Lior

Warm the nuts in the melter?! Can you please explain more!! What an amazing thought!!

Welcome!! Prairie girl! Your sister's photography is lovely!! I love your arrangement! Your 10 year old likes mint?! Mine likes crunchy things more! With Hazelnut paste and chocoalte and feulletine. All your things look and sound yummy!! Hmmm!!

Oh and thank you sooo much for the compliment about my chocolates! The chocolatiers on that forum are so professional and great I often feel awful!! On my way home I bought a loaf of black bread and so here it is: and a slice- by the way the end crusty part is called the "kiss" and either you love it or hate it: Lately my favorite tea- I go through tea stages, the last one was red tea with vanilla and cinnamon and now I am into Bedouin tea, which is flavored with cardamen and sage. My tea box: opened: and the teabag! and ready to sip from my favorite cat mug: I will post pictures of my animals at some point!

Good morning! For me at least! My youngest is having breakfast and soon I will car pool-my turn today- to her school. She studies on Kibbutz Yad MOrdecai. I will tell more about that after Saturday as there is a dairy festival there over the weekend... Ilana actually is a liturgical name for "tree" Lior means "my (LI) "light (Or). She was born 10 years after my third child and after some family tragedies, so she brought us back some light! Completely spoiled by all but behaves very nicely and is usually an angel! The bread here is not at all dry- only it is good for two days. Then it does dry out. It is quite basic but when very fresh very nice. You can also get bread in bags ofdifferent types but these are with all sort of ingredients to keep it longer and such. Bread is subsidized by the gov but less and less and so the price increases and the people get very mad! Bread prices are controlled and when the gov lessens funding the bakeries still should produce....So then the bakeries all go on strike and no basic breadis available. Eventually the bakeries bake and sell at higher prices! Bread is a staple here. I buy all sorts- lots od pita, rolls, baguettes, whole wheat bagged, and basic. More bread pictures: This usually sits by the cashiers to tempt more types of rolls: gotta run Iwill post more later!!

