Anything related to Israel or being Jewish.
Still catching up on my post backlog. But it’s still Passover so I can still post this one: President Obama heading up a Passover Seder in the White House last Wednesday night.
But you just wait and see the photo from my seder. A lot less clothing in that one. Oh boy.
Sent in by bobe Raquel.
The folks of Hillel held their yearly Israel Block Party last Wednesday. they somehow managed to match last year’s concert with another big act: they brought Israeli rock star Berry Sakharof. I have no clue how they do that.
The freak freezing and raining weather forced them to move the event from UT’s South Mall (cool link) into their building. This affected attendance. The concert itself was held in a tent at the parking lot; so while it protected us from the rain, it didn’t help that much with the cold.
Thankfully Berry put up an awesome concert, totally worth the hypothermia. And it’s always cool to see a good act in a small venue in which you can force your way so close to the stage, especially an artist that I don’t get many chances to see in concert. Hit Read more to see more photos and three of my shaky YouTube videos.
I stopped by the 4th Annual Kosher Chili Cook-off held yesterday for a bit. There were 25 participants. I managed to try about 20 of the entries and not get sick. Not too bad.
I’m going to be a little harsh with my criticism. The average chili I tried was very salty but not spicy at all. What’s the point? There were too many vegetarian entries. What’s the point? All the kosher meat and utensils were provided by organizers Agudas Achim which actually makes things fair (and cheap – which you’d know if you’ve ever purchased kosher meat).
I have decided that I’m going to have to enter the contest next year and really make all those mostly Ashkenazi softies cry. They won’t know what hit them. Not on the way nor on the way out.
I don’t even know which team won but I voted for Team Ninja, their chili was pretty good. And they bribed me.
Read more to see a few photos.
Last Saturday I attended a performance by The Israeli-Palestinian Comedy Tour. This is a group of four stand up comedians, three of them Jewish and one Palestinian. The show was at the JCAA so the vast majority of the audience was Jewish. Interesting timing with Operation Cast Lead in Gaza serving as background.
The show lasted a little under two hours. They opened with a short sketch and then each of the comedians did a stand up routine. They were very funny and I recommend the show. By far the funniest was Ray Hanania, also a journalist and the sole Palestininan in the group; and the only one who covered the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a more direct manner. The rest did a more generic Jewish/Israeli routine – lots of it centered around Israeli driving habits and circumsicion.
While The Israeli Palestinian Comedy Tour does a great job of exposing the views and voice of a moderate but less vocal majority in the conflict using humor, it’s disappointing when you take a closer look: None of the members were actually born in Israel or Palestine. Two of the three Jews in the group are recent converts. No muslims either. I couldn’t say they are exactly perfect insiders to the issues at hand nor the best demographical representation one could have hoped for.
Also dissapointing: my interview with KUT did not make the cut.
This is part 4 of the series. Read parts 1, 2, 3 if you haven’t.
More Yaffo
That last week of my recent trip to Israel I ate a lot; often in Yaffo. The food is just too excellent. The great Adí Levinson took me to a local restaurant whose name I can’t remember. Right after you order they bring about a dozen little plates with a dozen different things. Most of them I don’t even recognize. They are generically referred to as “salads”. You’re full before the main dish is even brought out. Thankfully being full has never before stopped me from eating before.
Feel free to read part 1 and part 2 of this series. They were posted a while ago and I apologize for leaving thousands of readers waiting for the part 3. Part 3 will talk about:
Unlocking the flavors of Jaffa
Jaffa (pronounced Yafo, spelled יָפוֹ) is one of the oldest ports in the world. It’s right south of Tel Aviv and is actually part of the same municipality, creatively named “Tel Aviv-Yafo municipality“. The last week of my recent trip I was honored to eat tons of food while in Tel Aviv and Jaffa. Below I begin describing as best as I can some of the highlights in Jaffa. Get ready to get that stomach growling.
Hummus
For hummus (חומוס), Itay and Ziv Erlich took me to Abu Hassan. This is a really small yet well known place in Jaffa that opens in the morning and closes when they run out of food, right around 2 P.M. Their extensive menu: Pita. Hummus. Warm Hummus with garlic.
To put this in perspective, it’s like having a restaurant in Mexico where all they serve is refried beans and tortillas. And it’s packed and there are crowds lining up for it and they run out of beans in the middle of the day. It’s unheard of (when it comes to refried beans) and that’s how good it is. It’s awesome.
Click to keep on reading. It’s worth your while.
Best wishes on this coming 5769. I hope you haven’t looked at the stock market today. Thanks to Alberto Toiber for the image.
It was hard to contain the flood of comments from the last entry, but here we go…
Eating with the bedouins
Ah… the bedouin camp.
Myth: Nomadic tribes living off the desert all over the Middle East in their tents. Their ancient customs still intact. They offer to buy your women in exchange of some number of camels and tell you tales from the past while you drink tons of coffee and tea.
I though I had publicly promised to do so, but I couldn’t find it anywhere in this blog. In any case, this is the beginning of a series of posts on some of the unbelievably good food I ate in my recent trip to Israel. It shall make many readers jealous and/or hungry. I will post the full names of anyone on the pictures to ensure they are found in web searches. Here we go…
Schawarma
I keep an ever shrinking list of musicians I’d like to see perform live at some point. Last month I was able to check an important one off: Shlomo Artzi. I’ve been wanting to see him in concert ever since the kibbutz days. Back then I would listen to Yareah over and over and over and over on my Sony Sports Walkman.
In any case… Barak, Amit, Leon, and I got tickets to see his concert at HaRatzif, an old train station just outside of the Old City of Jerusalem. The concert lasted about two and a half hours and there were zero t-shirts for sale. Zero! I don’t get it.
But it was great.
Photographic and video proof below:
