Bizarre Foods: Jerusalem

WARNING: This post is not for vegetarians nor is it for the squeamish! Reader discretion is advised!!!!

Travel Channel, please don't sue me!

Many people may or may not be aware that the Travel Channel is one of my favorite TV stations to watch. And on that TV station, there is this show that I absolutely love called Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern. The host of this show takes you to various countries and samples THE strangest foods in the world. From frogs leg stew to live bugs, this guy eats EVERYTHING.

The shows slogan is, "If it looks good, eat it!" And for the most part, I couldn't agree more. My own personal slogan is, "So long as it's Kosher, I'll at least try it once!" I'm personally totally obsessed with traveling to various places and sampling weird delectables, so long as they are permitted to be eaten under Jewish Law. When we decided to go to Israel for our honeymoon, the first thing I thought of was, "What kinda food they got there?"

When talking to a friend, she warned me not to eat at a kibbutz because, "You'll end up eating chicken foot soup!" My reply was, "cOoL! I wanna try that!" She was,a bit visably upset, or at least preturbed, by my sentament.

While one can imagine my quest so far for "Chicken foot soup" (oh, I'll find it, you betcha! And when I do, it's going up right here!), I happened upon another interesting delicacy inside the Machne Yehudah Shuk. Of which, as everyone who has been reading this religiously can already tell, is one of my absolute favorite places here in Jerusalem.

But I digress. What is on the menu for this Shabbat is none other than (bum bum BUM)....

Curried Chicken Hearts over Rice!!!!!!

Oh yes. You read me. HEARTS.

My basic plan of attack (since I've never made this before) was to take sort of a cross between a Hamin (Sephardi cholent), Chitarny (a really sweet, sour and spicy Iraqi/Indian chicken dish, served over rice), and what I remember tasting in a korkivanim sauce (korkivanim is chicken gizzards, which are also rather tastey) and create a rather lovely and HEART HEALTHY dish. Ok, maybe not the heart healthy part. I really don't know how to make anything heart healthy, as I'm not even really sure what heart healthy is. Maybe a healthy heart dish? Yes! Indeed! But I just thought a pun stuck in here would be funny. ...

I started off by saute'ing 3 chopped onions in olive oil. I then added about 4-5 cloves chopped fresh garlic. I let them get sort of translucent and then I added the spices. I'd say it was about a tablespoon each of Cumin, Hodu Curry (Indian Curry), Ciyanne, and Cinnimon. I let the aromas sort of meld together and then I added the HEARTS (bum bum ... oh whatever, you get it by now). I let it all sort of sear a bit (for I understand that hearts are a very tough piece of organ and thus need to be cooked for a long time to tenderize). It was a kilo of them that we purchased, so around 2.2 lbs of chicken heart.

(Doesn't that look FANTASTIC?)

Then so as the spices wouldn't burn, I added about 2 cups of a French Reisling that was leftover from last week. As it was simmering, I choped up about 2lbs worth of fresh tomatoes and then I threw them in. I used fresh tomatoes because, I figured, since the hearts had to cook a long time the tomatoes could cook along with them and retain a destictively fresh tomato taste. A flavor one might not get with already cooked store-bought sause. It would have ended up tasting like old chulant. Anyhoos, after that, I added the tomato paste to give it a bit of a velvety and deep flavor.

After that, I just sorta let it simmer like that for a bit with the lid on. Then I let it simmer a bit more with the lid off in order to let some of the liquid evaporate. Finally, it was time to taste it!
And you know what? It was REALLY good! The hearts are still a little tough, but they're actually more tender than I envisioned. No gristle nor fat.
Upon first bite, I was surprised because it almost had a beefy flavor and consistency, even though it is poultry. They actually have almost a livery flavor, upon further examination. Very, very good. And the sauce really brightens it with a spicy, sweet, and sour flavor. Very nice. I made jasmine rice as well, and we'll have it over the rice for Shabbos along with an array of other delicacies from the shuk that include yummie challah and techina, olives, Israeli salad, as well as chocolate rugalach!

I HEARTily encourage everyone to look into their HEARTS and see what other neat stuff they can find that is off the beaten culinary path. Feel free to try this recipe of mine! And, if you want, I'll even make it for you sometime! You just gotta put your HEART and soul into being a little different from time to time.

LOL, ok enough with the terrible puns. I hope everyone has a FANTASTIC SHABBAT! Shabbat shalom!