Hi again! Well I love that flower when it blooms so every time I run to get my camera! Aren't they something? I am actually called Ilana, Lior is my youngest daughter and she asked me to use her name-now everyone thinks I am Lior!! My paternal grandfather was born in Israel. He left to work in the mines of Rhodesia to send money home to his family (11 brothers). He met Granny and that is how I ended being born in South Africa. I lived in the states from age 9 till 18 and then back to close the circle-to Israel. I will return to thebread issue later on-I do have more on that, but now as promised: Ashkelon. There is no specific date for the founding of Ashkelon. Its origins date back about 5000 years and it is considered to be one of the world’s most ancient cities, a cradle of human culture. Due to its strategic position, the city fulfilled an important role in the ancient history of the Mid East. Ashkelon, whose name is derived from the root shekel (Shekel is the name of our currency today), is first mentioned in the Egyptian “mearot writings” of the 19th century BC. Its name appears in the hieroglyphics on pottery shards, as “Askala.” This is a bit about ancient Ashkelon. The ancient seaport of Ashkelon located 40 miles south of Tel Aviv, Israel, on the Mediterranean coast and was the capital of Canaanite kings, the harbor of the Philistines, and the stomping ground of the biblical hero Samson. From the Canaanite era, Ashkelon is the oldest and largest seaport yet known in Israel, and a thriving Middle Bronze Age (2000-1550 B.C.) metropolis of more than 150 acres, with ramparts and the oldest arched city gate in the world, still standing two stories high. From the Philistine era (1175-604 B.C.), excavations of the seaport are uncovering remains of the city from the days of Samson and Delilah, and the city's destruction by Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar. We have a national park here that should be something amazing but basically is neglected-I suppose funding and etc has a lot to do with that. Ancient Ashkelon is reminiscent of a large 150-acre bowl, with the gigantic Canaanite ramparts that once protected the city forming its rim and sides. Inside, at least 20 ancient cities rest in layer upon layer—spanning more than 5,000 years from before 3500 B.C.E. to 1500. One of the most important sections of the park is the sculpture garden, which houses a variety of Roman statues and splendid marble reliefs, including Nike, Goddess of Victory, atop Atlas’ globe. You can also gaze upon the ruins of several Byzantine and Crusader churches, shadowed by age-old olive, tamarisk and carob trees. Some pictures to document: Nike, goddess of victory: ancient port-the poles sticking out wereused for tying up boats: Churches -chambers in a semicircle: Isis with her son, Hippocrates: [ more Roman ruins and a mosaic: http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/12033589..._5716_55567.jpg and in another area of Ashkelon a sarcophagus: So that is about the ancient ruins. Lately an interesting excavation has uncovered a dog cemetery. Tel Hachra is a small hill by the sea (Tel means hill), is where Ashkelon of the Philistine biblical period thrived. Here a very strange cemetery from the 5th or 6th century BC was discovered with more than 1,500 canine skeletons. Researchers have not yet deciphered the reason behind these ancient graves. Another interesting sight is an old sheik's grave. The Sheik's tomb is a square, domed structure, resting atop of a small hill and overlooking Ashkelon's northern beaches. The main chamber is supported by eight stone arches and contains the Sheikh's) tomb. The building was constructed in the Mamluke period (13th century) when parts of Israel were in the Crusader hands. By the way, Harvard Univ. has students here doing the summers helping and working on various excavations. Modern Ashkelon consists of about 110,000 people from different backgrounds. In the 1940's South Africans settled here, in the 50's a wave of immigration from North Africa came and in the 90's a huge wave of immigrants from Russia arrived. There is a beautiful college, about 6 junior high schools and high schools and about 30 public elementary schools. There are about 12 kilometers of beach. The climate is semi arid. Winters are about 14-20 degrees Celsius with rainy or sunny days. This year there has been a lot of sun and we need more rain. Summers are hot and humid, staying at around 30-32 degrees Celsius and humidity of 70-80%, no rain and every single day is very sunny. Summer is from about June to mid October. Spring is lovely as is our short autumn. We are about 54 kilometers south of Tel Aviv and 70 km from Jerusalem. Ashkelon has great potential for being a major tourist site, but somehow this area remains undeveloped and undiscovered. And, of course, security is also an issue. A beach: The college: Our twin cities include: Canada – Côte St. Luc United States – Portland United States – Baltimore France – Aix-en-Provence Germany – Berlin Vicenzy So now we can get back to food!!

Good for you!!!!! South Africa? Australia? Nice! I will post some chocoalte pictures with pleasure! Did you see my pictures of the failures?! In the Pastry section?

Hello to everyone and sorry that I made you twiddle your thumbs!! First of all teaser 1 is pita bread in a bag on the shelf of my local minimarket. Israel has tons of mini markets all over, every house or apartment has one within about 5 minutes walking distance from home. We usually buy daily products like pita, rolls, breead and dairy goods, either daily or every couple of days. So every morning the bread delivery trucks deliver to all these little mini markets early in the morning. Nobody keeps bread for longer than two days or it dries out. The basic breads are called either white or black. It is actually hard to tell the difference between them! They are the same bread that has been sold for 50 years and is considered a basic here. Further down you can see the pictures of this. Either you slice at home or at the store you can put it through a slicer. Slightly more expensive are pitas and rolls. So my first set of pictures is to document this! Then I will write a bit about Ashkelon. So hereis one of my daily stops: everyone calls it Eli's who is the owner, but the sign translates as Mini Market- everything is good (sounds better in Hebrew!!) Here are the breads-white and "black" can you see the difference? Here are the rolls and what we call "long bread" The slicer: Now the teaser 2 is called a Cereus cactus. It blooms only at night and only for a few hours and only a few times a year. It is usually ugly but when it blooms it is truly a sight! Teaser3 is a picture of some goats by the Dead Sea. We went there about 2 weeks ago hoping to see some floods. When it rains a lot this area turns into violent rivers and floods as the earth does not absorb the water, it is very amazing to see it turn from desert to river. It can be dangerous also... Be back later! Gotta put my kid to bed!!

Thanks all for your ideas. I think people have to get used to it like with the spices in chocolate. I love bark so I was sad! I think rethinking the wrapping is a great idea. That would be a good try! I do have mendiants and they were quite popular come to think of it! Scoring and breaking and wrapping is good as well as bark like Anna's-yum! Rochers are popular here so I should make them!! Bunch of heads together is always better than one!!!

