Israeli coffee

Drinking coffee in Israel is quite an adventure. Watch out - what you want is not what you get!

Survival guide:

• cappuccino - "kafe hafuch" or "twisted coffee", what they mean is an ordinary coffee with milk; until yet I haven't discovered the real cappuccino;
  
• caffe frappe - here they call it simply "ice coffee" and they have some amazing combinations;
• caffe latte - and they mean "coffee with milk" but not the above mentioned one :-/
• black coffee - don't expect a coffee without sugar because you're wrong; they mean coffee with sugar but with no milk, that's why it's black isn't it!?

And if you still have doubts about coffee in Israel, look at the picture and try to guess what I have ordered. Oh, and I have received a fork and a knife too!

Eran Grebler's dreydlekh

The Old City of Caesaria has it's own special charm, no doubt.
But what makes it even more special for me is the small welcoming gallery of the Israeli artist Eran Grebler.
Spinning the dreydlekh means spinning the memories of my love for Yiddish, means getting even deeper in the Jewish sensibility and re-descovering the child within myself.
Last summer I chosed a hamsa and a "foot"-hamsa. The small vulnerable hamsa sacrifice itself for me - it fell on the floor a couple of seconds after I had fixed it on the wall. It says that when a hamsa is broken, it takes all the Bad with itself and protects the owner. But however I felt pitty on my hamsa. So, after one year almost, I have decided to replace the previous hamsa and to bring to the "foot" it's mate.
And since I believe that things just don't happen by chance, today I picked up the "love and happiness"-hamsa, because I forgot that this was written on the "foot" also.

Restaurant review

If you want to try the sushi on Rothschild Blvd. in Tel Aviv, near Neve Tzedek, you should think very well first. No toilet. No avocado. At least the sushi they prepare is delicious.

On the other side of the road there is a very nice and welcoming restaurant called "Benedict", specialized in breakfast. I had no idea what time it was when we entered but the nice waitress welcomed us with "Boker tov" - although it wasn't after midgnight ;-). The capuccino there is delicious, the pancakes are amazing ... the people are young and nice and sweet. It's just one thing I didn't understand: how can you drink water with a straw!?

LA TRAVIATA in Ganei Yehoshua, 10.06.2008

Nature in the trash bin

Tryin' new pants in Tel Aviv

To cross or not to cross - that is the question

White Night in Tel Aviv_03.07.2008

"Do you still love me?" ...

[…] "Do you still love me?"

"What kind of question is that?"

"Don't evade it. Do you?"

"When we were little, I was crazy about you."

"And now?"

"You're not on my mind the whole time or even most of the time, if that's what you're asking. I have my own life now."[…]

Ronit Matalon (2002): Bliss, translated by Jessica Cohen, New York, Metropolitan Books – Henry Holt and Company, pg. ???

20 NIS

More or less … Orange juice … Ice coffee … Four bus tickets … Damaged book on sale … Museum entrance fee … But I have wasted 20 NIS on a quarrel on the phone with HIM.

Reasons why to miss Tel Aviv

Hebrew language with perfect guturalls ... the smell of the room with air conditioner ... ice coffee ... I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike ... sea, sun, sand, water ... Shabbat silence ... chalah bread ... nice talkative people ... summer sales ... Steimatzky ... baby leaf mix salad ...