Explaining flavor

January 9, 2012 - 9:01 AM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: design, Environment, Food, General, History and Culture, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness 

Chefs at work at Machneyuda

There are times, many times when I’m reading an Ha’aretz article about something — whatever — and I’m just stumped about what they’re trying to tell me, the reader. Consider the piece in last weekend’s Haaretz Magazine, “Creative, But is it Edible?”, about how — I think — local chefs go to incredible lengths to come up with innovative dishes. It takes a while for the writer to get to the idea that local chefs, mostly Tel Aviv chefs, of course, are aspiring to be the kind of chefs that create from scratch, not merely copying or interpreting but making new flavors, textures and, eventually, recipes. It takes a while because the piece begins with chefs in Spain, and while that’s interesting, it’s not clear what their connection is to us.

Anyway. I was pleased to find that they quoted Asaf Granit, one of the chefs from the very popular Machneyuda, which is in Jerusalem’s Machane Yehuda market and is considered one of Israel’s top restaurants right now. Unusual, really, as Jerusalem is seldom considered the have the best of anything trendy in this country. We may not care, but, sigh, I guess I do. So his contribution to this piece about coming up with unusual dishes was the following:

“Last week, there was a married couple and four young women here for a bachelorette party. We quickly got into a very interesting discussion and I decided to prepare a dish of beef tartare for them – right in their hands,” says Granit. “We put on their hands a layer of beef, onion, parsley and capers, all minced. We squeezed on some fresh lemon, drizzled a little olive oil, and all they had to do was lick their fingers.”

A traditional mahlabia

And down in Ashdod, a flourishing seaside city, Balzac’s Nati Shafrir (whose restaurant is possibly named after a very popular restaurant in NYC) is thinking about serving a dessert in a glass ashtray (you think there may just a little bit too much smoking around here?): He’s working on an “edible version of cigarette ash. It will be made of roasted coconut or cinnamon and cloves.”

Lovely. And, finally, a quote from Itai Rogozinsky, who owns the Vaniglia ice cream parlor chain and is most proud of his frozen yogurt made with rosewater, roasted pistachios and apricot jam, kind of a takeoff of mahalabia, a pudding dessert that is popular in many Arab countries. How does this boy who says the yogurt is “a nostalgic reminder of his childhood in Kochav Yair” — a suburban town east of Kfar Saba that has been around about 25 or so years, created by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to solidify the Green Line — know about mahalabia? Probably from the excursions his family used to take to nearby Nablus, Kalkiya and Tulkarm, three Arab towns in the vicinity.

It’s all good, drawing from memories and good flavors to create new tastes. And, interestingly, way down in the article an unnamed source commented that Israeli chefs just travel abroad to the chicest restaurants and come back to copy what they ate there. Would have liked a little more on that idea. Just a little context would help, oh Ha’aretz editors.

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Good guys

May 20, 2010 - 12:45 PM by · 3 Comments
Filed under: General, History and Culture, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Pop Culture 

An Israeli guy, or valley, verdant and planted

I’m thinking about the Hebrew name, Guy. Of course, as a native English speaker, it’s one of those names that’s just odd for me. True, it doesn’t mean anything like its current common English definition of man, or person, in its Hebrew form. There was Guy Fawkes in the 1600s, and it was a popular name back then until Fawkes attempted to blow up the British parliament. Now Guy Fawkes is an annual celebration in Britain when it’s customary to light bonfires and burn effigies. Yet there are still English Guys out there. According to the website, Think Baby Names, it is a name of Old German origin, and its meaning is “wood”. May also possibly be Welsh “lively”, or Old German “warrior”, or from the French “guie”, meaning “guide; leader”. Guido is the Italian form.

In Hebrew, ‘guy’ is defined as a valley or gorge. It’s considered modern and geographical in origins, according to the name blogs, websites and books. It’s pretty popular, and as Hebrew names go, easy to pronounce, unlike ‘Dror’ (drawer) or Hanoch.

It’s been on my mind because there are several Guys in my life right now. A major client, for one, a close acquaintance, for another. There also used to be the Guy Pines from the Israeli TV show, “Erev Tov Im Guy Pines,” a kind of Israeli EW that may be going off the air, according to Ha’aretz.

Pines’ show has been highly popular, and not only because of the way his name is pronounced. During its 13 seasons it won 12 ‘Israeli Emmy’ awards. It was one of the few original shows produced by HOT [cable company] that became real hits, and has been identified with the cable company for years. Pines became known as the go-to entertainment-news guy in Israel.

In fact, the commercials for his show were highly entertaining, as they would feature Hollywood types saying, “Hi, Guy,” clearly thinking that they were saying the American word, ‘guy,’ and clearly amused that this Israeli guy had the name Guy.

Once you’ve been living here for a while, you do get used to the name. But I — as a user of the term ‘guys’ when addressing a group of people — always wonder what the person named Guy feels, knowing that his name in English means, simply, person.

Chances are, he’s not considering it at all. What a guy.

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Burning down the house

May 2, 2010 - 8:42 AM by · 2 Comments
Filed under: Environment, General, History and Culture, Holidays, Israeliness, Life 

You don’t see a lot of firemen in Israel. With all of our various crack rescue and security teams available at a moment’s notice, it seems like the fire department is the forgotten arm of the country’s safety wing.

