197 replies to this topic

[Lior]

Here:



and

[Lior]

and the kitchen

[Lior]

Package arrived today from a dear friend of mine who lives in Germany. She sent cookies, some for my high school pupils, and some cookies and candies for us. It was fun seeing sweets from somewhere else and my son and daughter tried some right away!










inside this long "bar" looking thing were smaller packets and inside the smaller packets were wrapped up bite sized fruit chews/toffees. The kids liked them

[Lior]

Then, of course my son had to grab the candies and pretend to take them all. A chase ensued, he got caught, she got her candies back!





stollen

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[Lior]

A well loved sweet here is the Krembo. It has a biscuit on the bottom and on this is marshmellow fluff. It is all coated in chocolate.

[Lior]

my daughter's purple nail polish-sorry!

[Lior]

A few pictues of my herb garden. We have a bad drought so the garden is suffering a bit. I water it with water that drips from the air conditioners (used for heat, but hardly needed as it is not cold at all, like it should be). I often also collect water from the sink, whilst waiting for hot water to come out, quite a lot can be saved. Same with the shower water. We have about 20 aquariums and do partial weekly water changes but this water we use for the plants and grass, not things we would eat as sometimes my husband puts antibiotics into the water. We really need rain.


cinnamon basil. Lovely aroma and flavor


Lemon geranium-has a great smell and we use it in tea a lot. You can also see leaves from the Passion fuit hedge


lemongrass, also in tea or in ganache


Louisa-good for tea. Has a lemon smell and taste. Good for a sore tummy

Edited by Lior, 22 December 2011 - 06:36 AM.

[Lior]

Melissa. Good in tea, good to lift the spirits



sage and basil



Parsley

[Lior]

I decided to do an oily lunch in honor of the oil for chanukah. I made french fries, which we call chips. For many chips-in plural, we add the hebrew plural so it becomes a double plural really.

Chips-im



soak in water for a while to get rid of starch


boil for a few minutes


Dry off well



fry till golden and crispy


serve hot

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[Lior]

We cannot survive without fresh salad



and humous


My daughter had "Pastell-im", which is filled with either meat or potato, so here it is potato-more potatoes... Oh dear!! Well she is very skinny so I guess once in a while...



fried till golden

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[Lior]

We all love adamame-soybeans. It is fun to chat over food and adamame especially.

Put into boiling water and cook for 5-6 minutes.


Add plenty lemon juice and sea salt -coarse is best

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[Shelby]

Melissa. Good in tea, good to lift the spirits



sage and basil



Parsley

I had NO idea there was a spice that has my name! (my real name is Melissa :))


Isn't it fun to see candies from different parts of the world? I love the International grocery store isles at my local store.

And, I like your daughters nail polish :)

[Ladybug]

Lior,

I'm an American living in Herzliya and I'm enjoying your blog so much! Thank you! I'm learning and now I'm on the lookout for "Arab bread" on every walk I take.

Question: Why is milk sold in bags here?

Thanks!

[Lior]

Well Shelby, I apologize that my melissa does not look so great. I hope you are also an anti depressant to those around you! You always make me smile -you always have something nice and kind to say. I also like the Bedouin guy You are very lucky to have an international isle in your neighborhood super.

Ladybug! Are you new here in this country? I am so glad you are enjoying my blog-thank you! You can pick that "Arab bread" and make something from it. Kids pick it when it has these fat seeds before it flowers, as they are delicious and crunchy and look pretty. About milk bags. First, they are cheaper than a plastic jug or a carton. They are part of the list of foods which are under under price control as it is a real basic-like bread-plain white or black. It is considerably cheaper than cartons or jugs. It is also a small amount and therefore doesn't go off. And it is better for the environment. It can be thrown in the recycle for plastics and carton cannot be recycled. Lastly, it takes up much less space in the garbage! I used to buy only bagged milk, but I had too many tears and messes in the fridge. It also requires a plastic jug thing and when drips of milk spill into it it smells!!

One of the Israeli kids' favorite is a small bag of shoko-chocolate milk. It is very popular. It has about a cup and a bit of chocolate milk in it. I hate it because they have to bite it open after it has been who knows where and touched by who knows (they never get sick strangely enough,from this).

[Lior]

After biting a tiny tiny hole in the corner, they suck the chocolate out while gently squeezing the bag. This is done on the way to school, at school break, in the car, on picnics-rarely at home where one can use a scissors.

[Lior]

Lunch out the other day. At the beach front in Tel Aviv port. I love humous with fried mushrooms. I even love dipping my chips in this.








Sunset


couldn't resist taking this of these ladies. This is a huge yogurt with granola

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Edited by Lior, 22 December 2011 - 09:58 AM.

[Ladybug]

Lior, I've been here over a year already and still have more than a year left. My husband is working here for 3 years. Even though we've been here for what feels like a long time, I still feel ignorant about pretty much everything, but it's all so interesting.

Can you explain the cottage cheese sandwiches? What type of bread is it on? What else normally goes on the sandwich?

And one more question - where in Israel can one buy greens like kale? I've seen spinach, cabbage, and lettuce - but nothing like kale, collards or mustard greens.

