After a month of mainly dwelling on the chaos going on in so many Arab countries of the region, I thought this week I’d concentrate on one or two more off-beat stories to come out of Israel over the last week or so.
We’ve been hoping for plenty of rain this winter to try and replenish the Sea of Galilee, and although there have been some rainy days the amounts received fall well short of what is required. That said, it has been noticeably chilly over the last few days (indeed it’s hailing outside my window as I write!), and an hour-and-a-half north of my home town of Zichron there has been significant snowfall in the Golan and especially on Mount Hermon where Israel’s very own skiing resort has reported 70cm of fresh snow in the last couple of days.
I’ve only been skiing once, and that was on a dry slope at Harrogate in North Yorkshire when I was a teenager. You skied on artificial matting (as there was no snow), and the whole experience rather put me of the winter game after getting friction burns on my arse following a series of high speed falls on the coconut matting. Nasty!
I’m told by those that do enjoy slapping two planks of wood greased with chicken fat to their feet and hurling themselves down a mountain at a rate of knots, that skiing in Israel is – well, different. There’s little of the cool chic seen on the slopes of Chamonix or Kloisters, it’s more the case that folks turn up in their old jeans, some leg warmers, and great-grandpa’s old coat that he wore during a winter campaign in the Crimea, pay the necessary, and often with only a minimum of instruction 'push off' from the top of a very steep hill and hope for the best. It all sounds like fun though.
As a post-script to the skiing story, I think I have found a new claim for Israel to enter the Guinness Book of Records. Is there a category for the lowest level ski slope in the world? If there is, then the newly constructed artificial slope at the ‘Gateway to the Gilboa’ must merit an entry. The ‘brainchild’ (in the very loosest sense of the word, of the local mayor, one Dani Attar), they have actually built a short skiing slope (complete with mini-chairlift), at a point that is actually below sea level! If that’s not completely balmy, then I don’t know what is!
Humus is to Israel what fish and chips is to the Brits, or should I say what curry is to the Brits these days as Pakistani cuisine has overtaken the traditional British favourite. (By the way, in case you didn’t already know, fish and chips were introduced to Britain by Spanish Jews in around the 1880’s. They brought the idea with them from the Iberian Penninsular, where they fried in olive oil. (Not themselves, you understand, the fish!) The British soon developed a taste for the dish, but due to the lack of available olive trees in Britain they chose to fry in lard, for the most part.
So back to humus. I was gutted when my favourite humus cafe at nearby Karkur closed last year, (apparently due to the proprietors refusing to cut the landlord’s son in for a share of the business; this is the third world, you know). But redemption has arrived in nearby Pardess Hanna with the opening of Yossi’s Humus Cafe (or ‘humusiya’ as we locals refer to them), where they have introduced a new twist on the old recipe.
It’s called ‘Mashuasha’ and is a far coarser version of regular humus, the chickpeas not ground to a pulp but left somewhat crunchy. It still has a very appealing texture and when the extra virgin olive oil is drizzled over the plate together with tangy lemon juice, then hard-boiled egg and pine nuts added, it is absolutely delicious. With a side serving of homemade pickles, and fresh pita bread, it is a must. You have been told. Remember the name. Mashuasha.
It’s the festival of Purim next week, the celebration of the Jews of Persia some few thousand years ago not having been slaughtered ‘en masse’ as had been the express wish of the Prime Minister, Haman. After it was discovered that the king’s beloved wife Esther was actually Jewish and had hidden her ethnic background to avoid prejudice, the King realised that the Jews couldn’t be monsters as his anti-Semitic PM had insisted, and promptly decided to turn the tables and had the PM executed instead. I love a happy ending.
Purim is a festival dedicated to children. Lots of yummy cakes are scoffed in horrifying quantities and kids the length and breadth of Israel and in Jewish communities across the globe spend the day in fancy dress. I hope I’m not giving too much away when I tell you that my two girls are already kitted out to reflect more modern times. My ten-year-old daughter Tami is going as a hippie, whilst eight-year-old Maya will appear at school dressed as a sushi roll. I promise to post some photos next week on my website.
And finally...I had a fright last week when it was announced that Israel’s entry for the 2011 Eurovision song contest is called ‘Ding Dong’. For one moment I thought that everyone’s favourite British cad Leslie Phillips had been persuaded to represent Israel in the annual embarrassment that is Eurovision. Sadly, over here they take the matter very seriously, and have turned once again to everyone’s favourite transgender entertainer Dana International in the hope she can reproduce her winning performance of 1999 when she swept the board with her hit ‘Diva’. For me, far more memorable, was the following year when she presented the prize to the Swedish winner and duly lost her balance in her six-inch heels and crashed to the ground, still clutching the trophy. A comedy classic.
I’ll leave you with Dana International’s latest Israeli ‘hit’ (in inverted commas) a shadow of her previous winning song of more than a decade ago, and look forward to your company again next time. Thanks for listening, and ‘Shalom from Israel’.
