New Horizons

New challenges...

The past couple of months have been full of changes, challenges & hopes.

Back at the end of November I quit my job of 7 years, with no prospects of a new one... That was a big change, and my immediate reaction was to sleep and sleep and sleep. I guess that was the result of stress and distress and feeling underappreciated. It also didn't help that I had been living hand to mouth, my salary only just covering basic living expenses... It's no fun having to think twice or thrice about whether or not to have a cup of coffee at a cafe.

The challenges have been to live on no salary, and to actively job hunt. I have been sending out my resume to hundreds of potential employers, getting an interview every week or two, though Murphy's Law of interviews is that they all happen in a bunch. So some weeks I wouldn't have any interviews and others I would have 2 or 3 or even 4... And that is pretty stressful.

Now, I don't know about other people, but my interviews generally last an hour or even more. I had one that lasted 3 hours (seriously) and got invited back for a second interview to meet someone who was flying in specially from the US. I have only had 2 interviews that lasted less than an hour - and neither was for a job that I REALLY wanted... Mind you, they were second interviews, and horror of horrors, one guy asked me, point blank, ok, what is 3/8ths? Urk - I have a fear of math when I have no paper or pen, let alone a calculator, to help me. I just don't trust my brain. Do I want to work for someone who asks questions like that?

The hope, of course, is to find a great job.

And finally, I interviewed at the right place, at the right time, with the right person, and was immediately asked to schedule a second interview for the next day. And, despite riding my scooter through torrential rain, arriving soaking wet in spite of my rain gear, and going in to the interview carrying shopping bags filled with my wet, dripping, streaming, soaking wet gear, and having to sit, damp-butted, through another hour long session, they called me back to say that they wanted me to work for them.

Which is all well and good, but they still hadn't told me what my salary would be, which is typical of Israel. So when I went in to sign my contract last week, I really didn't know if I would or would not be working. And I very nearly didn't, but I stood my ground, and am getting, for the first time since I moved to Israel, a living (though not extravagant) wage.

Tomorrow is my first day of work, and I am extremely nervous. But that is to be expected.

And on top of the new job jitters, I am going to be taking part in the International Women's Day Craft/Art Sale at the Amiad Center in the Flea Market in Jaffa, which is to be held on Friday March 14th, just over a week away.

That would be really easy, if I was going to be selling my pottery, but having lived hand to mouth, I had to stop potting, and my stock has been almost all given away as presents. Instead, I am going to be cooking and baking for the next week. And I am hopeful that people will like what I do and I will have lots of impulse buyers.

I am planning on making: English Almond Chocolate Toffee, Crumiri Cookies, Individual Chocolate Chip Butter Cakes, Caramel Corn/CrackerJack, and Honeycomb Sponge Toffee. As you can see from my examples, everything is individually packaged and they will all cost the same - 10 Shekels (about $2.50), which is, I hope, basically an impulse buy kind of figure, and that people will think "I feel like a snack, "oh that looks good, "hmm, maybe that will keep the kids quiet for a while. I will maybe have a few larger cakes for sale, but I figure people don't want to carry around cakes when they are wandering around a flea market.

If you have any suggestions for me - ie, I have never, ever participated in a sale before, and I have no clue how much of each I should make - should I figure on 100 packages of each item, 50? Should I do anything special for my stand? All comments or suggestions are VERY welcome!

Interesting Encounters

I had an interesting encounter today.

It all started with a meeting I had with a business consultant from the Israel Small and Medium Enterprise Authority (an org run by the Ministry of Industry and Trade that provides assistance to new and existing businesses).

I was rather astonished to find that their offices are in the New Central Bus Station in Tel Aviv. For those of you who have never been there, this is a huge monolithic monstrosity about 6 storeys high taking up a very large city block. It is in a rather insalubrious part of town - lots of down and outs, rooming houses, foreign workers, girlie shows, the usual deal for a bus station in a major city. Not the kind of place you expect to see a government office in, but there you go, some things in Israel are a bit hard to get your head around.

The offices are, apparently, temporary, which would be a good thing for the workers - I don't know how you would describe an office environment that shakes vigorously every time a bus rumbles up the ramp to the loading bays. Unsettling for clients definitely. My advisor was a nice man who, fortunately for me, spoke very good English - for when my Hebrew failed me. He sits in an interior office with no windows and bare, whitewashed concrete walls. But that hasn't seemed to affect him. I was consulting with him regarding my future, or at least, what I hope will be my future. And he gave me several good tips. Now it is up to me to get cracking and start in on my new life. But more of that when it becomes less nebulous and more concrete.

