The Very Hungry Driver, Post 5 Summer 2013

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Today was Abby’s last full day in Israel, so the day was devoted to helping her run some last errands and get the stuff she needed to bring back to the States.  This post is inspired by the magnum opus of Eric Carle, The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

On Sunday morning the driver woke up.  He had a cup of coffee coffee and a bowl of denola (what his 2 year old friend Ofek calls Granola).  He drove his wife and daughter to Jerusalem, where they went to Marzipan on Rachel Imeinu and he had a Cappuccino and two small pastries.  Then they went to Mahane Yehuda.  The hungry driver ate two tastes of coffee flavored halva, bought some dried apricots, two new kippot (Abby was buying other stuff), browsed in a wine shop but didn’t buy anything and then they went downtown.  

Downtown, the very hungry driver went shopping for 2 weddings gifts, other thank you presents and then he ate half of a falafel at Moshiko and medium carrot juice from Tutti Fruiti at the top of the Ben Yehuda midrachov (pedestrian mall) (Abby had a frozen yogurt at Katzefet and Judy had some kind of iced coffee drink).

Then the very hungry driver and his family went to Yanai St near the Jaffa Gate, where they bought a new tablecloth, 4 more kippot, a plastic tallit bag cover and an Armenian tile.

The very hungry driver and his family got back in the car, drove back to the German Colony where they met their friend Jacob Blumenthal at Caffit (which has moved across the street and may be buoyed by its reputation more than by its current offerings).  There the very hungry driver had a glass of red grapefruit juice and a bowl of French Onion soup (Judy and Abby has some kind of cheese dish which they said was only ok).

The very hungry driver drove to Har Homa to drop some donated dance shoes off with Arnie Draiman for later pick up by Afikim BaNegev in Sderot, stopped to fill the car with gas and returned to Srigim, where he and his family were invited to visit Etti and Allain Yifrach for dessert.  

There the very hungry driver had some watermelon and a piece of cake.  The driver slept for two hours before taking Abby to the airport at 1:45 a.m. at which time he turned around and went back to Srigim (having to wait about 5 minutes for the gate to be opened) and went back to sleep at 3:30 A.M.  He did not turn into a butterfly.  In 3.5 hours he returns to the airport to collect Michelle, and then they go on to two days in Tel Aviv.

Happy Tu b’Av!

A day in the Galil

Thursday, July 18, 2013

A day in the Galil

The Mona Lisa of the Gallilee at Tzipori

Our New Pet Cow at Farod, as yet unnamed

Another breakfast delivered (apparently Friday’s will be served in the Dining Hall for a change of pace) and another feast.  No cat joined us today, and we had more food that we could eat.  There are a lot of sweet and friendly Kibbutz dogs, though none like our Waldo (who wrote to us yesterday – some of you have read his facebook posts in the past).

We took off for Tzipori, a city in the Lower Galilee that was occupied mostly from the first through seventh centuries of the common era, a regional commerce center and a strategic center as well.  Tzipori was known for several things – it didn’t revolt against the Romans and decided as a community to get along with them.  Jews and others live together.  In the 4th century synagogues and churches co-existed in the same community.  Everywhere you look around the site, there are pomegranate, fig and olive trees, beautiful views and amazing archeology.

Tzipori is known for its Roman era mosaics throughout the site, in public buildings, synagogues and private homes.  We spent a very hot two hours walking around and seeing the sites.

We then went down below the tel to the Moshav of Tzipori – we were looking for a few cottage industries but managed only to find a dairy making excellent cheeses from goat and sheep’s milk.  They were mostly French style soft cheeses, with a couple of hard cheese and some things like bulgarit and labane  It was a nice break from the heat.

We then headed to Nazareth Ilit to look for someplace to eat (we had a hard time finding something) and drove around a bit and then took a scenic route through some neighboring Arab villages to come home to Farod, but we took a brief detour to Karmiel to get schwarma for me and Abby.  We were quickly full (Israeli portions are outrageous).  I took a nap after that.  Now I’m sitting in a Gym lobby while Abby and Judy dance.  Upon arriving to our room at Farod we were greeted by our new pet, pictured above.  Help us choose a name.

