Israeli travel

December 17, 2009 - 3:39 PM by Jessica · 1 Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, Food, General, History and Culture, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life

Strauss in Cape Town Pick 'n Pay

Welcome back to me from the land of South Africa. We just spent a very happy ten days in Cape Town and along the Garden Route, visiting friends, seeing wild animals — even along the highway…baboons! — hanging out on the beach and improving the sandal tan lines on my feet. I didn’t think I’d appreciate warm weather after such a short stint of Israeli winter, but it’s actually kind of fun to be back in the sun in December.

But what’s also amusing about travel, something I hadn’t embarked on since doing this mother-of-twins thing, is the inherent Israeliness of long distance travel. On one hand, you have to travel beyond Israel in order to leave Israel, and it’s just very enjoyable to travel among other nationalities. We flew Lufthansa, and it wasn’t a bad thing to fly on a non El Al flight. People stay in their seats when they’re supposed to, the lines for the bathroom are shorter, and there isn’t a minyan taking place in every empty corner.

While we were in South Africa, we heard no Hebrew, except for our very last day, on the top of Table Mountain, when we came upon another Israeli family — that is, a ‘real’ Israeli family, not former Americans like ourselves — although we didn’t make ourselves known to them. But there were moments when we found ourselves missing the Israeliness of our usual life, and when we sought out the bits and pieces that are so familiar to us. One day, it was the sighting of the Strauss dairy symbol on an ice cream freezer. Granted, it’s the logo used by Unilever, which owns 51% of the company but still, exciting to see the familiar red-and-white heart on a freezer full of Magnum bars. On another day, it was the shelf full of Israeli products in a local grocery store, and we found ourselves picking up a bag of Osem pretzels and animal crackers, in spite of our pleasure in discovering and eating local products. And while we certainly don’t schlep Elite coffee or soup nuts wherever we go, we did proudly present a box of Krembos as a Chanukah treat for our hosts’ kids. And of course we spoke Hebrew to one another whenever we needed to speak without being understood by those around us.

And then, as we packed up to head home and made our way to the airport, there were the snatches of Hebrew heard when we reached Frankfurt, our more-than-halfway mark home. It was surprisingly comforting to hear that familiar language, and to lapse into it with fellow passengers. We exchanged travel stories, found out where we’re each from back home and helped one another out wherever possible. Given that we were flying Lufthansa, there was no clapping of hands when we landed in Tel Aviv, but we all glanced at one another, those in the know, and gave each other wide smiles. It’s good to travel and it’s great to come home.

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Tags: Cape Town, el al, hebrew, krembos, Osem, Strauss

Supermarket scavenging

March 27, 2009 - 8:36 AM by Jessica · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Business, Food, General, Israeliness

Just back from a food shopping trip, which is an unusual event for me, as I generally dislike supermarket experiences. (Not counting Eden Teva Market.) It’s not just that food shopping in Jerusalem can be a third world experience, but the supermarket on Thursday nights offers a sensation of the world coming to an end, or at the very least, the sense of impending war with Iran, as all shoppers fill their carts to overflowing and checkout lines are long, very long. And that’s without mentioning — although I will — the search for a shopping cart, and then seeing if you have one of the plastic tzuptziks that you need to ‘rent’ the cart, unless you keep a supply of five-shekel coins.

But what is fun about food shopping in Israel, and particularly in the chain stores, is the search for unusual products, ones that you wouldn’t expect to see in your neighborhood Supersol Deal, Rami Levy or Mega Bool. I’m talking about the excitement in sighting ShopRite Brown Rice Crispy Rice cereal, a new Ben & Jerry’s flavor, or a package of Aspen Products Cool Shades paper plates in “4 assorted colors.” It’s finding the Czech beer you like amid all the Goldstar and Tuborg bottles, discovering that scallions can be purple, spotting decent-looking tuna steaks in the frozen foods section and — this is a major one — seeing that American-style brown paper lunch bags are now available.

To those of you from the real western world, these kinds of discoveries are ho-hum, and happen all the time in the local supermarket. But for those of us here, on the Middle Eastern front, it can often be a wondrous occasion, and not one to pass off flippantly. It explains why so many local Israeli papers have a consumer products section, briefing readers about food news. Consider Greer Fay Cashman’s Market Wise column in the Jerusalem Post business section, as well as Eva Ben-David in other sections of the paper. It’s always sort of funny to read those columns, because does one really care if Strauss has a new ice cream flavor? Then again, I always make sure to skim those columns.

It’s not that there aren’t great offerings from the local manufacturing industry. There are. I’d say it’s more about the thrill of the scavenger hunt, finding those unexpected treats during what is often a mundane chore. Happy hunting.

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