Growing up the US, you see fire stations all over the place, and visits to the firehouse are part of the elementary school curriculum. Here, most people would be hard pressed to tell you where the nearest fire station is.

Since most homes are built of stone, it drastically decreases the chances of fire – leaving the hot, dry summer and the advent of forest fires as the firemen’s busy time of the year.
But there’s one other day, when the obscurity of the Israeli fireman is unveiled to reveal him and her in all their splendor – Lag Ba’omer.

The celebratory evening of bonfires is the firemen’s Super Bowl – the day when they are rightfully seen as the heroes they are.

“This is our night,” Haifa firefighter Shimon Lahav told Ha’aretz on the eve of the holiday which began on Saturday night. “Suddenly everything we’ve dreaded the whole year happens – in an organized way. Bonfires everywhere, with the danger that they’ll spread.”

Aside from making sure over enthusiastic children or drunk revelrers don’t injure themselves in the huge fires tht are lit throughout the country, the firefighters’ greatest fear on this holiday is bonfires that are not put out properly.

“Such bonfires, with the wind the next morning after the people have left, can spread and cause fire and disaster,” Lahav says.

“On a visit in San Francisco I sat with a fellow firefighter and talked about work. I told him we had 35 firefighters in Haifa in charge of some 6,000 outbreaks a year. He turned white and couldn’t understand how we do it. In the United States, 12 firemen are dispatched to the smallest incident in which people are trapped,” Lahav says.

“With us it’s five at best, two or three at worst. So slowly people are beginning to understand that we’re the only sector that isn’t fighting for money, but we ask for more people because ultimately it affects our ability to save lives.”

Firefighters’ greatest fear on this holiday is bonfires that are not put out properly.

“Such bonfires, with the wind the next morning after the people have left, can spread and cause fire and disaster,” Lahav said.

Walking out this morning along the access paths and open spaces behind home in my neighborhood, it looks like the aftermath of a war scene: smoldering fires, scorched earth, the smell of burnt material of every kind.

The country’s least environmentally friendly holiday is over for another year, and the firefighters can return to their obscurity for another year – at least until the first summer forest fire ignites.

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A mole or a victim?

April 9, 2010 - 2:21 PM by · 2 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, Crime, General, Israeliness, Social Justice, War 

Anat Kam in January (Photo: AP)

Is she a ‘mole’ as leading newspaper Yediot Ahronot called her in a headline splashed across its front page today, or a victim of Israel’s oppressive, outdated censorship laws? It’s just possible that Anat Kamm is both.

The case of the ex-soldier who allegedly stole 2,000 IDF documents – some of them extremely sensitive – and gave them to a reporter for Ha’aretz, has riveted the country, even though until today, Israelis could only read about from foreign news sources. If you haven’t read about it yet, you can do so here.

As the case unfolds, none of the sides involved – Kamm, the army, the Shin Bet, Ha’aretz – are looking very attractive, but if what’s being reported is true, it’s Kamm who comes out smelling the worst.

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A taxing issue for Bar Refaeli

January 13, 2010 - 11:12 AM by · 4 Comments
Filed under: Blogging, Business, General, Life, Pop Culture 

It’s not a good month without a posting on Israel’s supermodel Bar Refaeli. Despite her being – with the possible exception on tremendous NBA rookie Omri Casspi - the most successful and effective PR tool that Israel could possibly hope for, there are some who have it in for her.

Maybe it’s because she managed to break out of the tiny confines of Israel and becoming a worldwide phenomenon, thanks to her Sports Illustrated spreads and advertising campaigns. Or maybe it’s because of some out-of-context quotes about her feelings about Israel that were blown out of proportion by Israel’s yellow media (which unfortunately is also the country’s biggest and most popular daily paper – Yediot Aharonot). Or maybe people are just jealous of her success.

The latest barb against Bar was in today’s Ha’aretz, which reported that Refaeli has asked the Israel Tax Authority to grant her nonresident status for tax purposes.

Refaeli has paid tax here over the years as required, but is now looking at ways to save hundreds of thousands of shekels annually by changing her status.

It seems the authority will find a solution in an effort to keep her paying at least some Israeli taxes. The question of residency status for tax purposes revolves around issues such as how many days a year a person spends in Israel, where he works and if he owns a home here. In any case, Refaeli does most of her work in countries that have tax treaties with Israel, so she will most likely pay part of her taxes here and part abroad.

Now, I don’t know of anyone living here and paying taxes who hasn’t bitched and moaned at one time or another over the tax burdern we working stiffs shoulder. If any of us had a loophole to save some of that precious income, wouldn’t we jump at the chance? And don’t tell me those self-employed among us aren’t writing off every possible item they can to lower their tax burden.

If Refaeli is abroad most of the time, and getting paid for assignments in other countries, why shouldn’t she take advantage of an opportunity to save some money. Maybe she doesn’t want to go on – like the rest of us – funding haredi families whose whose main potential breadwinner studies all day and relies on the welfare our taxes make possible.

Ah, but I digress. This is about Bar Refaeli, and she’s demonstrated time and time again that she’s an Israeli patriot, representing Israel at tourism fairs, always speaking highly of the country in public, and presenting a beatiful face of Israel to the world. If it was smart, our top officials would waive all her income tax and put her on the government payroll.

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