More pictures, Shabbat, and food adventures

So on Friday morning I made plans to meet with Michal, who is the Israeli coordinator for our school's Israel programs. She lives near my apartment and so picked me up at about 9:30 and took me to her office, which is at the Fuchsburg Center, which is the center of Conservative Judaism in Israel. It houses a yeshiva, synagogue, and various offices, as well as housing for visiting groups. Our students stay here when they visit.

I got a grand tour, including the gardens and balconies; the two photos below are the view from one of the balconies. The center is lovely and is in a great location in the center of the city. My meetings with Michal and some of the other staff went well, and when we finished at about 11, Michal suggested that we walk to the shuk, which is Jerusalem's open air market. Michal loves it there and couldn't believe I hadn't been yet. I had not been so enthusiastic to visit, as everyone says it is very crowded and claustrophobic, particularly on Fridays. Michal's enthusiasm was contagious, though, so off we trekked for the 15 minute walk. It was, as always during mid-day, very hot and sunny.

Once we arrived at the shuk, we started at a juice stand. There are many of these in the area, and the one we stopped at was amazing--carrot, beet, celery, and all kinds of fruit, fresh-squeezed in any combination. I had a strawberry banana smoothie, and it was the best I've ever tasted. The smoothie stand was on the road that runs outside the shuk, and once fortified with our wonderful drinks, we went in.

Here are the picture of the inside of the shuk. As you can see, food is out in the open, and I got to see several people handle challot (breads) and other merchandise as they shopped. People also help themselves to all manner of snacks; Michal assured me that although this isn't legal, no one is punished for this behavior, and in true Israeli fashion, explained that the mark-up on all the food takes into account the grazing.

It was very, very crowded and somewhat odoriforous--all the raw meat and fish, no doubt. I had some snacks--these fried cigar-shaped things stuffed with potato, and I bought cheese, smoked fish, a challah, and some pastries for my Shabbat lunch. The pastries and challah came from Marzipan, a very well-known bakery, and were incredibly delicious. However, full body armor would have been helpful in my acquisition of these treats--there was literally trampling in the bakery stall as I waited for my purchase to be rung up. After only a short while, I was ready to leave the shuk, and I walked out and down Jaffa Road. It looked a little bit familiar to me, and so I decided to wander. In fact, a short walk brought me down past King George Street to the area I had wandered with my friends last week. I couldn't resist a quick walk past one of my favorite sites so far in Jerusalem, the Red Heifer Bistro. For those of you not up on your Bible, the joke may not seem very funny, but it just tickles me that people would name a restaurant after the special temple sacrifice. Here's the photo:

After snapping this, I walked a bit more, had a quick lunch, and then took a cab back to my apartment.

I had a very nice Shabbat--Friday night services at one synagogue, Shabbat morning at another, Shabbat lunch at Pardes, and seudat shlishi/havdalah (the last meal and end of Shabbat) at the home of one of my teachers. I could write a lot more about all of that, but I will save my synagogue impressions and other details for another time. Instead, I'll finish bringing you up to date--today is a school day, and I've been here at Pardes pretty much all day, except for a trip across the street for lunch and then around the corner after to take a look at a nearby Judaica store. But it's lunch I want to talk about now.

A few classes ago, our Ulpan was discussing various Israeli foods, and a food I had never heard of came up--shakshooka. What the heck is shakshooka, you may ask? Well, my teacher and a classmate explained, it's a sort of soup/stew of tomatoes with poached eggs in it. Sounds great, right? Well, today we went across the street to the felafel place, and there was a sort of vat of something, and I asked what it was, and what do you know--shakshooka!

Someone else from Pardes was in front of me, and she said it was great and ordered it, so I went for it. Here's the deal--the felafel guy takes a big lafa (kind of a burrito shell type thing--you can get it on pita, too, I think) and puts in all kinds of fixings you like--I had onions, hummus, hot sauce, the shakshooka itself, and french fries. That's right--french fries! They call them "chips" here, like in England, and they go right into this wrap with everything else. I didn't go for the pickles, Israeli salad, eggplant, or other stuff, but believe me, you could put about 20 things into this wrap. Then the guy wraps it all up, wraps paper around it, and then wraps it in a plastic bag, too. Because it's messy. Really messy. Really, really messy. But it was delicious. So, I am now officially a shakshooka fan. I have Ulpan in a few minutes, so I have to finish up now--love to all of you!