Manou Bashouk

Eitz Khaim is Shouk MakhaneYoodah's covered shopping street.

Manou BaShouk is one of the wonderful little restaurants recently opened in the shouk. Cuisine is slightly Lebanese.

Walking from Yafo Rd (where the light rail is), Manou Bashouk is on your left, about a third of the way along the street, tables one step up and open to the street.

Ingredients are as fresh as on the market tables. It's a kosher meat restaurant with superb vegan dishes as well as (I am told) excellent meat options. Wonderful for a carnivore to have a meal with a vegetarian.

The name is a Biblical pun (Exodus 16:15), pronounced as it mainly is in today's Hebrew and in French.

The owners, who staff the restaurant, speak excellent French and English.

My only twinge about Manou Bashouk is that it is part of the gentrification that may in time push out the fruit and vegetable stands, the fish mongers and olive sellers, the salads and cheeses, which makd Mahaneh Yehuda (as it appears on maps).

Copyright 2014 Jane S. Fox

Fish monger

In the shouk, the tiny storefront of the fishmonger I was used to was empty today of everything but sacks of building materials. His sign is gone from overhead. The fish monger next to him is still there, and across from him is a double-wide fresh fish shop. But I liked the man who was always helpful and who seemed to remember me. What with one thing and another I didn't stop by for two weeks. I'm sorry I missed the chance to say goodbye.

"Probably going to put a boutique there," a friend mourned.

She was wrong. He's back. "Everything's new and clean now," he told me. HOpe he had a good vacation.

I do like fresh fish.

Copyright 2013 Jane Schulzinger Fox

Cheese emporium renovation

Bashar's is now easier to get in and out of and has added a second floor. Somehow it seems narrower, though the cheese selection seems as wide.

Copyright 2012 Jane S. Fox

Hafetz Haim school

The century-old building of the Khafetz Khaim school on Jaffa Road (across from the sundial, next to the Ottoman police post) is being gutted. About a decade ago the shops along the road were torn down, preserving only the arches. I expect a new building will go up behind the school's facade.

The way they taught at this school was considered overly modern in its early years. The methods are now those of people who fear the modern world and who, without knowledge of history, look back to 17th century Poland as ideal.

Copyright 2011 Jane S. Fox

Bus Transfers

Your ticket is now your transfer on Egged buses in Jerusalem. For 75 minutes after you get on the first bus, you can use your ticket to board another

This changes trip planning. From Dereckh Azza to rhe Malkha Mall, no need to await a 17 or 17 alef, which make their round about way through Givat Mordekhai -- scenic but not quick. To be sure the 31 no longer goes down Azza and straight on to the mall, and past it to stop near the train station, but you can now take a 32 or 19 to Tsomet Pat and there transfer to 6 or 17 or 17 alef, whichever comes first.

And I know at least one man who takes the bus from Bayit veGan to Mahaneh Yehida, does the weekly produce shopping, and gets on the bus home without having to pay a second fare. If you see a man with a toddler shopping very efficiently, don't distract him. He has a bus to catch.

Copyright 2010 Jane S. Fox

Refreshing the Murals

When CiteCreation (cite-creation.com/ ) refreshed the colors of the Jerusalem murals, they also carefully aged the picture of the man in the red shirt, standing near the "front" of the mural on Agrippas
( http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/07/trompe-loeil.html ). People with good memories may notice a new shirt on a small boy. Nope, my visual memory's nowhere near that good. The guide on Bet Shmuel's excellent walking tour point out the changes.

And why does the mural, which goes right down to street level, remain unvandalized? "The neighbors like it," the guide explained.

Copyright 2010 Jane S. Fox

Arbor Day

• Four different new years are referenced in the Bible. Ancient Jews decided that the onr on the 15th of Av is the new year for trees.
• At noon in Jerusalem the rain paused . The sun even shone briefly. The entertainers in the Maheneh Yehuda shouk drew crowds.
• When the Kurdish dancers walked up the street with drummer, horn, and shofar (which I did not hear sounded) the Klezmer band played a marching tune until they passed. Then the clarinetist took fire.
• A marching klzmer band, heavy on the brass, made the rounds.
• Elsewhere, a woman sang in Ladino and her musicians played eastern melodies, old and new.
• Alround the corner, two older men with glorious young voices sang songs that passersby foxtrotted to, though the Artie Shaw never played such eastern modes.
• A mime in the best tree costume I have ever seen grew slowly. Another mime was draped in white, like the blossoms of the almond tree, which blooms at this season. A stilt walker appeared in more white drapery and another as a more colorful tree. Clowns tossed roses from balconies. Line dancers debkaed. Jugglers juggled. A candy maker rolled mashed dates in oatmeal and ground almonds.
• Camera phones were held high, but you really want to be there.