A very quaint and inviting place! Lovely!! Kerry I so enjoy taking a break from allmy daily responsibilities and sitting down to see what is new on this thread-as well as others! How can people live with egullet?? Just know that all your dedication and effort at posting and constantly helping and informing is very very appreciated. You are certainly a rare breed!!

Well well!! I will certainly try! It is an eye opener! I will try since I always have leftover chocoalte. This is why I was disappointed in the bark failure! Although bars are also okay. Thanks again

Stunning!! Wow!! I pictured something different! Perhaps that is my problem- I have way less nuts and fruit in my bark and it is a bit thicker. Also mine are more on the top-sticking out and less inside. I guess it is important to see the real thing!Yours seems stacked with almonds!! It does look great! Do you use skinned almonds? Do you chop them? Thank you so much for the beautiful picture-how very thoughtful and kind!! A picture is worth a thousand words!! I keep going back to look!

That is what has been worrying me. Whenever something is cooked it loses value in taste-as well asin nutrition. And yet the water content would greatly affect the shelf life. Has anyone taken the shelf life course offered by ecolechocolate? Marshmellows are great in that you don't have to reduce ,so they can taste very fruity. I just need to work on the citric acid to cut the sweetness. Same with caramel. I must try the curry marshmellows. I never seem to have enough time to try so may things! How do you all manage it?! I feel like I am bad at organizing my time.

Shouldn't the strawberry puree be reduced- that is if it is for ganache? I slowly reduce on the range. FOr my marshmellows I didn't reduce.

Anna! Thank you ever so much! I will try it. It sounds delicious. Maybe I should give bark tastes and then people will see itis yummy. If you happen to have a picture could you post it? Although I am sure my bark is fine I just want to make sure-double sure.

Cute joke!! Yes. we need a chocolate in this area with calming effects! Good idea - some type of oil that has calming effects!

Yes I was disappointed about the bark. I made so many kinds, white, milk, dark, with different nuts and fruits and designs and wiggles etc. I did wrap each one in a cellophane bag with its weight and price and people tend to touch these things while searching for just the right bark. Perhaps that was not good- I don't know... Do you burn your almonds in the burnt almond bark? Is you bark very thick or very thin? Mine was medium. Some people thought it odd that I sell "broken pieces " of chocolate. But even the bars were not all that popular. Any bark or bar advice is always welcome! Perhaps it is a cultural thing. People here thought bark was the noise a dog made and could not figure it out....

Amazing how you remember so many details!! One needs tol earn how to learn at these courses-if you don't jot down you do forget!! It is interesting how many different methods people have for doing moulds. I have developed "my" way and it seems it would be hard to change! But I will try the piping bag method! I find jet lag harder coming home (east). I think it is also connected to one's adrenaline or something similar. Back home you can let "go". You are wired and thinking and all so that also keeps you awake at the wrong times! When things settle down and if you feel like it tell us about the chocolate stores, and touring aspects. Is there a government yet or is Belgium going to be divided is also an interesting issue - but I know egullet stays away from this side of life!!! Well welcome back to your side of the world and I just totally appreciate your thread!

How lovely! Thank you so much! I can't wait to hear to more about everything. How was your jet lag? Waiting...!!

Hello all. Well I am now post the second three day festival. Everything went well. I did not have a pile of failures this time around! I sold really a lot and had to stay up all night in between to make extra!! Exhausting but great learning experience. The bark was not too popular here. The 100% thin mendiants went quite well. I gave tastes of it as it is very strong for most. I also had 65% with Maltitol to which I added 100% to make it stronger- I think I made it about 70%. I made mendiants, bars and orange flavored bars from this and it was VERY popular. I did tell everythone through a sign that it is with Maltitol. I want to meet with a nutritionist for Diabetes to learn more. I like this line and I want something that is really okay for this population. I spoke with a pastry specialist for diabetes and she recommended using Macadamia nuts... I have to source those! My mango ganache filled butterflies were not as successful as I imagined. My S'mores were very popular. I did not have Marzipan and quite a few were after that. I also need something coconutty-but not what I had. I had with Curry and such but people were very wary to try it! There were odd requests like "Don't you have milk chocolate with raisins and cashews only?" No, there were also walnuts in it. People loved the animal shapes- my mouse/pig for ex went really well as did the frog and hedgehog!! At the end of March I will be in a wine festival! So thanks again to all who helped me out here-much appreciated!

