Donut belly

December 5, 2010 - 11:20 AM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Food, Holidays 

Sufganiyot from Roladin

I can usually handle my Hanukkah donuts. As long as I keep up with my exercise routine, I might gain a kilo, maybe two, but it comes off pretty quickly.

But this morning, on my run, I could barely move. I go out with my wife Jody; she’s faster on flat ground, I zip up the hills, but on this day, she beat me in both elevations. My belly felt like I was lugging around a two-month-old fetus – OK, I don’t actually know what that would feel like, but I was unnaturally sluggish.

I should have expected it. Every year we go searching for the best sufganiyot (Hebrew for Hanukkah donuts). A few Decembers back, there was a tiny bakery on Halamed Hey Street in Jerusalem that won the newspaper critics’ award (and well deserved it). The shop has since closed down.

A close runner up (according to an annual poll conducted by The Jerusalem Post) was the Roladin Bakery which has an astounding variety of flavors – from double stuffed chocolate to champaign (with real alcohol). Jody found a coupon for one free donut with a purchase of ten. Soon, we had a pretty plastic container of decadently decorated sufganiyot on the kitchen table.

We split many of the donuts into halves and even thirds. The frosting was wonderful; the dough less so – it was heavy not fluffy and particularly flavorful. That didn’t stop us from finishing the box in one go.

To make matters worse, I had eaten a large falafel earlier in the day. The perfect Hanukkah treat – it’s also fried in oil – but an irredeemable blow to my waist.

I’m not the only person to complain of the December holiday bulge. And I know I’ll be OK eventually– we’re planning three hikes for the coming week, which should work off the extra calories. Still, I wonder why I can’t muster the willpower to abstain, when I feel so bad afterward.

Must have been all the champagne.

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Foto Friday – Hanukkah light

December 3, 2010 - 2:46 PM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Environment, Foto Friday, General, News, Religion 

Hanukkah, like its other winter holiday counterparts, is all about light. This fact was pointed out to me once by a religion news reporter (yes, there are such beings), who also noted a peculiar human trait: that of making the best of things: as the days grow short, rather than curse the darkness, we celebrate the days with candles and light.

We light candles at Hanukkah (or wicks floated on olive oil) to honor the memory of the Temple rebuilt and its seven-branched menorah, with a nine-branched variant: one flame for each day of the holiday, plus the central, utilitarian shamash.

How sad, how sad and terribly ironic that the holiday which we celebrate with tiny points of light should be marred by the largest conflagration in modern Israel’s history. The winter drought – also history-making as Israel’s longest – made it a snap for the fire to take hold and spread in all its fury.

Tonight, as the flames begin to die down, we will light the third candle of Hanukkah and Friday night candlesticks. Sabbath will be followed by the work week where, together with our national mourning for lives lost and the destruction of our environment, there will be the inevitable finger-pointing, holding-of-accounts and passing-of-the-buck. Before the noise begins, take a quiet moment to consider light, the kind that illuminates the darkness and brings us joy.


© RomKri

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Foto Friday – Hanukkah in Jerusalem

December 11, 2009 - 5:41 PM by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Foto Friday, General, Holidays, Israeliness, Life, Pop Culture, Travel 

Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, starts tonight with the lighting of the first candle on the hannukiya – the seven-branched menorah. Jerusalemites have a tradition of lighting oil based hannukiyot encased in glass boxes against the wind. It is a beautiful sight.


© pmos_nmos

Of course, it is more dramatic when lit up at night!


© RomKri


© RomKri

Hanukkah this year fell on a chilly Friday but despite the foreboding clouds it felt like the city was settling into a holiday mood, with young couples taking their babies out for a stroll at the new Mamilla Mall and overwhelming demand for sufganiyot at the Roladin bakery-cafe.

roladin_sufganiyot_box_menuBoth Nicky and David have blogged about the caloric and nutritional disaster that is our local holiday fare, so I will only add that Roladin has, for several years now, taken up the mantle of master sufganiya baker. They’ve created a whole series of so-called gourmet doughnut delights – the “Hanukkah Collection 2009″ – ranging from pistachio and banana to dulce de leche as well as the traditional red mystery jam. They’ve also devised a gaily decorated long square box for easy transport.

This week’s photos of Hanukkah in Jerusalem are courtesy of the wonderful Jerusalem Shots site. I should note that, as I do each time before sitting down to write the holiday column, I tried to figure out the current spelling of the Festival of Lights’ name, this time putting Google on the case with the following results: Hanukkah – 1,920,000 hits; Chanuka – 222,000; Hanuka – 219,000; Hannukah – 141,000 ; Channukah – 129,000; Chanukka – 71,800; Hannuka – 66,100. So, (although it’s not spelled as it was when I was a girl) — Hanukkah wins.

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War in Gaza: Which Way Will the Dreidel Fall?

January 4, 2009 - 5:09 PM by · 2 Comments
Filed under: Israeliness, Politics, War 

gaza-tankOur friend Joan called last night just as the news broke that the IDF had begun its ground operation in Gaza. Joan was panicked. She knew a number of families in our neighborhood who had boys in combat units. “Why are we doing this?” she said. “Can’t we pull them all out now?”

My first reaction was detached, though certainly not uncaring. I had been obsessively following the geo-politics of the last week’s aerial bombardment of Hamas. While inspiring in its precision and speed, it was clear a ground operation would be ultimately required for Israel to achieve its objectives. The duration and effectiveness of the operation would in large part depend on internal Israeli decisiveness, as well as how Israel responded to world pressure to submit to a cease-fire. My initial thoughts, then, were more like those of a strategic analyst than a parent.

Joan’s call, though, reminded me of the very real dangers for the Israeli troops now heading into booby trapped roads and hidden bunkers where Hamas terrorists lie in wait. I thought of my own children: 17-year-old Amir who will be drafted as early as six months from now, and 10-year old Aviv who has eight more years to go when, we all pray, there will be no need for any re-occupation of Palestinian territory.

But what choice do we have? Israel has stood by for close to a decade now while rockets have rained down on its southern cities and towns. Children in Sderot have grown up in fear, sleeping in bomb shelters, watching their homes blown up and their friends killed while Israelis around the country feel emasculated and impotent, their government unable (or unwilling) to act.

Now the rockets from Gaza have reached Beersheva and Ashdod. In another year of unabated smuggling, they could conceivably reach Tel Aviv and even the outskirts of Jerusalem. Should we just wait, maybe accept another temporary cease-fire? Our enemies certainly won’t be standing still.

There are many who say Israel cannot win this war. That the result will be just like the ill-fated 2006 war in Lebanon where Hezbollah emerged triumphant and emboldened. That Israel hasn’t truly prevailed since 1967.

That’s not entirely true. As David Horowitz wrote in The Jerusalem Post over the weekend, “Operation Defensive Shield, carried out in the spring of 2002, was a carefully planned and effectively executed attack on the Palestinians’ suicide-bomb infrastructure in the West Bank that remade our reality in the years ever since.”

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