[Lior]

In most vegetable stores or markets or supers you can find beet greens. I have to see what the others are in Hebrew and I will let you know. The cottage sandwich? So simple. Usually it is just cottage on a roll-the long type as in the nutella sandwich picture or on the regular bread as served with the shakshuka. ANy bread is great. The older kids eat whole wheat now. I cut green olives in half and decorate the cottage with them. Of course A lettuce,tomato and cucumber sandwich with cottage is fantastic but not if it has to sit around awile. Where are you from if I may ask.

[Ladybug]

I've never had beet greens before. Do they taste like beets at all? What's the Hebrew word for beet greens?

I'm from America - North Carolina, to be exact. I miss barbecue and Krispy Kreme, but the sufganiyot here are delicious. I've also loved all the citrus fruits here and hummus, of course. There are too many things to like here to miss American food too much.

[Lior]

I am not sure what Krispy Kreme is!! Anyhow, beet leaves are "Alay Selek" - עלי סלק

then there are similar ones with the red "veins" or stem - "alay mangold" - עלי מנגולד
mustard greens are "ALay khardal" (the kh is a horrible gutteral sound like a gargle!)עלי חרדל

You can maybe copy the hebrew and past into google pictures to see what they look like...? I love greens- I stir fry them, and add spices. ESpecially on rosh hashana-since beet leaves are a part of the sephardic "seder" or ceremony.

[Pam R]

My daughter had "Pastell-im", which is filled with either meat or potato, so here it is potato-more potatoes... Oh dear!! Well she is very skinny so I guess once in a while...

What kind of dough do you use for those?

[CaliPoutine]

Hi Lior,

Long time no see. Krispy Kreme is a donut. Here in California, they were so, so popular. When a shop would first open, the lines were so long. They used to make the donuts( they are famous for a simple raised glazed donut) in the shop and you'd get your first one for free. They've stopped making them in the shop now. For some odd reason, they make me burb. I think its the oil they use.

When I lived in Canada, I used to buy my milk in the bags. It was a lot cheaper than the plastic jugs.

Do you eat cottage cheese and egg noodles? My mom always made that for us when we were kids. We'd eat it cold, with lots of cracked pepper. Are you a sephardic Jew? My family is Ashkenazi.

[Lior]

Good morning! AT least for me it is one! SO, let's see. Pastellim... okay, they are either triangualr shaped as in the photo here of cigar shaped. I dont make the dough. The dough can be bought frozen. You can also buy frozen pastellim and "cigars". The dough is similar to phyllo but not exactly the same. It is called "warka" dough-basically just flour, water,salt. It is thin like a leaf.

Calipoutine! Hi!!! I am honored... The burp producing donuts was hilarious to read!! It is so funny to think of people lining up like that, and yet, at Rolodin's restaurant here that is what happens when Chanukah rolls around. I am completely Ashkenazi, however,my MIL is yeminite,which is not exactly sephardic either, different. Lots of neighbors and friends are Morracan or Tunesian etc and my kids love the food! Who doesn't? My FIL is hungarian (holocaust survivor)and he always talks about how they ate pasta with something similar to cottage cheese and with preserved plums, if I recall correctly. He is busy writing a book now on Hungarian food at home as his memories recall from his life before the trouble began. Funny, but he has a Yemenite section as well because when he was dating his wife, her parents kind of adopted him and so he had plenty of their food and it became a part of his youth. Amazingly enough, some foods were similar-milk soup, goggle- moggle, and other dishes.

Today we are off to an Ethiopian restaurant, which I will obviously post about later. My friend, a lovely lady from Romania has been busily preparing Saturday lunch, Romanian style, using her mother's recipes, inorder to give respect to her husband, who celebrates christmas. She has been documenting the process for me, and on Saturday I get the camera. From the beginning to a set table. She even makes a snowman from vegetables.

[Lior]

Well I am too full although I didnot eat much. That Injera is very satiating!!! We drove about 45 minutes north to south Tel aviv, near the old central bus station. Being Friday it was mostly closed as many businesses close Friday and Saturday. We found Habash, the Ethiopian small restaurant being cleaned and washed. Even though I had called the day before and made reservations. No big deal, we went for a brisk walk and returned 20 minutes later to a clean restaurant. The person in charge was also the cook and waiter and cleaner. He was very smiley and nice. He apologized that most of the food was left overs from last night (!) since they do not cook on Friday, because the Sabbath comes in early. Okay, so we will eat leftovers. Go with the flow.

From the outside



inside photos

[Lior]

At first we were the only customers but soon it started filling up a bit

The menu-they even had an English one!

[Lior]

The bread is made from a gluten free grain, called Teff.

Here is a picture of a small jar of teff. It has a sticker on it reading, "from me is what Enjera bread is made from"





SInce not many items were available we ordered a vegetarian lentil dish and a beef dish (which my husband said was not so great)

No forks,knives or spoons









I really enjoyed my lentil dish dish, it was well flavored.

[Lior]

The enjera bread reminded us a bit of a yeminite bread that my family loves called Lachuch-it also has those bubbles only bigger ones. The enjera is sour and has a faint twangy taste to it.



At the end we had a small taste of "taj", which is a fermented honey drink. A bit like beer, only from honey.



More customers arrived




This group asked me which "channel" I was from... I told them "an international food forum, not really a channel"

[Lior]

Well, now I need to make the shabbat dinner. I will also post photos on this. Bye for now!

[nikkib]

shabbat shalom! loving the blog so far - thanks!

[Ladybug]

Wow, on the menu they have collard greens! I want to go now to try them (and ask where they got them.)