Anyways... I decided to leave my scooter at home rather than risk it getting stolen from the bus station - which would be a very likely happening. And so, after more than 3 years of being public transportation free, I hopped on a bus. Now admittedly, here in Israel, the bus system is pretty comprehensive (if you ignore the fact that there are no public buses running from Friday evening through Saturday, and only starting to run again after sunset on Saturday night) and generally fairly reliable. So I got myself a day pass and got me on a bus.

After my meeting with the consultant, I decided to go to Diezengoff Center, wander up to Ben Yehuda street, and then go to the Carmel market.

Anemones bought at the Carmel Market

So onto the bus I hopped, and there had a strange encounter with a fellow passenger.

Now we are talking about a rather good looking young man, but with something not quite right about him. He asked me if I spoke English, introduced himself as Gabriel from Potsdam, New York and then started to ramble about pickpockets in Barcelona, and how Tel Aviv felt so safe. Then he explained that he had missed his flight and had to go back to the airport in a couple of hours to pick up his luggage, that he only had 20 shekels and would have to change into his suit.

We are talking about getting a partial life history here.

Now the strangeness about him was in his speech and mannerisms. He appeared to be... challenged or drugged or perhaps both. I suspected that perhaps he had received head injuries in some sort of accident - the suspicion arising because of a large scar along his chin and the fact that his smile (he smiled alot) was rather disconcerting as he had a major chunk of teeth missing from the side of his mouth. This suspicion was confirmed when Gabriel said that he was in Israel to visit friends courtesy of MedicAid, and that he was going to be going back to Barcelona to take a course in teaching English as a second language - also sponsored by MedicAid.

The point of this course was so he could go to Jakarta to teach. When I commented that the region wasn't exactly politically stable and also happened to have the highest population of Muslims in the world, this obviously Jewish young man smiled (again) and said "Oh that won't be a problem, I'm Muslim". Which put me in my place.

But I wonder how much of the encounter was real and how much was a figment of his imagination?

New / Old Jaffa

I went for a wander through the old city of Jaffa on Saturday.

A glorious sunny day that brought the (local) tourists out in force.

I love Jaffa. It is such a bundle of contradictions. And it draws such mixed reactions when Israelis hear that I live there. They act like I live in some kind of safari park in deepest, darkest Africa. Or in the middle of the most dangerous part of New York. And so on Fridays and Saturdays people come to see the view and hopefully some wild animals, but only when there are other people around to reinforce the feeling of safe danger. Hordes of trepidatious tourists, eating their cotton candy and feeling rather daring that they are not on the beaten path. Which is ridiculous, as there are perfectly normal people living regular lives in Jaffa. We have more problems than alot of other areas in Israel - namely because there is such a large part of the population which has been disenfranchised. But the municipality is working on changing that .

The gentrification of Jaffa, which was originally where the dregs of society were encouraged to live - drug dealers and their prey, lots of low end prostitutes, non-Jewish denominations, criminals, low income or no income families, people who moved from the more respectable parts of the city because of increased costs, or were put there by the government and given abandoned houses for a duration of three generations after there property was lost during the war of independence (and what were they supposed to do after 3 generations?).

And then the city started to expand. Which is great, it means the country is growing and prospering. But expansion has to happen somewhere and the northern and eastern limits of Tel Aviv are now at least a 20 minute drive away. West is the sea... so that leaves south and Jaffa.

To put things in perspective, I can walk to the beating heart of Tel Aviv - Diezengoff Centre, in about 25 minutes. If I were to drive there it would take me about 5 minutes. How convenient is that? And a big bonus is that there is (right now, pre-gentrification) no parking problems, except on Fridays when the Hummous Brigade (aka local tourists) come out to play.

There are lots of unclear land issues going on in Jaffa. I won't go into detail, except to say that the bureacracy here is hell and what with all of the wars we've had, and the pre-British mandate lack of interest in the area (after all, this was a desert...), alot of people have lived on the same plot of land for generations, but with no clear ownership rights. Which means that in the eyes of the country (aka politicians and the developers who are in their pockets), alot of the land in Jaffa is ripe for the taking - which means money can be made... Which is good for me insofar as I will benefit from increased municipal services and my apartment will increase in value, but I will also suffer from increased taxes, increased population, fewer parking spaces etc. And the community will become less diverse - which is a very bad thing. One of the reasons I so love my neighbourhood is that there are so many different types of people living here.

But I digress.