Aaaaaaaaaand now for something completely different.

Na Nach Nechema Nachaman Meuman!!!!

www.breslov.org

Chevron & Kever Rochel

Yesterday, we went on our Artzenu tour to Chevron and Kever Rochel. It was a truly moving experience. I also really enjoyed the air conditioned bus!

First up, we hit Kever Rochel. Jacob buried his wife Rachel on the road to Bethlehem. As some may or may not be aware, Bethlehem is under Palestinian control at the moment, because Israel handed it over to them a couple of years ago in the name of peace. But, there is a fortress around Kever Rochel and it is also inside the security barrier. Thus, Jews may enter under heavy protection. The security barrier was put herebecause this is the hotspot where most of the suicide bombers came from.
Unfortunately, becuase Michael is a Kohein of course he could not enter. We have yet to ask a shilah (since I'm his wife) on whether or not I may go in. sSo to be safe, I didn't go in either. We really need to ask a Rav about this because I'm pretty sure I would have been allowed. Oh well, we got one of the tour leaders to take pictures inside for us!

Next up, Chevron! It was amazing to see such a place. It was very desolate. There was a few Jews there, but it is mostly Arabs living there. There is tight security for those few who do live there. The Jewish area is nice and well kept. The Arab areas are squallor. The tour guide explained that Israel offered to build houses for the Arabs too and give them the same level of living as the Jews, but the Arab leaders refused and forced their people to live in this devestation. Of course, the common people blame the Jews for their situation, and the Arab leaders know that. Hence why they purposfully refused aid from Israel.

We went into the Shul. It basically has no name. It is simply called the Beit Knesset Shel Avrohom Aveinu (The Synogogue of Abraham our forefather). It was built by Spanish Jews who came to Israel after the Inquisition. The reason they call it this is because of a very interesting story that took place in the late 1800s, during a lot of unrest. Basically, it was the eve of Yom Kippur and the Jews heard some buzz about an Arab attack planned for Yom Kippur. It was very scary. Many from this town left for Jerusalem for the Day of Atonement out of fear.

A few people stayed behind. When Yom Kippur started, some men came in. A few women were there too. They all sat and waited as men trickled in, slowly. Five, six, seven. Finally, there were nine men. They continued to wait. There wasn't a 10th and they couldn't start the prayer service without a tenth man! They waited. Hours went by. No one came. Finally, this strange little old man with a long white beard entered. They were so happy to see him, they offered for him to come and sit in the seat that the Rabbi usually does. He said no, that he'd sit in the back. So finally, they began the kol nidrei service. And they prayed. They preyed with such devotion, if you can imagine, because of the threat that was looming. They prayed with the feeling that they would meet their maker on this Day of Atonement.

That night, nothing happened. They came in the next day and continued to pray for the whole day. Not a peep from the hills surrounding them. Finally, it was the end of Kom Kippur and everyone turned around at once to the back to see if they could invite the honored guest who saved their prayer service to come break the fast at their homes. As they did, they saw him leaving through the door. They chased after him in the dark, asking him to please come and have some cake. As he turned the dark corner, it seemed he disapeared into thin air.

That night, the Rabbi had a dream that the old man came to him. He asked the old man, why he didn't stay? They would have been honored to share their post-fast meal with him. In the dream, the old man replied, "I'm sorry, but that wasn't the deal. I really had to get back." "Get back where?" questioned the Rabbi. "I had to get back to my cave!" said the old man, "For I am Avrohom! Your beloved forefather!"

The Rabbi sat up straight in bed, with a cold sweat. He ran to the other men to go tell them what he had seen in his dream. It was decided then and there that they would rename the shul from whatever it was called before to The Synogogue of Abraham our Forfather.

Later, during the Arab pogroms, it was destroyed. The Arabs used it as a goat pen for years until 1967, when Israel reclaimed Chevron. They rebuilt the shul and brought back the original Torah Scroll.

We ate lunch at a pizza place there and also purchased some things at the gift shop.


Next up, it was Kever HaMachpelim (The Cave of our Forefathers).



At Kever HaMachpelim, Abraham and Sarah, Isaak and Rivka, Jacob and Leah as well as Adam and Eve are all buried inside. King Horod built a structure over the cave to protect it. The Mamaluks (a sect of Muslims) came during the middle ages and took it over. The Mamaluks forbade Jews from entering. Now it is once again under Israeli control and everyone, Muslims and Jews, are allowed to come in.