A night in the Galil, a day in the Golan

July 17, 2013

Abby, who spent Tisha B’Av in Jerusalem while I spent it in Zichron Yaakov and Binyamina, met me at the airport for Judy’s arrival on Tuesday.  Judy’s flight was on time unlike ours (thank you Lufthansa, and no thank you Air Canada), and we started our trek to the north; we are staying at the guest house in Kibbutz Farod (or Parod, no one seems to know).  It was about a 3 hour drive, and we were all fasting, so we stopped at a supermarket in Karmiel to get something to break fast with, nothing fancy.  We get to the kibbutz, the area around the guest rooms is sort of deserted, but we reached someone by phone and managed to get settled.  We were told about a nice pub on the kibbutz, so after we ate, and it was only around 9 pm, we decided to check it out.

Mel’s Pub.  On our way there we encountered a bovine member of the kibbutz (and I don’t mean a fat person, I mean an actual cow) who it appeared, to use a jailbreak (or camp day off metaphor) went over the wall) and was grazing on the lawn of a nearby cottage.  We felt obliged to report the escapee to Mel, who shrugged, said it happens and didn’t bother to call anyone.  Mel advertises that he has over 400 whiskies which is likely true.  Distilled spirits here are expensive, but he charges for a drink prices that are higher than hotel prices - I ended up with a small draft beer (which was nice, and still about $6) and a bag of cashews.  We didn’t see any cows on the way back.  Judy said if we had passed a place like Mel's at home, we never would have gone in.

We woke up in the morning, and breakfast was brought to us in our room at 8:30.  It was a full buffet in a basket with rolls, labane (a thick

dairy spread, 2 kinds actually) yogurts, cereals, tomato cucumber and a red pepper, hard boiled eggs, herring all in separate little containers and 2 kinds of bourekas.  It was lovely and one of the local cats enjoyed the herring immensely.

Our first stop was the DeKarina Chocolate factory at Ein Zivan.  All the bon bons and truffles are handmade and delicious.  The 22 NIS tour (about $6) includes a film, watching the people make candy (we saw how Mekupelet is made by hand) and a tasting of 5 different chocolates.  It’s quick, only about a half hour and we did it with another family of three from Brooklyn.  Next door is the Bahat winery, a kosher, family-owned winery making about 10,000 bottles a year.  I tasted 2 wines, an exceptional Pinot Noir (which in the past has not done so well in Israel) and weird tasting Sangiovese, only disappointing because its a variety I love, and a very nice Merlot.

From there, on our way to the Har Odem Winery we stumbled upon a fairly new visitors center at a junction called Wasset.  It’s a lovely enclosed compound with some artisans, restaurants, a wine shop/tasting room run/owned by Bazelet HaGolan (but selling other local wines - we neither tasted nor shopped there) and we walked around a bit.  There was a cool spice shop where I bought some sugar free halva and spicy paprika.  Then we went on to Har Odem, a winery high on my list to visit 2 years ago and we ran out of time.  It is about as far north as you can go in the Golan, and worth the trip.  It is a family owned and run operation, making about 80,000 bottles a year.  Our host was one of the winemakers and sons of the founder, Yishai Alfasi and he was a terrific guide and host.  I really enjoyed spending time with him and when he saw what I knew and how I enjoyed it, in addition to the 6 wines on the bar of tasting he went and got a mashgiach to get us a taste from the barrel of the 2011 Syrah, which has just been removed from its various barrels and transferred to stabilize before being bottled later this fall.  It is amazing, and my guess is it will be an expensive wine when it comes out.  It’s young but it will really be something.  As a big Shiraz fan, I left with one of those in my bag.  I have notes on the other wines and I’ll publish them later.

We headed to Katzrin a bit late in the day, it was already after 3 when we got there, and had lunch at a cute dairy place called Blueberry (which was really funny because there was a picture of 2 cherries on the menu).  The multiple spelling errors on the English menus of Israeli restaurants is a course of huge humor for me, so it was fun to read while deciding what to have.  I had a great Feta omelette, Judy had a mushroom omelette, Abby had a Mushroom pie, kind of a mushroom stew on puff pastry.  Yes I ate my salad and drank about a liter of water.

We got to the archeology museum about 45 minutes before it closed so rather than pay the whole admission we look at some carved basalt columns and other stuff in their courtyard, and decided we would get our dose of archeology tomorrow at Zippori.

Not exactly on our way down to the valley, we stopped at an artist village Amiam.  It was quaint - you have to have a lot of patience to work out on the edge of the country, with little publicity and wait for people to come and buy - I don’t think I could do it.  We walked around a bit.