It was a glorious day and there were all sorts of characters out, including fishermen bringing in their catch (fish don't have a day of rest, and so neither do alot of the fishermen). I didn't see anything spectacular, nothing over a kilo really, mainly red mullet and small mackerel. But the tourists were gathered and gawking.

They walked past the old shabby buildings that sit cheek by jowl with the new austentation of the Andromeda complex.

Old Decrepit Grandeur

New & Austentatious

Half Renovated, Half Shabby

I love Jaffa, but I really hope that the changes don't mean that it will become a Disneyland attraction, complete with cotton candy and actors playing the parts of the people who were moved on.

Happy People

And one dog...

Enjoying the sunshine by the beach in Tel Aviv.

Congratulations!

Hello Tal of Chicago.

Thank you for participating in this years Menu for Hope.

And thank you for giving me the huge compliment of choosing
My prize!

These are just a few neighbourhood photographs
so that you can see where your prize is coming from.

These were all taken within a 5 minute stroll of my apartment.

Sunshine doesn't ship too well,
Otherwise you'd be getting some of that in your parcel too!

An Auspicious Start

New Years Eve day started with a thunderstorm that didn't want to end...

That didn't stop me or my intrepid aunt from going to the Carmel Market for supplies. As you can see, the shoppers stayed home, as did many of the stall keepers. However we, dressed in salopettes and raincoats, wandered around, picking and choosing, tasting and debating the merits of the various olives, cheeses, pickles and other treats that we were buying for our New Years feast.

When we arrived home, laden with goodies, I started cleaning and chopping, mixing and measuring, giving strict instructions to my aunt that she was to rest, relax and enjoy being on vacation.

Having acquired 69 ridiculously over the top cocktail forks, I was determined to make the most of them and serve as many little nibbles as possible without causing my aunt (or myself) to explode.

As befitted New Year's Eve we drank cheap French sparkling wine which, when compared to most expensive Israel fizz, is infinitely drinkable. However, that was as close to traditional as we got. We didn't get dressed up, we didn't have our hearts crushed under the high heels of more rapacious people than we, and we were in bed before Midnight and the singing of Auld Lang Syne. New Year's Eve, in my experience, is usually a huge letdown that involves excessive quantities of bad alcohol, lusts that ignore all sense of decorum or propriety, and a complete denial of common sense...

Now really, who honestly believes that they are going to find Prince Charming weaving amongst all of the plastic wine glasses?

New Year's Eve Menu

Smoked Salmon Rolls with creamed feta cheese swiss chard sweated with shallots, white wine and nutmeg

Taramosalata Salt cured red mullet roe with homemade dill mayonaise served in a carrot cup

Fresh Goat Cheese with Deconstructed Pesto marinated in garlic infused olive oil, with oiled chopped basil and toasted pinenuts

An Abundance of Salmon Roe served in cucumber cups with wasabi mayonaise

Lemon Garlic Shrimp marinated in garlic, flash fried in butter, the pan is deglazed with lemon segments

Chicken Baharat and Rose Buds with a sauce made from reduced pan juices deglazed with sparkling wine and enriched with cream, served with basmatic rice and steamed flat beans

Baby Greens dressed with a light lemon vinaigrette (not shown)

Fresh Figs served with Tome, Stilton and Chevre

Baked Red & Yellow Delicious Apples carmelized in the oven with French butter and demerara sugar, served with heavy cream

It was only after I served the cheese course that I realized I had forgotten 2 courses...

Spiced Queen Kalamata Olives with fresh thyme, cracked pepper and orange zest

Dolmades rice and pinenut stuffed vine leaves served warm with savoury lemon custard.

This was understandable, not because there were so many different courses, but because at the beginning of dinner I started to feel lousy. By the time the small small things were finished I was feeling pretty terrible. And by the time dessert was over I had a fever of 39c/102f and was in the throes of my first case of 'flu in 20 years, which kept me in bed for the first week of 2007.

But... I am hoping that the rain and the flu are auspicious signs for the New Year - the rain for an abundance of good things and the 'flu that I shall be healthy for the rest of the year.

An Obligation

My aunt has come to visit from Africa.

But she is not the obligation of which I speak...

Nor am I obliged,
Beyond common courtesy and extreme gratitude,
For the pomellos that appeared on my doorstep.

No, what has put me under an obligation is my latest
Jaffa Flea Market purchase...

Being sold as a job lot just behind this gorgeous old Morris was a shoebox (admittedly child-sized) filled with funky cocktail forks. Cleaned and polished, they look pretty impressive!

So why is this an obligation?

Well, I have enough cocktail forks to supply a marching band (sixty nine to be exact), and now I feel obliged to start making interesting cocktail snacks that need to be speared by funky cocktail forks.