Once again, Michael was not allowed in because it was a grave site and he is a Kohein. He is only allowed to get as close as the seventh step. I also, stayed outside and took some pictures while Michael davened mincha.
After that, we were off to Gush Etzion.

Gush Etzion has also a long and rich history that is also very bloody. Basically, it was a kibbutz in the 20s and 30s. When the Arab riots happend in reaction to the declaration of the State of Israel in 1948, the women and children were sent to Jerusalem. The men stayed behind to fend for their land. What ended up happening was a sad miracle. They held off the Arab advances for long enough that Jerusalem could be saved.

For had the Arabs destroyed Gush Etzion sooner, they would have been able to make it to Jerusalem to slaughter everyone there. The men gave their lives to protect their families and fellow Jews in Jerusalem. Unfortunately, they ran out of ammunition and the Arabs lined them up and told them it was for a red cross picture. When everyone lined up, they opened fire killing them execution style.

In 1967, when Israel retook this territory as well, the orphaned children (now adults) came back. Their lone oak tree from their childhood was still standing.

There are so many other things, so many other stories that we heard and felt when we went on this tour. To write everything with detail would take a much longer post.

We came back to Jerusalem around 5pm. Went out to dinner, came home, and once again collapsed. More soon.

More Jerusalem Touring

Yesterday was jam packed. Before we got on our way though, we needed more clothes. See, Israel in the summer for those who aren't sure, is very very hot. And one tends to perspire. Often. Because of this, clothes tend to get rather smelly and become in desperate need of a wash. I know, I know. Foreign concept.

But so the first task of the day was to get those clothes clean! So we dropped them off at a laundry service down the street. We'll have to pick them up later because today we're going to be gone to Hevron all day today ... but that is another blog for later. Focusing back on yesterday ....

Anyhoosilbees, once we dropped off the laundry, we decided to get Joni more clothes. Why? Because I needed them, darn it! Before we left for Israel, we went clothes shopping. But I couldn't really find any tznious clothes, let alone ones adept for this hot weather. We found plenty of clothes for the hubbie though and once they finally came in his lost luggage, he's been set ever since. I, on the other hand, put pretty much everything I had in the wash.

We went to the Machne Yehudah shuk again (since it's right down the street from our apt) and shopped a bit for clothes. I found some lovely skirts and some shirts and I'm very pleased. Still need more shirts though, but I'm happy for now. Check out one of my stylin' new outfits!

(Ignore the garbage in the background)

We also got some eggs at the shuk so I could boil them and take them along as snacks. Moving right along, we made our way once again to the Old City. We walked around for a bit and tried to find the Burnt House Museum. While trying to find it, we ran into an old friend of ours, who moved to Israel, Jake Lapp! It was great to see him! We chatted for a bit and exchanged info and, G-d willing, we'll having him over for Shabbos at some point before we leave Israel.

Back to the task at hand, once agian, we found the Burnt House. Unfortunately, it was closed because of some unexpected issue. So we tried to go to a different museum. It didn't open until around the time our tour of the tunnels started. So then we went over to this small "museum" that we'd gone into once to ask directions. It is called the King David Museum. The two men inside were dressed in biblical gear.

Turns out, from talking to the man from Arkansas (to the right), they believe this is how one should dress and do so all the time. They were really nice though. The Arkansas guy took us on a tour of the museum which included old prints of the Sefer Tehillim. It also told about David's geneology and the story of his life. We even watched a short video about Kind David and another one about his harp. It was very interesting. But the guys in the museum were a little nuts, let's put it that way. Basically, he moved to Israel from America to devote his life to preparing for the messiah. So, like, they were sorta part of a cult. But, again, very nice guys. The other guy was Israeli (to Mike's left). It was really neat to hear the Arkensas guy speak because of his cool accent, especially when he pronounced hebrew words.

Michael got a nice picture with them and then we were on our way again. This time, to the tunnel tour.

The tour was awesome! Really neat stuff. Basically, it took us to the ground level of the 2nd Temple's time and the real floor of the kotel. Also, it took us to the closest place we can get to the Holy of Holies. Here's some photographs:


After the tour, we were pretty tired. We sat on the steps near the kotel and rested for a bit before heading home. It was about 9pm when we got back and I pretty much passed out because I was hot and tired. All and all, it was a great day. Today, we're heading on an all-day tour to Hevron and Kever Rochel. Change of scenery will prove nice! Late'

Museums and Sweet Serendipity!

