Plastic Bags

• Who remembers string bags?
• Into these, Israeli shoppers, like European housewives, put the produce they bought at the market.
• Fifteen or so years ago, Mahaneh Yehuda vendors laughed when presented with string bag or other reuseable carrier. "Yesh nylon!" the stallkeeper would say, pointing to the plantic bags with some indignation, as if the shopper had called him too primitive to do things the modern way.
• Now the Knesset is trying to pass a law requiring a charge (of more than 25 US cents at the current rate of exchange) for each plastic bag, "to encourage the use of reuseable bags."
• My string bags are long gone. No doubt I will soon find something similar in the shops. And, if we are fortunate, the vendors will expect me to have one, if I don't want to look like a primitive person who fills the landfills with disposables.

Copyright 2008 Jane S. Fox

Cilantro

• When buying herbs, I had to be careful not to mistake cilantro (http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/cilantro.htm ) for parsley.Although I like coriander, I'm not fond of cilantro. Perhaps I just don't know how to cook with it.
• Large bunches of cilantro and parsley are piled next to each other in the shouk on tables at stands that sell parsely, mint, dill, cilantro, green onions, celery, and various types of lettuce year round, and sometimes parsnips.
• All but the parsnips are much less expensive than in their least expensive Wisconsin seasons.
• To be sure I got parsley, I could smell the wet bunch or ask, "petrozilia?"
• A large bunch of mint, parsley, dill, or cilantro is about 35 cents (1.5NIS) at the stand where it is always very fresh, or two thirds that on special.

Copyright 2007 Jane S. Fox

Monster

• HaMifletzet in Kiryat Hayovel (http://www.israelfamily.org/photogallery/Israel6-7-8/slides/HaMifletzet-The%20Monster.html ) is a nonarchitectural monster, well enough known to be featured in the small, excellent, and rarely-seen pamphlet published by the Jerusalem Municipality Tourist Division.
• In a shady park (a project of the Jerusalem Foundation.), HaMifletset is a tall, piebald monster, whose three tongues are slides.
• The 18, 20, and 24Alef (from the Israel and Biblelands Museums) bus stop nearby. Ask a fellow-passenger where to get off for hah-meef-let-set. In your question, use as few words as possible. When you get off the 18, go right. It is about a block from the bus stop. You can ask anyone "HaMeeletst?"and get directions.
• If you walk back to the bus stop, continue a block, cross at the T-junction, and turn right, you will see to your left a good, kid-friendly, little restaurant with tables outside and inside. Childrens will notice the dancing cows on the pillar outside. The restaurabt will also package for you you a freshly-cooked take-out meal (the common Hebrew expression sounds very like take out, and the owner and staff speak enough English to explain what's available) for a very reasonable price. You can get shawarma or regular food.
• Farther along the street, next to the supermarket (Hebrew: "soopehr") is a pizzaria.

Copyright 2007 Jane S. Fox

Almond and Tamarind

• At about the middle of Mahaneh Yehuda Street (the wide, uncovered one in the shouk), on the left as you face Yafo with your back to Agripas, is a cafe with excellent almond (shkaydeem) and tamarind (tah-mar-indy) drinks.
• Many say that their sahleb ( http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/12/orchid-pudding.html ) is the best.

Copyright 2007 Jane S. Fox

Learning

• The word for rye is properly pronounced "shipone." (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/09/shifon.html ) I shall listen more carefully in the bakery.
• Jerusalem events for the coming week are listed in the two Friday supplements: Akhbar Kol HaEer (a pamphlet included with Kol HaEer) and Yerushalayim. The Jerusalem Post lists only those events its editors think would interest English speakers who do not understand Hebrew. (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/performing-arts-in-jerusalem.html and possibly http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/02/unexpected-february-entertainment.html )
• Live and learn.

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox

Shifon

• "Lekhem chiffon," I thought when I first read the term, "must be light and fluffy." Had Wonder Bread snuck into Israel, where bread has always been delightful bites of reality?
• Nope. Shifon is rye. (See http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/learning.html for correction. In unpointed text, p and f are indistinguishale in Hebrew, although I should have expected p after a short vowel. I thought I heard customers say shifon, but I suspectpect expectation altered perception.)
• The Lekhem Tushia bakery chain makes a 100% shifon that is dark, chewy, tasty, and satisfying. It defeats our bread knife. I buy it sliced. The 70% and 50% are heavy and brown, but nothing special. Don’t expect seeds.
• Lekhem Tushia also makes a decadently delicious chocolate mousse cake.
• Branches are on ben Yehuda between Histadrut and King George ( http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/09/george-v.html ), on Azza ( http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/two-horses.html ) near Binyamin MiTudela (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/lanes.html and http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/view.html ), and elsewhere.
• On competely different, also excellent bread, see also http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/bakery.html

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox

Dropped H

• The H sound has pretty much disappeared from modern Hebrew, though it still appears in transliterations. Signs at number 19 bus stops list the destination as "HAR HATSOFIM" (Mt Scopus), but this is pronounced "ahr ahtsofeem."
• In the other direction the 19 goes to Ein Kerem Hadassah hospital pronounced "ahdassah."
• Thursday, the fifth day of the week, is called (after the fifth letter of the alphabet) yohm A.

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox

Strudel

• In Hebrew the @ sign (in an email address) is called "shtroodel."
• Look at the pastry before you enjoy it.

Jerusalem, Israel Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox

Juice

• Juice vendors throughout the city squeeze fruit and vegetable juice to order. Fresh fruit temptation (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/abundance.html ) makes choosing difficult at the tiny bars, open to the sidewalk.
• Melon is very sweet. It’s good with orange. Persimmon (each fruit in its season) is also extra sweet. I look on it as dessert.
• Pointing always works, and English often. Orange=top-ooz- eem. Melon=mee-lone. Persimmon=ah-far-see-moan.

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox

Fire Engines

• Like the fire engines in New York City, those in Jerusalem clear the way with loudspeakers as well as sirens. The loudspeaker demands, "Let us pass! Let us pass!"
• The voice disconcerts drivers unused to the system.

Copyright 2006 Jane S Fox

Abundance

• In a Parisian farmers’ market each pile of pile of produce is so aesthetically arranged it demands some term other than pile. Even string beans are lined up in perfect emerald rows. Customers are forbidden to touch. With practiced precision the stall keeper removes the requested amount of peaches or strawberries, then rearranges the rest. Each table says, "I am an artwork."
• At the shouk, each table says "abundance." Customers pick up sweet carrots to put in a plastic sack (called a "nylon"), weigh the merits of individual cucumbers (small is tastier), choose the pears as if they could tell which will be most flavorful.
• Abundance has its own beauty, and color is not lacking. My visitor keeps her camera busy. Three steps and, "I must take another picture."
• I blog.
• http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/07/trompe-loeil.html and http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/02/unexpected-february-entertainment.html and http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/shesek.html and http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/07/lychees-figs-peaches.html and http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/09/ptilia.html are also about shouk Mahaneh Yehuda.
• If a photograph turns out to be funny or cute, you could submit it to http://www.funnyphotocontest.com/

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox