Cheap Eats in Jerusalem

I’ve made pretty clear that food happens to be a major part of Jewish culture. The other thing the Jewish people have been infamous for throughout history, is their relationship with money, i.e. being cheap. Unfortunately, there is no nice way to say it but it has been the stereotype for many, many years. Exhibit A. Shakespeare portraying Shylock from the Merchant of Venice as a rich, money hungry Jew.

So we happen to have a bad reputation for stinginess? (Stingy is one of those onomatopoeic words that sounds horrible in its own right). What better way to combat this than the list below:

Top 14 ways to get free food in Jerusalem

1)      Where else but the Chalva stand in the Shuk, Machane Yehuda? I acknowledge the fact that the Shuk has played quite a prominent role in this blog, but not without good reason. Walk past either of the 2 chalva stands (Mamlechet Hachalva) in the shuk on any given day, and the vendors practically shove chalva down your throat. Look out for the Chalva King himself - Eli, who continuously yells out "בא לטאום!" - come and taste!

2)      Speaking of the shuk, across from the Chalva stand is a shop specializing in olive oil. There are always bowls of sliced bread to dip into the oil. So if you feel like making a chalva sanga, grab a piece of chalva, bread with a dab of oil and you have lunch for the day.

3)      In general the shuk is one big taste test – ask any vendor "אפשר לטעום" - can I taste? and they will never turn you away. Often, they will give you a freebie (or a "מתנה" (, if you are only purchasing one item (e.g. a cucumber). Seriously, try it. It works.

4)      Moving away from the shuk, take a walk on the wild side, Ben Yehuda – a mere 10 minutes away. The well known falafel/shwarma store - Moshiko, throws falafel balls at any passerby. When I say throw, I literally mean: throw. Be careful, noone wants falafel splattered all over their face. They do however, have a reputation for having the best falafel in town so its rare that you’ll be happy with only one falafel ball.

5)      Then there are all the ice cream shops. Asking to try any of the flavours of ice cream will usually result in a bored shop assistant dishing out small spoons of ice cream, until they finally send you running or force you to buy ice cream.

6)      Supermarkets. Surprisingly, supermarkets are often promoting food items and will hand them out as you walk in. Icy poles have been quite common, but you’ll get a whole variety of products.

7)  Festivals (פסטיבל). Always thought it was “Pasta ball”.  Jerusalem, especially in the summer, is full of festivals. Shuk festival, bread festival, wine festival, beer festival, puppet festival, arts and crafts festival – any excuse for a party. There will usually be some form of free food at these street parties, so you will hardly go hungry.

8)      Nespresso @ Mamilla – I’m not entirely sure how long this will be going on for, but for the moment, this innovative shop is handing out coffee tastings of your choice. The coffee shop across the street isn’t too happy about this.

9)      I can’t believe I’m actually writing this, but when it doubt – there are lots and lots of soup kitchens located all over. Maybe don’t go showing off to your friends if you did grab a free meal from one of them.

10)  Friday night meals at the Kotel. A man, by the name of Jeff Seidel helps tourists and nomads find meals to join on a Friday night. I’ve never actually tried it out, but I’ve heard some very interesting stories. On that note, I have been asked by a man on the street on a Friday night if he could join us for dinner. Of course we said yes.


11) English Cakes and other assorted bakeries - usually on a Friday, but sometimes on other days, English Cakes bakery (located all around Jerusalem) hands out free tastings.


12) This one is particularly stingy. Go out to eat with a friend, don't order anything, and enjoy the bread and salads they put on the table. You might even be lucky and your friend will give you his/her leftovers. 


13) Crashing a kiddush on Shabbat day - many Shuls host a kiddush after praying with all sorts of food and drink. This isn't unique to Israel, but you have to know the right shuls to get the right food. Also, get there before 12pm or else you'll probably miss it.

14)  And finally, although its not free – there are a colossal amount of coupon/discount websites that advertise cheap deals on restaurants.

Hungry in Jerusalem? I don’t think so. 

Sufganiyah (Hebrew: סופגנייה): a ball-shaped doughnut that is first deep-fried, then pierced and injected with jelly (aussie: jam) or custard, and then topped with powdered sugar.

When I think of a donut, I think of Homer Simpson - drooling over a box of pink frosted donuts. Mmm…donuts.

Doughnut?

Or donut?

Both. If you want to get technical, the correct spelling is doughnut. The word was shortened to donut in the US, allowing these fried balls of dough to be more marketable and easier to use in advertising (think Dunkin Donuts). More proof that our society is getting lazier with age.

An even older version of the word is doughnaught which means “dough zero”. Did they used to be made out of solely jam and frosting?

Anyway, for the sake of this piece of writing, I’ll stick with donut (the US has done it again).

The Hebrew word for donut, is Sufganiya, derived from the Hebrew word for sponge (sfog) because of its sponge-like texture.

Next week, all around the world the festival of Chanukah (Hanukah) will be celebrated. Instead of one day of presents, we get 8 craazyy nights:

(http://www.lyricsfreak.com/a/adam+sandler/the+hanukkah+song_20003925.html)

-          apologies for the corny reference -

Most of our holidays have unique customs with religious or traditional significance, including Chanukah. However, the tradition of giving presents on Chanukah was taken from Christmas. That’s right, we couldn’t even give Christianity their holiday all to themselves..