Believe it or not, we ACTUALLY made it to the museums yesterday. Ah-ma-zing. We still had a few technical difficulties with those buses, but once we got on the correct one, we flew on over.

There was no photography allowed inside most of the museums, so my apologies for not having more detailed visual representation.

First we went to the Israeli Historical Museum. They had an exhibition on biblical music. It was rather interesting but still a bit boring. It had mostly artifacts from other Mesopotamian cultures. There were a few artifacts from ancient Israel, but it was not that interesting. All together, this was a mildly interesting exhibition.

The main Israeli Museum doesn't open until 4pm. Don't ask me why. So we decided to head over to the science museum. THAT was a cool place. At least I thought so. See, it was a bit of a children's museum, really. Much like the science museum in balboa park. Actually, more of a cross between that and what I remember the children's museum in downtown San Diego being like. But this was much more fun.

It had a really cool water ball thing in front of it!

Michael found it rather amusing that I went off and starting touching things and pushing buttons and playing with things. It's because I'm 5. Whatever. If you lose your ability to have fun in a place made for having fun then ... you're ... a grown up. And who wants to be a stinky old person? Michael amused himself by taking lots of video of me goofing around at the cool museum. Photography was allowed here. Here's a video of the blowie papers into the air thingie.

We started getting hungry so we decided to eat some junk food at the cafeteria in the Science Museum. Because that's what you need to have when you're in a children's science museum, darn it!

Anyhoo, after snack time, we decided to kill some more time and explore the Science Museum some more and take a few more pictures.

Here's some more insight into how awesome this place was ....

After that, it was time to head over to the main museum. When we got there, we found out that the Wine Festival was there later on in the evening AND it was starting that night! Naturally, we purchased tickets and it worked out for the best because we were sort of worried as to when we'd get to the wine festival because we had other things planned for Wednesday and Thursday. More on the wine festival later.

At the main museum, we went on a guided tour of the dead sea scrolls. It was really interesting and informative. I think taking a tour of a museum like that is much better than going off on your own and being bored, like in the first museum. We got a very rare glimpse of the most complete of the dead sea scrolls, it usually is locked away safely due to it being the only one that is the entire book of Isiah. It was on display for the first time in 40 years because of Israel's 60th birthday. After this year, it most likely won't be seen again for another 40.

We also visited the sculpture garden and the contemporary art museum. Thoroughly enjoyed that. There was also outside a mini model of what they believed Jerusalem looked like at the time that Herod renovated the 2nd temple, just before the Romans destroyed it . Here's a couple of pictures of that.


After all that, it was about time to go pick up our wine glasses for the festival. Oh yes, this was awesome. So for 55 NIS, per person, you get one wine glass and unlimited tasting as well as some free food and some dinner that you pay extra for. We headed over and sampled a few vintages and this was the most fun of the entire day!


In that last picture I am sufficiently buzzed. We both got nicely buzzed last night, actually. I was pretty plastered for the bus ride home, actually. It was great! And even more fruitful, I found some lovely wines to pair with dishes I have planned for the holidays. I had the most amazing chardonnay, and I'm not a chard person mind you, but this one was fantastic! Perfect for Thanksgiving turkey. The second I tasted it, I knew what to do with it. We also found a really nice deep and robust Merlot blend with some deep cherry notes. That would be fantastic with duck. Rosh HaShonah will be lovely this year, I tell you!

So now we've recovered and we're off this morning to do some more shopping and then later this evening a tunnel tour in the Old City. Wish us luck! More later!

Bust, but not totally ...

The first part of the day can pretty much be best summed up as a bust. We wanted to go to the Israel Museum but that didn't happen because the bus never came.

We decided to ditch the plans described and try again with an earlier start in the morning. Instead, we thought it a nice idea to head over to Darna; a Moroccan restaurant which came highly recommended by the tour book as well as a few other people recommended it too.

It was late lunch time when we went so we were a bit hungry and hoped that perhaps they were open. Turns out that we had to make a reservation and come back. No problem. There was a Bar Mitzvah going on.

So we made our reservation and went home and ate some of the yummies we purchased earlier at the shuk. Also, we took a bit of a nap. Michael was a bit tired because he woke up about 4am so a nap was surely needed.

I woke him up at about 6:30pm so we could make our way over to Darna. We got there about 10 mins before 7pm and they seated us.

Just a head's up warning for those intending to possibly eat here, this place is expensive. We knew that going in. We figured since we've been surviving on street food all this time, (and since, well, we live in San Diego -- the land of no fancy restaurants and few restaurants in general) we deserved a bit of a splurge. This was definately a splurge, as I'll soon explain. (ADDITIONAL WARNING: lots of pictures of food to follow). Forgive me if I don't know the exact names of all the dishes, for they are Moroccan and unfamiliar. Thus, I forgot.

We decided to go with the Traditional Menu, which involved choices of appetizers, main courses, and deserts.

First up was the soup. It was a savery lentil soup with beef. You squeeze the lemon into the soup and then as you have it, you take a bite of the date so that you get the balance of the sour and the sweet. This is how they eat it in Morocco.

This soup was fantastic! It was very delicate in flavor and rather surprisingly light. It had lentils and chickpeas in it as well. It also had almost an eggdrop soup element to it, which I found rather interesting, conceptually as well as texturally within a North African soup dish. Most soup courses I will finish and say, "That was a meal in and of itself!" Not this one, however. Because it was so light it was not going to weigh the rest of the meal down and, thus, it enabled you to be still hungry for the next course. I don't think I've ever been able to say that of a restaurant's or anyone's soup course, for that matter.















After that it was the salads and appetizers! The salads were laid out on a lazy susan meant for sharing. I also had a pastilla with Cornish hen and cinnamon that we split. OMG was it good! We also got a bottle of Yarden Merlot that complimented things rather well.

There was a spicy pepper salad that Michael ate a huge fork full of and it "kicked [his] butt." I personally like the cucumber in rose water and I'm not even a fan of rose water. But this was so lovely.

Then, of course, it was time for the main course. Michael ordered the Tangia of Veal in a savory sauce and I the Tangia of Lamb Shoulder in sweet fruit sauce. We both ended up liking the lamb better, but that is simply because we're lamb people. However, both dishes were so good. The veal and the lamb were both very tender and delicious. The meat practically melted in your mouth.

The lamb, together with the wine, was an incredible sensation for the tongue. The sweetness of the fruits together with the acid and spice of the wine was an unstoppable combination of pure happiness on a dinner table. It was at this piont that we were pretty full. The portions were great sized and the courses were plentiful. But there was still more!

We took a bit of a break before dessert came out and were served lovely Moroccan pulled mint tea. It is called pulled tea because they pour it from up really high away from the glass so that it cools slightly and becomes a bit frothy. It was so soothing and delicious. It hit the spot with its minty and slightly sweet aroma and its full-bodied tea flavor.

The presentation of all the food was lovely, of course, but I especially loved the presentation of the tea, served in its glasses with a metal pitcher. It was really lovely.
















Then, of course, there was dessert!!! A lovely array of Moroccan pastries and Toubkal, which is filo with soy milk (instead of real milk) and cinnamon and sugar. What other words could I use to describe this other than, "MMMMM!!!" Exquisite. All told, the meal was not too heavy and wonderfully filling, all at the same time.

I was, needless to say, a happy foodie camper.

But now a few more words about price, as promised. Just to give you a better idea of how expensive is expensive when I say expensive (did I mention expensive?) -- and now that you've seen for lack of experiencing what we ate, dinner came to about $100 US per person.

That's right. No, I'm not joking. And that bottle of wine ended up being $60 US. This is why I say, it was a serious splurge. We won't be eating there every night. It's even doubtful we'll eat there again this trip (notice I said this trip. Oh, we will be back eventually. It was that good!).

I do believe this was most likely the most expensive meal I have ever or will ever eat. But, it was also one of the best meals I have ever or most likely will ever eat. In my opinion, it was worth the splurge. And be reminded, we pretty much knew what we were getting into when we booked a reservation.

We did take home some leftovers. And we totally walked out with that $60 bottle of wine. Heck, we paid for it! There was a little more than half the bottle left too. Cool thing about Israel, you can walk with opened alcohol in the street and no one really batts an eyelash, not that we were drinking it in the street. We were merely escorting our new $60 friend home, safely.

Anyhoo, if anyone is interested for when they come to Israel, you can click here for the website for Darna. You can see more pictures, details, and history behind and about the restaurant.

As I am now finishing this blog entry, the morning lights of Tuesday are upon me. So I'll try and get a couple more hours of sleep in before we start our day once again and attempt to get to that museum. Wish us luck with those buses!!!