We drove down toward the Kinneret and back up to see if there was anything to see in Rosh Pina (there wasn’t much) so we headed back to Farod.  Judy went for a stroll and found tonight’s escapee, and I sat down to do this.

Tomorrow is another day.

Israel's Northern Coast - Posting #2 2013

Summer in Israel 2013 - Posting # 2

If you read my facebook post from Sunday, I hope this won’t be too repetitive, but I keep these notes for myself to remember where I’ve been and who I’ve met (yes I do refer back and reread them from time to time).

We did a lot today.  We headed for Haifa. We started by driving to Santa Marius, the site at the top of Mt Carmel in Haifa where it is believed Eliyahu defeated the prophets of Ba'al. We were having trouble finding the cave of Eliyahu, so we asked a guy selling watches in front of the church where the cave was.  He was very friendly and said “over there across the street there are some stairs that lead to a path - it will take you 10 minutes.”  It was a bit of an adventure (I’m writing this Tuesday morning and my thighs are still sore).    On the way down we kept wondering when we would find this place (it tooks us about a half hour). 

  After a few minutes we came on this gravesite - there was no signage to the cave. Then we hiked down mountain to go to the site where Eliyahu prepared for the battle in a cave which is now a small synagogue/holy site for Jews. People come to pray for health or other things there, and there are all kinds of prayer texts mounted on the Mechitza (divider between men and women’s sections and on the walls.  We were in no shape to climb back up so we took a cab to the top of the mountain to get back to our car.

We then took kind of a slow driving tour of Haifa (traffic, not scenic) and went to Nahariya to see the town and the beach (town reminds me of Miami Beach in the 70's, the beach has course sand but is lovely (and quiet like Va Beach during the week).  we took of our shoes on walked on the rather deserted beach for a few minutes (it was near noon and very hot out,  not weather for a casual stroll ,even with a breeze).

We stopped at a great South American Grill restaurant Morganfeld, in Achziv (recommended by Anton Goodman)and we shared a mixed grill plate of two different kinds of steak and chicken and potatoes, onions and sweet potatoes.  I give it very high marks.  We drove on to Rosh HaNikra (I had never been, in so many visits to Israel) hiked the Grottos, and drove on to meet Mark Goberman, the winemaker at the Achziv Winery at Gesher HaZiv. He is a very small (1500 bottles/year) boutique winery, also an artist who teaches painting. We tasted 4 wines including a dessert wine and his Cab, Merlot and the blend he makes of them are very nice. Neither Abby nor I are dessert wine fans but it was pleasant nonetheless.

On the way back to Binyamina we stopped in Zichron, visited briefly at Carmel and tasted a Reisling and a Cab Franc, both nice. We then found a shop that Dina had recommended and it turns out the owner was a school friend of Abby's. She was a bit shocked by the discovery. Zichron is nice and we enjoyed walking around a bit though we didn’t go into any other shops.

We ended the day sharing a pizza in Pardes Hanna, and then friends of Yossi’s and Dina’s that I’ve met before, Lee Ann and Roul came over and we shmoozed for a while.  It was a full and fun day.

Summer 2013 in Israel - Posting #1

After a delayed arrival on Wednesday, a rush hour trip from the airport and nice home cooked meal and a shower.  We hit the ground running on Thursday (we is Abby, Yossi and me).

Our first planned visit to a vineyard within walking distance got cancelled on arrival; the vintner was delayed by an equipment problem and couldn’t meet us; it ended up not being a problem; another local vintner, Hadar Dor-On, who has partnerships with 3 wineries (and no label of his own) directed us to his fields where he was picking fresh figs, and we joined him.  

We walked into the vineyard and he described his theory, that the variety of grapes thriving in Israel maybe a sign that Israel, as an ancient wine culture (over 3000 years) may actually be the original home of many of the varieties that are considered French or otherwise European.  There is a legend that I had heard before that Chardonnay was originally a grape cultivated around Jerusalem that came back to France during the crusades as “Shaar Adonai” (God’s Gate).

In any event, Hadar grows his vines in two vertical tiers, cutting back leaves on the top vines to allow sun to reach the lower vines.  In increases his yield and he gets amazing results.  I’ve posted some photos on facebook.  After leaving the fields, we went to his home and tasted 3 of the wines for which he provides grapes, the Chillag Gewirtztraminer, a white blend from Wilhelmena Called Floreal Blanc(containing Sauvignon blanc, Reisling and Semillion) and a Malbec from a winery called Dadah.