Thank you both very much. I hope it was clear that Maya Stern made the lovely statue! I appreciate the comments!! Thanks again

I didn't know if this is the appropriate place or the Food Culture forum, but anyhow, here is a link to the Organization: Sigep My colleague and acquaintance, Maya Stern, participated in an international championship for artisan ice cream, bread and pastry in which over 10 countries participated. Germany won first place, Israel 2nd (Maya's statue) and Mexico 3rd place. Here is a picture of Maya's statue. The topic was to create a statue of a monument in one's country. Maya chose the Recanati Synagogue: The statue is all edible and made from baked dough and sugar! editted for typos and re editted for adding info - I'm tired, sorry!!!

I am so glad you won't miss Bruges! The lady at the museum gives out a cute poster of the museum character if you request one! I also bought a molinillo (sp?) there! I am sure you will walk through the nice squares to get to the museum. There are two main ones. Lucky you!!

gorgeous!!!! Perfect!! Next week I will try to make them too!! Wow!

I really liked the origins at Marcolini-comes ready in a box-elegant too. And The Chocolate Line- there were some very interesting flavors. I was in Belgium for under a week. If you get ambitious you can do it. The Mol D'Art guy will come and get you if you want. If you do please pass on my best regards! His name is Jef. Try to do Bruges!!

Aalst is not the best for restaurants. They have lots of cute little places. Be sure to get "chips" or fries as you may call them - in Brussels they are the thing!! You must to to Le Grande Place and from there to Sablon to Marcolini! I got his box of origin squares. I liked the Chocolate Line in Brugge. Brugge or Bruges is like a little Venice and I recommend taking the train there. I did it in a day and came back to Aalst in the late evening. There are plenty of chocolate shops there and the museum and a nice boat tour. I contacted Mol D'Art (not in Aalst) before my trip and the owner actually came to pick me up from Aalst and then returned me to the airport! He is very helpful. What hotel are you at? If you do go to Brugge, I will let you know how the train gets there and where to switch. This is the list I used and actually went to a lotof them: List of famous chocolatiers and patissiers Mary Chocolatier Konningsstraat 73 1000 Brussels Tel. : 02 217 45 00 Wittamer Grote Zavel 12-13 1000 Brussels Tel. : 02 512 37 42 Marcolini Pierre Grote Zavel 39 1000 Brussels Tel. : 02 514 12 06 Galler Bodenbroekstraat 14 1000 Brussels Tel. : 02 512 02 94 Planète Chocolat Lombardstraat 24 1000 Brussels Tel. : 02 511 07 55 Fax. : 02 512 13 05 Burie Hans Korte Gasthuisstraat 3 2000 Antwerpen Tel. : 03 232 36 88 Calinor NV Capronstraat 28 8900 Ieper Tel. : 057 20 72 07 Chocolaterie Goossens Isabellalei 6 2000 Antwerpen Tel. : Confiserie Hanf K.F. Schinkelstraat 45 4782 Schönberg Tel. : 080 549 333 Corne Dynastie Avenue de l’aeroplane 24 1150 Brussel Tel. : 02 77 09 930 Couleurs Chocolat Kerkhove 40 1547 Bievene Tel. : 0476 996 951 Creades St. Jorisstraat 86 8730 Beernem Tel. : 050 79 07 77 Del Rey Appelmansstraat 5 2000 Antwerpen Tel. : 03 47 02 861 Den Ouden Advokaat Ster 51B 9100 St. Niklaas Tel. : 03 776 59 49 Druart Bourghos 13 7387 Angreau Tel. : 065 75 95 21 Les Chocolats D’Edouard Place Albert 1er 6820 Florenville Monjezi Grand Rue 8 6460 Chimay Tel. : 060 21 17 67 The Chocolate Line Simon Stevinplein 19 8000 Brugge Tel. : 050 34 10 90