Revel in Casino de Paris
Filed under: Business, Entertainment, Food, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life
Well, I’m clearly not the first Jerusalemite to have visited Casino de Paris, the latest bar in the shuk, but I’m a happy customer. Truth is, I’m always happy in any establishment owned by Eli Mizrachi, the man responsible for the rejuvenation of the market, and the chairman of its merchants association. He’s the guy who opened the shuk’s Cafe Mizrachi, first known as Hakol Laofe V’gam Cafe (Everything for the Cook, and Coffee Too), and then Tzachko, a really wonderful bistro that unfortunately closed but was my favorite restaurant when it was still open. His idea? Mix the coffee drinkers among the ‘bastot,’ or stalls, so they drink their coffee while staring at sides of beef, bins of olives, sacks of beans. It worked.
Eli Mizrachi, the man who started it all
The menu is spare, fresh bread and spreads, excellent sandwiches, fishes, simple foods that go well with the great beer list, including all the Israeli microbrews. But it’s the space that’s the best part of this bar, located as it is in the former site of a British officers’ bar cum bordello. Now it faces the Georgian market of the shuk, an inner courtyard that includes a bakery and other small stalls. The bar itself is dim but not dark, with the right selection of tables, bar stools and outside tables. It’s intimate, friendly and most importantly, very well stocked.
Make sure to visit soon.
Directions: From Rechov Yaffo (Jaffa Street), walk down the open part of the market, turning left at the first left and continuing into the courtyard. The bar will be on your left.
And it opens at 12 noon every day, perfect for a beer and sandwich before or after a shopping trip.
Nathan Englander story
Filed under: Art, General, History and Culture, Israeliness
From the New Yorker
Celebrated writer Nathan Englander takes a very specific, well-honed and familiar look at two Israeli-esque characters, the Holocaust survivor-turned-warrior and the shuk-stall-owner, and how their lives intersect and intertwine on a seemingly surface level for many, many years. The tale of Shimmy Gezer and Professor Tendler is engrossing, disturbing and tender, and invokes many familiar details of Israeli life, from the country’s wars and soldiers to its open market mentality, cups of hot tea and fresh fruits and vegetables. And, not to be forgotten, the complicated role that the Holocaust has played and continues to play in modern Israeli life.
Read “Free Fruit for Young Widows,” Englander’s short story in the New Yorker, and if you want some politics, look to the left, where David Remnick comments on the Gaza flotilla in a podcast.
Foto Friday – To market, to market with Tamar Matsafi
Filed under: Art, Food, Foto Friday, General, Israeliness, Life, Travel
Passover is over and things are about to get back to normal, sort of. In the Israeli endless vacation reality, there’s still Yom HaAtzmaut (Israel Independence Day) to look forward to, after which a mild depression sets in as there won’t be another long vacation break till the High Holidays. Oh, except for August. We don’t work much in August.
The latter part of this week, though, was devoted to re-stocking the kitchen, post-Pesach. Photographer Tamar Matsafi took a jaunt to Jerusalem’s open market, Machane Yehuda, a refreshing alternative the the local supermarket.
First thing, buy new spices to replace the ones you threw out.
Photo: Tamar Matsafi
Photo: Tamar Matsafi
David had a nice write-up a few weeks ago about an unusual cooking competition held in the shuk between gourmet grannies.
Photo: Tamar Matsafi
An explanation of these dangerously delicious fried treats may be found here.
Photo: Tamar Matsafi
And check out Harry’s profile of Machane Yehuda’s resident shaman Uzi-Eli Chezi.
Photo: Tamar Matsafi
Our bags are full so home we go…
Photo: Tamar Matsafi
I’ll eat anything.
I’ve been living in Israel for quite some time now and have pretty much eaten my way through the country. I’ve eaten everything from turkey testicles (delicious if you can get past the fact you are eating balls) to a raw meatball of sorts prepared by Druze in the north to calf’s foot soup in the inner depths of Meah Shearim. It is incredibly rare for me to come across an item of food that I have never eaten. Last week I had to go to the Licensing Bureau to renew my license. The closest branch to my home is in Ramle so I took a ride over with dreams of either Indian food or hummus in mind. After the arduous process of basically waiting in line for an hour and running back and forth between numerous windows and locales I took a detour on the way back to my car via the shuk. I had plans to stop by at Hummus Khlalil for lunch but while walking through the shuk the smell of something being fried immediately caught my olfactory system. I asked the young man what he was frying and he told me they were samboosaks. Now sambooksaks are common throughout the middle east and are readily available in Israel as well – though I had only seen them baked – never fried. The young man explained to me that they are stuffed with mashed chickpeas spiced with garlic, paprika and other flavorings. The verdict is that they were incredible. Crispy, delicate, flavorful and deliciously oily. Yes, I know, deep fried anything isn’t so healthy, but everything in moderation.
Walking further through the shuk I came upon a bakery that was selling my absolute favorite Bukharian bread. I had only known of one place in the shuk in Jerusalem that sells it (and it always sells out rather quickly early in the day). After noshing on the samboosak and gnawing on the bread I actually headed over to Khalil for some hummus. I waddled back to my car, unbuttoned the top of my pants, drove home and took a nap.
Urban chic witch doctor
Shuk Machane Yehuda’s resident shaman, Uzi-Eli Chezi runs his retail stall like it’s part theme park attraction, part spiritual folk remedy center. Uzi-Eli bases his natural remedies (various juice mixtures, soaps, creams, serums) on recipes from the writings of Rabbi Moses Maimonides, a North African Jewish philosopher from the Middle Ages who is also known for his contributions as a physician.
“Both of my grandfathers – who were brothers – would make holistic energy drinks,” Uzieli recently told Jerusalemite, the Jerusalem culture guide. “When I finished my army service, I spent five years traveling through 12 different countries, learning about herbs and natural medicine. I used this knowledge to create formulas for healing drinks,” which he soon began to market out of his own home, before opening his shop in the shuk five years ago.
These formulas rely heavily on gat (khat, a leaf known for its energizing properties) and etrog (citron, the local yellow citrus fruit most famous for being shaken with the lulav during the holiday of Sukkot), and he buys all of his ingredients from his neighbors in the open-air market. He also creates remedies from kombucha mushrooms, dates, fenugreek, passion fruit, goat milk yogurt, pomegranate and apple.
Uzi-Eli explains:
Drinking etrog juice leads to strength in the body, and feelings of satiation and calmness. It also improves heart health, and will make a person smell better. It helps fight depression, helps cure hot flashes in women and gives men strength and virility.
But even if one questions the true healing merits of Uzi-Eli’s concoctions, one surely must give him credit for the place he holds in Jerusalem’s cultural landscape. The guy has regulars and potential customers alike constantly approaching him (or sometimes submitting to his offers) for consultations, which almost universally end with some gat extract being schpritzed down the throat. Plus, he is just about as esoterically charming an institution as one can find in the shuk, so who cares if his schug (a traditional Middle Eastern condiment of ground fresh chili peppers and herbs) isn’t as spicy as the next guy’s?
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