Good thing that New Years is this weekend!

In the meantime, I am entertaining (very happily) my aunt who I have not seen in 16 years. This is a great treat for me, pure unadulterated quality time with no external distractions and a really wonderful opportunity to learn who exactly my aunt is, not as a wife, mother, daughter or grandmother, but as a person.

That kind of opportunity doesn't often happen with family,
Usually you have to share...

And, not only do I get to be completely selfish this weekend and have my aunt all to myself, but I also get to show off the small everyday joys that make up my life here in Israel...

Masabacha from Ali Caravan and

The bounty of my weekly CSA box
(tomatoes, clementines, coriander)

The Jaffa Flea Market

The local street cats...

Neve Tsedek

Tomorrow will bring what tomorrow will bring... but rain or shine I know that I will drag my aunt, this person who I love, to see another corner of this place that I love.

Tradition

Like all old religions, Judaism is tradition heavy...

Channukah traditions, like most traditions in this faith, seem to be food-centric. Family and friends gather together, light candles for eight nights and then eat themselves silly on grease laden foods such as latkes and donuts. There are, of course other things eaten, but those are the star attractions.

Latkes, of course, are made at home. A quick and easy substitution could be any form of 'Tater Tot or McDonalds type hashbrowns. Donuts... well, the first year I was here Dunkin' Donuts had just opened and the gift to bring to a candle lighting party was a few dozen DD donuts, usually covered with hundreds and thousands. I think that the best soufganiot (the singular is soufgania, but who ever buys just one?) in Tel Aviv can be found at Roladin.

At the Ibn Gvirol branch they take over the covered patio and turn it into a little fry-shop. For eight days and nights the oil is hot and the donuts bob away, getting a little tan before being filled with all sorts of delights. This years 8 day wonderflavour is "Jamayica" (the Israeli pronunciation of Jamaica. It is a warm donut filled with dark chocolate/rum ganache, dipped in chocolate sauce and sprinkled with chopped peanuts. Personally, I could live without the chocolate sauce and nuts - the ganache was already over the top - literally, it was oozing out the hole where it had been squeezed in... very generously.

Of course there are only so many latkes a person can eat before they start staring at television sets and leaning back into old sofas.

So tonight I had a different kind of greasy Channukah food...
Pizza.

This is an Israeli thin crust vegetarian pizza from a small chain called Big Mama's. It has an ok crust, a little dusty without enough char to add interest, a sweet tomato sauce, moderate amounts of annonymous cheese and 6 toppings. At this point you are supposed to count the toppings and then make a comment about how I can't count. But there really are six toppings... zucchini, onion, black olives, mushrooms, fried eggplant and... a scrambled egg spread around the very centre of the pizza and guaranteed to make the pointy end flop just before it gets to your mouth.

Traditional 6th night of Channukah food, or so they tell me...

And just in case you have not yet made your donation to the Menu of Hope III being organized by once again by Pim at Chez Pim and her stable of little helpers, this is just a reminder of the prize that I have put into the raffle.

The Jaffa MudPrize
(Prize Code EU30)

If you win the Jaffa MudPrize you will receive a 29cm handmade-in-Israel stoneware plate with your choice of either an elegant, contemplative nude or a loving father and daughter handpainted and glazed using non-toxic materials. This unique signed original (a genuine collectors item of the future) is dishwasher, microwave and oven safe, so you can bake a pie in it, serve from it or hang it on your wall.

And to go with it are a variety of exotic middle-eastern spice mixes, Persian dried lemons, string halvah, cooking roses, and one or two other little goodies that I have found and think you might enjoy.

For only $10 this great prize could be yours... shipped anywhere in the world (I'm even covering duty charges up to $50, which should pretty well cover everywhere in the universe - though I understand that I might not be able to afford Martian taxes...).

And if this doesn't float your boat, there are lots of other prizes available including some wines, books, tours, knives, catering, dinners at some of the most amazing restaurants around, goodies and gadgets... a plethora of playthings and all from giving away a little bit of the ready for a good cause.

So go ahead, make your day - donate now!

Baklava

Just a few of the different types of baklava...
and all available in my neighbourhood!

Regular baklava,
filled with chopped pistachios and doused in sugar syrup

Kadai'f pastry (shredded wheat, middle eastern style)
rolled around chopped almonds and pinenuts

Kadai'f nests filled with whole pistachios.

Almost traditional Kadai'fe -
rolls of the shredded wheat with a sweet cheese filling,
coloured and flavoured with saffron.

My favourite!