Copyright 2008 Jane S. Fox

Tu bShvat in Jerusalem

• This year, Tu bShvat, falls on Tuesday, January 21.
• The Municipality has announced that entertainers will be in the Mahaneh Yehuda shouk from noon to 4.
• So the entertainment won't be unexpected ( http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/02/unexpected-february-entertainment.html ).
• Though if it rains, the expected entertainment may be cancelled.

Copyright 2008 Jane S. Fox

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

Hannukah

• Hannuka (or Channuka, or H.annuka, or other spellings for the Festival of Lights) is said to be an occasion when people who don't look like they bought their clothes there can go into haredi neighborhoods like Meah She'arim in Jerusalem without being harrassed. This is true wherever Jews follow the commandment to publicize the miracle. (No one follows all the commandments and those who violate this one, and the commandment to provide hospitality, do not welcome outsiders at any time.)
• You can see the lights in many other Jerusalem neighborhoods. Try Nahalaot.
• All along the street, oil lamps flicker in glass enclosures. Some buildings have a glass-doored niche built into the wall along the sidewalk. Elsewhere families put the lights on a kitchen chair or small table beside their gate.
• If you are in Jerusalem during Hanuka (minimalist spelling), go out between 5:30 and 6 and stroll around any neighborhood where people put their hanukiot (eight branches plus one candlelabra) outside. Elsewhere you will see the lights in windows and on balconies.
  Ha'Shla St. in the Sha'arei Khesed neighborhood is a good place to start. See eMap (http://www3.emap.co.il/eng_index.asp) for directions. Keep turning corners to see more and more of the lights, tiny but lovely.
• In windows, candles burn in greeting-card "menorahs." (A misnomer. Th menora was the seven branched candelabra in the Temple. But, since the holiday commenmorates the relighting of lights in the Temple, why not call its candlelabra a menora?)
• In the shouk, wait till a batch of soufganiot comes out of the oven. Buy some hot. The traditional red jelly ones are still best. The bakery on Yafo, between Mahaneh Yehuda Street (the widest in the shouk) and Eitz H.ayim (Chaim) (the narrower alley with Bashar's cheese store in the middle) has some of the best. The soofganiot at the more modern bakeries get lower ratings in newspaper polls.
  

Copyright 2007 Jane S. Fox

Hannukah

• Hannuka (or Channuka, or H.annuka, or other spellings for the Festival of Lights) is said to be an occasion when people who don't look like they bought their clothes there can go into haredi neighborhoods like Meah She'arim in Jerusalem without being harrassed. This is true wherever Jews follow the commandment to publicize the miracle. (No one follows all the commandments and those who violate this one, and the commandment to provide hospitality, do not welcome outsiders at any time.)
• You can see the lights in many other places. Try Nahalaot.
• All along the street, oil lamps flicker in glass enclosures. Some buildings have a glass-doored niche built into the wall along the sidewalk. Elsewhere families put the lights on a kitchen chair or small table beside their gate.
• If you are in Jerusalem during Hanuka (minimalist spelling), go out between 5:30 and 6 and stroll around any neighborhood where people put their hanukiot (eight branches plus one candlelabra) outside. Elsewhere you will see the lights in windows and on balconies.
• Ha'Shla St. in the Sha'arei Khesed neighborhood is a good place to start. See eMap (http://www3.emap.co.il/eng_index.asp) for directions. Keep turning corners to see more and more of the lights, tiny but lovely.
• In windows, candles burn in greeting-card "menorahs." (A misnomer. Th menora was the seven branched candelabra in the Temple. But, since the holiday commenmorates the relighting of lights in the Temple, why not call its candlelabra a menora?)
• In the shouk, wait till a batch of soufganiot comes out of the oven. Buy some hot. The traditional red jelly ones are still best. The bakery on Yafo, between Mahaneh Yehuda Street (the widest in the shouk) and Eitz H.ayim (Chaim) (the narrower alley with Bashar's cheese store in the middle) has some of the best. The soofganiot at the more modern bakeries get lower ratings in newspaper polls.