The Floreal is a semi-dry and was too sweet for my taste, but i can see why it would be popular, particularly for people used to sweeter wines, in the same was Moscato is so popular now.  The Gewirtz was fine - Yossi liked it more than I did - it just didn’t appeal to me .  The Malbec was light, smooth and fruity - I really liked it a lot and hope to be able to find it again.

After a nice lunch at a butcher shop that has a few tables and kind of a cafeteria-style lunch special for NIS30  (about $8.50) with a main course, 2 sides and a salad, we went to visit Eli Azoulay at the Alona Winery.  We tasted 3 2012 wines from the barrel and walked around part of Eli’s vineyard.  We tasted a Merlot that will be outstanding if it continues as it is, a very smooth Cabernet Sauvignon and a very nice Shirza.  Eli sells his wines mostly from the winery and to several restaurants in Tel Aviv, Herzliya and Netanya.  His first year making wine was 2004, after 20 years and the Director of his Moshav (Givat Nili).  His wines are price very reasonable for a boutique winery, 65-75 shekels (under $20) and he seems to love what he does (as many winemakers do)

We were on a short timetable, but we were able to squeeze in a brief visit across the road from Alona to the Eyal Winery.  Eyal has a very hospitable set up in his backyard with a nice visitors center and a large yard for holding events.  We started with a semi dry white, 70% Chardonnay, 30% Emerald Riesling.  It was very pleasant and I told him it reminded me of Gush Etzion’s semi-dry Chardonnay.  We moved on to a Carignan (with 10% shiraz added) which is grown on 50 year old vines his grandfather planted.  It is a delicious, smooth wine - very mellow and would go great with food, almost anything I can think of.

For me one of the best wines of the day (out of 10 in all) was his 2009 Shiraz. My notes written at the time said amazing, full bodied with flavors of of plum and Black Cherry. We also tasted an excellent Cabernet, but since we were in a rush I don’t have any notes.  Eyal’s wines are Kosher.

Thursday was poker night - an enjoyable game and i was up most of the night, until the last couple of hands and i ended up being down NIS 3.6 (a bit more than a dollar).  As I was rusty and hadn’t played in over a year, not too bad.

Friday Abby and I headed to Jerusalem - we both had people to see, but it was a very quick trip.  The drive was about an hour and 15 minutes and we went to the USY office to deliver packages to USYers from the Regional office in Rockville.  We spent some time with David Keren before heading to the German Colony.  There we had breakfast with our colleague from NYC, Sara Shapiro Plevan and it was just a great time.  Sara and I are on the JEA board together and she is so bright and insightful.  We also discovered that we are both second generation in the profession.

Abby got together with her friends Avi adn Miriam and their baby, I ran into Rabbi Ari Sunshine and schmoozed for a bit and then headed to Har Homa to see Arnie Draiman.  It was great catching up with him with a quick hello to Rena, and then I picked Abby up and we headed to one of my favorite Friday hangouts, the Yehuda Winery at shoresh.  Avi greeted us like family, we tasted 2 merlots from 2012 (from the barrel) a lovely Nitzan blend of Merlot, Cab and Shiraz and Avi gave us a Shiraz 2010 to drink for Shabbat to see if it is ready for market (I can’t tell you before I tell him, but suffice it to say his 2006 and 2008 Shiraz are among my favorites, and this will likely join it one day).

We stopped on the way back to Binyamina for gas and ice cream (gas here is around NIS 7.45 a liter which is about $8 a gallon) and then got ready for Shabbat.  Abby and I went to the local main shul in the center of town (Tifereth Binyamin) for kabbalat shabbat and maariv and had a lovely roast beef dinner with Yossi and Dina.  Shabbat morning I got up early and went back to shul by myself (started at 8:15) and I was home by 10:45 including a bar mitzvah.   We had a quiet shabbat (nap before lunch) went for a 45 min walk as the sun was setting.  Abby met a USY friend who was nearby after shabbat, and I got to hang out with Reuven Genn, an old friend of mine and Yossi’s and we had some Arak and coffee and caught up.  A nice 3 days of vacation.  Tomorrow Abby and I are heading north for a day of exploring the coast from Haifa North (mostly foreign to me so I’m excited just to see it.  I have lines on a couple of places for us to eat up there as well.

It’s midnight motzai Shabbat so laila tov!