Usually I celebrate Chanukah in the Land of Oz, with beaches, barbeques and Chanukah in Caulfield park with jumping castles and fairy floss. This year, I will be celebrating Chanukah in its rightful wintry state. The streets are already lit up with Menorahs and the bakeries have been bursting with colourful designer donuts throughout the past month.

A little bit of History…

Chanukah is one of those festivals where the focus is all about the miracle. The Miracle of Lights. Coincidently it falls out around the same time as Christmas, but really has nothing to do with it. Oddly enough, it also happens to be one of the festivals that no one seems to remember the actual story. So here it is in short:

In 165 BCE, a small group of Jews rebelled against the Syrian-Greek King Antiochus. At the time, the King had banned many Jewish practices and introduced idol worship in the Jewish temple. Antiochus and his army were destroyed by this small band of rebels (known as the Macabees), and the defiled Temple was brought back to its original state. Chanukah literally means dedication – referring to the re-dedication of the temple in J.town following the Jewish victory over the Syrian- Greeks.

At this point of the tale you may be thinking, where do lights fit in? When the Macabees were attempting to re-purify the temple, they planned to light the Temples Menorah with ritual oil for 8 days. To their dismay, they discovered that there was only enough oil for one day. They lit the Menorah, regardless of this, and hey presto – the small amount of oil lasted for 8 days! And that - is the miracle of Chanukah. So we celebrate this festival with lots of oil – oil in the Menorah, oil in our foods, and oil in our hair (ignore the last statement). Donuts just happen to be one of the many oily foods we enjoy.

A Spot of Nutrition…

What could possibly be healthy about oil, dough and icing sugar?

Ok, so really – not much. Fat + Sugar = ? Bad idea.

Donuts are almost always deep fried (a baked donut would be more of a piece of sweet bread). Most of us know that deep fried foods absorb a lot of oil, making them extremely high in fat. However, we also have another problem on our hands. Frying foods at high temperatures for a long period of time produces a carcinogen called acrylamide, which has been known to increase the risk of cancer.

While there are ways around this, such as using healthy, unsaturated oils to fry the foods (e..g canola, sunflower, safflower) or heating the oil to the correct temperature before frying the food so that it doesn’t absorb as much fat – majority of people aren’t frying their own donuts. They’re buying them.

So what to do?

The solution to every dietary issue – moderation. If your usual diet consists of whole grains, fruit, vegetables, healthy fats and whatnot, your body shouldn’t suffer too significantly from a few stray donuts.

Unfortunately this usually isn’t the case over the festive season. A common conversation over Chanukah is competing over how many donuts one has consumed. Usually its not 3 or 4..

As a famous Aussie once said..

“9 out of 10 nutritionists recommend your kids eat Weetbix”

How many (donuts) do you do?

This is not my t-shirt

Just for fun: I used to have a t-shirt that said “Hakuna Matata”. For some reason, every time I wore it people thought it said “Hanukah Matata”. I miss that t-shirt.

The continuation of food in Israel – the good, the bad, and the ugly

As promised, here is Part II, with more of a focus on processed foods in Israel.

Juice Drink:

On the one hand the streets are jam-packed with vendors selling freshly squeezed pomegranate juice, grapefruit juice or carrot juice. But, walk into a supermarket or a makolet (milk bar) and it is rare to find a bottle of real fruit juice.

You may be familiar with some of the brand like, “Prigat”, “Spring” or “Jump” . Do not be fooled by their deceptive claims. They are not in any way, a fruit juice. Real fruit juice is never that clear. Real fruit juice is never that sweet. If you are craving a real orange juice, either buy one from the street, spend a wad of cash on an expensive brand, or make your own (or collect juice from the floor of the shuk and pour that into a bottle, no - please don't).

Israeli Cereals:

Breakfast for me = cereal. The cereals in this country just don’t do it. They’re not so much of a breakfast food, but more of a dessert. Filled with chocolate, nougat, vanilla, coated in sugar, packed with sugar-coated nuts and fruit, you end up just wanting more and more and more and more until the whole box somehow ends up empty. On one my trips to the supermarket the other week, I noticed that majority of the cereal shelves were packed with these sickly-sweet cereals, with the exception of Branflakes, which apparently makes up for all of it. Breakfast cereals are also triple the price of cereals in Australia, most likely because the usual Israeli breakfast consists of vegetables, bread, cheeses, eggs and dips. 

* Note - this is one of the recent versions of a box of cereal in Israel, only in this country would the advertising feature for a childrens cereal be "WTF". 

Maafot:

I really like this word. So simple, yet so useful. I know the literal translation is a pastry, but I’ve always thought of it as any baked good. Kind of like an umbrella term. Bakeries in Israel are always boasting about their “Maafot” – buy a cup of a coffee with a free Maafeh. Usually there is a selection of chocolate, apple, nuts, chalva and cinnamon. 

Bamba snack.

Bamba is an Israeli snack food, with a overwhelming peanut butter flavour.. Doesn’t work out very well for the school-kids of today, where peanut allergies are taking over the world.  Interestingly, studies have shown that kids in London have 11 times the rate of peanut allergies as kids in Israel. Is Bamba snack the solution?

It’s been around since 1963, and is still a prominent feature in the Israeli supermarket. Think Cheezles, without the cheese. More modern variations include strawberry-flavoured Bamba (not my favourite), and nougat filled Bamba (weirdly delicious). Bamba is promoted as a healthy children’s snack, but given its high fat content (544 calories in 100 grams, or 137 calories in a packet), I wouldn’t be overly encouraging it (despite it’s peanut-allergy-protective-powers).