Miscellaneous
Trip Start
Sep 19, 2008
1
10
11
Trip End
Sep 23, 2008
Tel Aviv,
Israel
Monday, September 22, 2008
GAS: I know we complain about this constantly and think our gas prices are an outrage, however gas in Israel is $7.33 a gallon! Can you believe that? And it's in the Middle East!!!
FOOD: Some of you have asked more about the food. Other than the camel story there isn't much of originality to tell you. They have everything, but it's mainly Middle Eastern stuff for the most part: hummus, felafel, taboule, pita, shish kabob, etc... They do have a lot of what I'd call "sicky sweet" deserts- stuff along the baklava line. Lots of nuts and phyllo being used and then dripping in syrup. Not my thing. There's also halvah, again not my thing.
You see a lot of olive trees and date palms and both were being harvested while I was in Israel
Cooling Garbanzo Beans for Hummus
. There are also pomegranate trees and everywhere you go people are hawking freshly squeezed pomegranate juice, sometimes they also have fresh orange or carrot juice as well.There are many souks and shops selling nuts and spices. These are found in open containers & boxes and you simply scoop out the amount you desire and purchase it by weight.
I had sushi twice but both times it was very unimaginative as they only had a few kinds of fish to use. I guess that's all that is allowed to pass as kosher.
Speaking of kosher: Perhaps here's a reason why there's not much to write about in terms of cuisine over here... This is from the review of one of the top kosher restaurants in Tel Aviv: 'you can rely on being served classic Jewish cuisine such as gefilte fish, jellied calves foot, chopped liver, baked goose, tongue, & kreplach soup. Now do you begin to understand why Kosher cuisine isn't catching on like wildfire in a city near you?
MALE MODESTY: For some reason, the men in the Mid East feel it is perfectly OK to pee on the side of the road. Now if they would have the decency to go behind a bush or a tree, I might not find that so offensive, but no, they go right out in the open! I realize that much of the terrain is desert, but couldn't they at least open their front and rear doors and go in-between?
