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

Jerusalem Weekend Pass

• Hamshushalaim (or khamshushalayim, or h.amshooshalaim or some similar transliteration) can be loosely translated "Weekend Pass in Jerusalem."
• This annual event, three weekends at the end of November and beginning of December, consists of free or greatly reduced admission to attractions plus special walking and bus tours.
• http://www.jerusalem.muni.il/Humshsh/all.htm has the details. http://www.jerusalem.muni.il/jer_main/defaultnew.asp?lng=2 is the English version of the Jerusalem website.

Copyright 2007 Jane S. Fox

Independence Day Dancing

• There's dancing tonight in many venues after the ceremony marking the end of Memorial Day.
• The largest event is at Kikar Safra -- in front of CityHall.
• It goes on till the wee hours.
• See also http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/folk-dancing.html

Copyright 2007 Jane S. Fox

Medlar or Loquat

• 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.

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

Events

• If you go to Israel on a tour, you'll find events arranged for you -- a celebration at the hotel, a presentation at a kibbutz, excellent speakers. If you go on your own, or stay on after the tour is over, you can be part of local events. Here is a partial list of what to watch for, month by month.
• January: Remember that rain is a blessing. (See http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/12/watershed.html ) You're likely to have sunny, shirtsleeve days after two or three rainy ones. On partly cloudy days, the sunset will take your breath away.
• February: Tu b'Shvat, the Trees' New Year. Look for street festivals (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/02/unexpected-february-entertainment.html ) and bountiful tables of dried fruit and nuts in the shouk, supermarkets, and malls. February is the end of Crembo season.
• March: On Purim ( http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/03/shushan-purim.html )watch for kids on the streets in traditional and faniful costumes. For evening parties, lots of adults dress up, too. Oznei Khaman (hamentashen) are the seasonal baked treat. Shesek (loquats) begin to appear in ths shouk. After Purim supermarket baked goods shelves start to empty.
• April: Pesakh (Passover) can be at the very end of March, but is usually in April. By the time it arrives, familiar packaged baked goods are scarce, but an ever widening variety of cakes and cookes based on coconut and potato flour fill tables in the shout=k and shelves in macolet and super. Fresh garlic appears in the shouk. What do the people who buy it by the kilo do with it? Schools are on vacation for the seven days of Pesakh. Ask your hotel and the AACI about English walking tours (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2007/01/holy-sepulcher-church.html).
• May: After Peakh comes Holocaust Memorial Day, followed a week later by Soldiers' Memorial Day and, the day after that, by Independence Day. ireworks mark the beginning of Independence day. At several venues around town you'll find live music outdoors. In Kikar Safra (City Hall Plaza) there's folk dancing from about 9PM until long after midnight. The next day museums hold open house. Last year, the police had a festifal with historical playlets, robot bomb squad demos, live music, and a lot more. The Israel festival of the performing arts is likely to be in May.
• June: Jerusalem Day, marking unification of the city after 20 years of separation, can be in late May or early June. Watch for informal parades (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/water-on-jerusalem-day.html ), more walking tours, and concerts. In the long evening, eat outside. After a hot day, drink limonana gahroos at a sidewalk cafe(http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/07/mint.html ) .
• July: Ask about outdoors folkdancing. Last year there were weekly sessions in HUC's courtyard.
• August: Best month for a walk through Hezekiah's water tunnel (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/city-of-david.html ).
• September: Succot (which is in October some years: http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/all-together-now.html ) is a school vacation. Join the family crowds exploring the Old City. Succa tours can be interesting, and it is also fun to watch the huts go up during the days before the holiday.
• October: Pomegranates go for less than 50 cents a pound. Buy some and pick out the juicy seeds yourself. Get pomegranate juice at a juice bar ( http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/07/juice.html ). Soufganiot (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/soufganiot.html ) appear in bakeries and on shouk tables.
• November: Get tickets for the Oud Festival (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/oud.html )! Crembo (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/crembo.html) appear.
• December: During Khanuka, walk through neighborhoods where people put their hanuka lights outside (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/12/lights.html ).

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

Lights

• 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 a neighborhood where people put their hanukiot outside.
• 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."
• See also http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/12/soufganiot-and-krembo.html and http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/all-together-now.html and http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/02/unexpected-february-entertainment.html

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox

Sufganiot and Krembo

• By the time Hanuka (minimalist spelling) arrives, many people have eaten as many soufganiot http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/soufganiot.html as they want. I held off. This morning I bought one at the shouk (on Yafo between Mahaneh Yehuda Street and Eitz Khattim), still warm. The traditional explanation for eating soufgaiot during Hanuka is that, like lvivot (latkes) they are cooked in oil, and this is a reminder of the purified oil that lasted longer than expected after the Macabees cleaned the Temple. I am indebted to Jacky Levi for the explanation that eating soufganiot is the ultimate repudiation of the Hellenistic cult of the beautifuly trim body.
• A commenter at http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/crembo.html remembers the confection as spelled with a k in English. He may well be right, although the package I bought had no English on it. I have typed "crembo" as a weak, bilingual pun, defining crembo lucus a non lucendo (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucus_a_non_lucendo ) because it has no cream in it (bo).

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

Crembo

• To Israelis of a certain age, crembo means cooling weather, rain, and going to the macolet by yourself to buy a foil-wrapped ball of chocolate-covered fluff.
• In the summer, pocket money went for artikim (ice cream on a stick) or kartiv (popsicles) or, if you had a little extra change, cassata.
• Before widespread air conditioning, crembo had to wait for winter, or be transported in rare refrigerated trucks. On the counter of the local grocery store, the chocolate coating would melt. Even today, once out of the air conditioned supermarket or candy store, the chocolate would quickly squish over fingers. What do crembo factories make in the summer?
• The internal fluff now comes in strawberry, chocolate, and mocha as well as the original white, but crembo still waits for November and grows scarce towards the end of February, when hamentashen appear.
• From November through December, crembo shares counter space with soufganiot (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/soufganiot.html ), trucked in from bakeries and displayed open to the air beside the foil-wrapped winter treats.

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox

Soufganiot

• A soufgania is not exactly a jelly donut.
• The season's first appeared about a week ago.
• They are best bought hot from the oil at a bakery that makes its own.
• Can Crembo be far behind?

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