We’ve been hoping for plenty of rain this winter to try and replenish the Sea of Galilee, and although there have been some rainy days the amounts received fall well short of what is required. That said, it has been noticeably chilly over the last few days (indeed it’s hailing outside my window as I write!), and an hour-and-a-half north of my home town of Zichron there has been significant snowfall in the Golan and especially on Mount Hermon where Israel’s very own skiing resort has reported 70cm of fresh snow in the last couple of days.
I’ve only been skiing once, and that was on a dry slope at Harrogate in North Yorkshire when I was a teenager. You skied on artificial matting (as there was no snow), and the whole experience rather put me of the winter game after getting friction burns on my arse following a series of high speed falls on the coconut matting. Nasty!
I’m told by those that do enjoy slapping two planks of wood greased with chicken fat to their feet and hurling themselves down a mountain at a rate of knots, that skiing in Israel is – well, different. There’s little of the cool chic seen on the slopes of Chamonix or Kloisters, it’s more the case that folks turn up in their old jeans, some leg warmers, and great-grandpa’s old coat that he wore during a winter campaign in the Crimea, pay the necessary, and often with only a minimum of instruction 'push off' from the top of a very steep hill and hope for the best. It all sounds like fun though.
As a post-script to the skiing story, I think I have found a new claim for Israel to enter the Guinness Book of Records. Is there a category for the lowest level ski slope in the world? If there is, then the newly constructed artificial slope at the ‘Gateway to the Gilboa’ must merit an entry. The ‘brainchild’ (in the very loosest sense of the word, of the local mayor, one Dani Attar), they have actually built a short skiing slope (complete with mini-chairlift), at a point that is actually below sea level! If that’s not completely balmy, then I don’t know what is!
Humus is to Israel what fish and chips is to the Brits, or should I say what curry is to the Brits these days as Pakistani cuisine has overtaken the traditional British favourite. (By the way, in case you didn’t already know, fish and chips were introduced to Britain by Spanish Jews in around the 1880’s. They brought the idea with them from the Iberian Penninsular, where they fried in olive oil. (Not themselves, you understand, the fish!) The British soon developed a taste for the dish, but due to the lack of available olive trees in Britain they chose to fry in lard, for the most part.
So back to humus. I was gutted when my favourite humus cafe at nearby Karkur closed last year, (apparently due to the proprietors refusing to cut the landlord’s son in for a share of the business; this is the third world, you know). But redemption has arrived in nearby Pardess Hanna with the opening of Yossi’s Humus Cafe (or ‘humusiya’ as we locals refer to them), where they have introduced a new twist on the old recipe.
It’s called ‘Mashuasha’ and is a far coarser version of regular humus, the chickpeas not ground to a pulp but left somewhat crunchy. It still has a very appealing texture and when the extra virgin olive oil is drizzled over the plate together with tangy lemon juice, then hard-boiled egg and pine nuts added, it is absolutely delicious. With a side serving of homemade pickles, and fresh pita bread, it is a must. You have been told. Remember the name. Mashuasha.
It’s the festival of Purim next week, the celebration of the Jews of Persia some few thousand years ago not having been slaughtered ‘en masse’ as had been the express wish of the Prime Minister, Haman. After it was discovered that the king’s beloved wife Esther was actually Jewish and had hidden her ethnic background to avoid prejudice, the King realised that the Jews couldn’t be monsters as his anti-Semitic PM had insisted, and promptly decided to turn the tables and had the PM executed instead. I love a happy ending.
Purim is a festival dedicated to children. Lots of yummy cakes are scoffed in horrifying quantities and kids the length and breadth of Israel and in Jewish communities across the globe spend the day in fancy dress. I hope I’m not giving too much away when I tell you that my two girls are already kitted out to reflect more modern times. My ten-year-old daughter Tami is going as a hippie, whilst eight-year-old Maya will appear at school dressed as a sushi roll. I promise to post some photos next week on my website.
And finally...I had a fright last week when it was announced that Israel’s entry for the 2011 Eurovision song contest is called ‘Ding Dong’. For one moment I thought that everyone’s favourite British cad Leslie Phillips had been persuaded to represent Israel in the annual embarrassment that is Eurovision. Sadly, over here they take the matter very seriously, and have turned once again to everyone’s favourite transgender entertainer Dana International in the hope she can reproduce her winning performance of 1999 when she swept the board with her hit ‘Diva’. For me, far more memorable, was the following year when she presented the prize to the Swedish winner and duly lost her balance in her six-inch heels and crashed to the ground, still clutching the trophy. A comedy classic.
I’ll leave you with Dana International’s latest Israeli ‘hit’ (in inverted commas) a shadow of her previous winning song of more than a decade ago, and look forward to your company again next time. Thanks for listening, and ‘Shalom from Israel’.
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