Copyright 2007 Jane S. Fox

Off-beat Jerusalem Food

• The shouk (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/abundance.html ) is the best place for fruits, vegetables, nuts, olives, baked goods, salads, and more.
• More includes prepared foods for "take-out." Many restaurants will also pack their food to go.
• 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.
• One of the tiny shouk restaurants offers Indian vegetarian food.I could tell you the exact location, but where's the fun in that? Its sign is in English.
• A p'tilia is like a largish camping stove, except that it runs on kerosene instead of gas. Cooks who know how to use them get exquisite results. On Agrippas Street and in the shouk itself the tastiest food awaits you in pots set on p'tiliot. Coming into Mahaneh Yehuda from Agrippas, you'll see (to your left) the pots of an Iraqi restaurant. Ask what's in each.
• On the next to last cross-street on your right you'll find the tempting kettles of a tiny Persian restaurant. Both have signs in Hebrew only, but you cannot miss them. Don't.
• The shuk is the best place in Jerusalem for seasonal fruits and vegetables. The quality is high, the prices low.
• In the early spring, fo for shesek. You may come across a Jerusalem Post article claiming that a shesek is a "cumquat." Wrong. Shesek, though the same size and shape as kumquats, are not citrus fruits. Shesek have smooth skins that, when ripe, are yellow and imperfect. Their seeds are about the size of small apricot pits, but shesek seeds are smooth, slightly concave, and solid as far as I can tell. The fruit is smooth and sweet.
  I have heard people claim that shesek are medlars. Actually they are loquats, so they would have to be "Japanese medlars," which, authoritative sources assure me, are not medlars at all. Loquats are delicious. In season, they are very cheap. They do not always make it to the supermarket, possibly because markings on their skin make them look imperfect to people used to industrial fruit.
• By July figs abound, and variety follows variety through summer and fall.
• Lychees in season, peaches (the small ones are best), cucumbers year round (likewise), fresh unripe dates followed by fresh ripe one followed by freshly dried -- abundance.
• Several stores specialize in excellent cheese from Israel and around the world. A friend familiar with cheese shops in France and in New York found Bashar's impressive. The staff is very friendly. They press enticing samples on customers.

Copyright 2007 Jane S. Fox

Strawberries

• The little strawberries, ecstatically juicy essence of strawberry, will spoil you for the large ones.
• Because they are more fragile, I think they are less profitable for growers. I expect tasty strawberries will be increasingly rare.
• A stand in the middle of Eitz Khaim Street in the shouk usually has them in bulk. As soon as you can, wash and taste them. You'll see why a kilo is not too much to buy at a time. they're good with ... but I eat them up as is, and have none left for recipes.
• See also http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/abundance.html

Copyright 2007 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

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

Indian Vegetarian

• One of the tiny shouk (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/abundance.html )restaurants offers Indian vegetarian food.
• I could tell you the exact location, but where's the fun in that?
• Its sign is in English.

Copyright 2007 Jane S. Fox

Bourekas

• So where do you buy the best (in my opinion) bourekasim?
• The shop is on Mahaneh Yehuda Street, which is the uncovered part of the shouk. It is close to Agrippas Street between two shops selling nuts and dried fruit and across from another.
• Bourekas is what they do -- filled with spinach or mushrooms or various types of white cheese (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/dairy-products.html ). They also bake an unfilled, pritzel-shaped variety. This the will split and spread with fresh white cheese. If you eat there, at the counter along the wall or at one of the small tables out front, they may put a slow-cooked egg and a pickle on your wooden plate. If that's what you want, point at the picture hanging from the ceiling near the cash register.
• The best, I say, but there's a place on Rehov HaNeviim I want to try.

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox

Orchid Pudding

• When days grow shorter and cooler, samovars replace the sorbet machines. these dispense hot orchid pudding, "sakhlab."
• The shop with the best (to my taste) bourekas in the shouk also sells the best sahkhlab. On top, they sprinkle grated cocoanut, cinnamon, and chopped peanuts. I taste those, and beneath that, in the hot, slippery pudding, what must be orchid.

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox

Urban Planning

• The Jerusalem Municipality has a plan to widen Rehov HaNeviim ((http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/street-of-prophets.html ). This would mean tearing down beautiful walls and buildings, some a century and a half old. Perhaps facades would be preserved as the are on Rehov Yafo near the shouk.
• The Jerusalem Municipality has a plan to build a parking ramp on the hill overlooking the Valley of the Cross ((http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/view.html ) from the east. This would require destroying the park.
• The Jerusalem Municipality has a plan to allow two high-rise hotels in the Moshava ((http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/german-colony.html ). One would be built over the German Templar meeting house, an architectural gem at the apex of the triangle.
• I think that the streets division of the transportation department considers only transportation and the parking division only cares about meeting parking goals. What the building-permit people have in mind is murky.

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox

Frutiger

• Johannes Frutiger, a Swiss Protestant, came to Jerusalem in 1858, working for a trading company. A bank he helped found became the largest bank in the Ottoman province and financed the railway from Jaffa to Jerusalem.
• Along with Joseph Navon and Shalom Konstrum he is credited with financing the building of the Mahaneh Yehuda Neighborhood after which the shouk (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/abundance.html ) is named.
• The 40-room house that Frutiger build for his family (he and his wife had 14 children) later became rental property. Menachem Ussishkin (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/jerusalem-street-poetry.html ) was a tenant when the 1926 earthquake damaged the Augusta Victoria (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusta_Victoria ) building where the British High Commisioner (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/mideast/palmanda.htm )lived. The British expropriated the building for their man until Armon HaNatziv was built for him (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/haas-and-goldman-promenades.html ).
• The Frutiger house is called Beit Mahanaim. It now houses part of the Ministry of Education. It is on the corner of Shivtei Yisrael and Rehov HaNeviim (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/street-of-prophets.html ). It was the first stop on the 2.75 hour walking tour of three blocks along the Street of the Prophets.
  Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox