has responded by exporting our own espresso bar chain to the USA. The Eretz Nehederet sketch comedy TV show once spoofed newfound Israeli coffee snobbery with a poignant vignette (viewable here with English subtitles)
When I visited Vietnam a few years ago, I had the opportunity to enjoy “weasel coffee” (if you need to ask, click here), so I probably out-snob any of the local coffee snobs – without taking myself as seriously, of course. I buy cans of ground beans at Café Joe, after all.
But check this guy out. He takes coffee snobbery to a new level. Dima Ingret, a 36-year-old high tech worker who lives in metro-Tel Aviv, apparently likes to roast his own exotic beans, which he orders on eBay when he travels abroad on business. But more and more of these varieties are apparently appearing in Israeli stores, making things easier for Ingret and his fellow enthusiasts.
According to the piece in Haaretz which profiles Ingret, as well as Shaul Rubin, CEO of coffee and coffee accessory importer Amigo, the Israeli coffee aficionado scene has clearly reached a turning point:
Israelis have jazzed up their hobby with shiny machines and home roasters to such an extent that the hard-core members of the coffee clubs are invited to the launchings of designer machines (bothersome events that were reserved until now only for top-of-the-line machines). The coffee market in Israel has turned into an experts’ market….
Maybe we would’ve been better off had Starbucks succeeded here.
Image by jevnin from Flickr under a Creative Commons license.
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