Israel- Day 1 Recap

[arib]

in a handy-dandy bullet point format. :-)

-Aliza met me at the airport, and we hopped a sherut (shared taxi) to our hotel in Jerusalem.

-We grabbed something to eat near the hotel (Israeli bagels are... different), then hopped a bus downtown, and walked to the Old City. It was nice to see my old stomping grounds again.

-We took a tour of Ir David and walked through the Hezekiah tunnel.. The Antiquities comission thoughtfully provided a place to buy knockoff Crocs, since the water reaches knee-height at times.

-After returning to the hotel for a quick nap, we headed back downtown to dinner at El Gaucho. Amazing steak, really. The whole experience (The waitress described the menu! There was an amuse-bouche! Even the dessert was fancy!) put every kosher restaurant back home to shame.

-We followed up dinner with some shopping on the midrechov, then went back to the hotel for the night.

Today's going to be more low-key because of the fast, but I suspect that tonight will involve sushi. :-)

If people want to get in touch with Aliza and me while we're in town, our cell number is 052-364-2310

Comments

[mick-hale.livejournal.com]

Food in Jerusalem - Holy Bagel is the only decent bagel you can get in the country. I'm not saying that just because I work for them. I'm saying that because it's true. I seriously think that all other bagel places forget to boil then bake.

Sushi - Japanika is the best deal in town, and it's also by far the best sushi in town. Right next to Misrad Hapnim on Shlomtzion Hamalka, walking distance from the Midrochov.

El Gaucho - truly an amazing experience, though I'm going to take Aliza to task for ordering white wine with a steak.

[pseydtonne.livejournal.com]

If you don't boil then bake, it's just not a bagel.

By the way, does your bakery use a wood oven (aka Montreal style), the typical New York approach or something different? I'm fascinated by the different breads and dumplings that occur in the world.

[mick-hale.livejournal.com]

The main factory uses this massive oven with six rotating surfaces. Bagels are boiled in a big boiler 15 or 30 at a time for about a minute or two, then placed onto baking sheets, sprinkled with toppings, and put into the oven. Beyond that, I don't know what the individual stores do, but bagels are all baked on location several times a day. Many of our bagels are sold as frozen preformed dough to various places near Jerusalem.

[pseydtonne.livejournal.com]

Oh hey, Ari? If you go to Haifa, could you pick up a copy of the subway map and save any transit tickets? They have a five or six stop funicular that runs underground, a lot like Lyon does.

[arib.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, I didn't make it out to Haifa. It was too far out from the places we were staying. Also, according to the weather reports, it was in the high nineties/low hundreds, which is too darned hot!

We hope to get there next time, though.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

If we don't want to get in touch with you while you're in town, what's your cell number then? :-)