Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Jerusalem

My dad and I entered the old city of Jerusalem through the Jaffa gate and were immediately greeted by a cart-full of Jerusalem bagels (bageleh here). These are long, light, oval, sesame-seeded bread rolls, not to be mistaken for Montreal bagels, which are boiled in honey water and are small and heavy.

We wandered through the meandering alleyways of the bazaar to the Austrian hospice, which is on the via Dolorosa.

The variety of things available for sale in Jerusalem is quite remarkable.

Headscarves,


all kinds of shoes (both new and used),

and the most amazing falafels shaped like hearts or torpedos.

These are the best falafel I have ever eater. What makes them different is that they are filled with ful, are made to order, and the properly hot oil in the precariously perched pan is changed every day.

You could say that they are ful full falafel...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad to have you back.

Emily DeVoto, Ph.D., said...

This blog is a superb bit of gastroporn, and makes me long for Israel, too. Well done!

Now, with regard to bageleh - I assume you mean those very large ones you can loop over your shoulder. Do you by chance have a good recipe? The one I found in a tourist-type cookbook made very little sense.

Cheers!

aja said...

Hey Emily,
I haven't been called a gastropornographer before - thanks for the amazing compliment 8^)

Bageleh are the huge long skinny things that could be looped over a shoulder (if you had a very thin shoulder - the hole is actually long and fairly thin too - I think so they can fit more into the oven at any one time. I don't have a recipe, but I will try and find an authentic one and post about it for you.

Cheers back!