Kosher golden arches

My recent visit was yet another typical taunt for my poor boyfriend, as I demanded to try or do things unique only for Israel. One thing on the list was to try my very own friendly neighborhood restaurant's kosher version... McDonald's.

Not all McDonald's restaurants are kosher in Israel. We actually had to search for one online. Before, I wouldn't have been able to tell a kosher and regular McDonald's apart (I actually hadn't seen one, there aren't that many around) but now finally after visiting one, the difference is obvious, of course: thou shall not cook a lamb in its mother's milk. Therefore, products containing dairy (special coffees, Sundaes etc.) and meat products are sold and served from two totally different counters. Naturally, meat and dairy need to be kept separate.

Only dairy products from this corner. For burgers, move little to the right.

 I had wondered before how they have chosen to tackle this problem in an all American fast food restaurant with non-kosher food. Maybe replacing regular milk with soy milk in the milkshake? It was nothing like this, though.

Even though the McDonald's in Israel had some interesting burgers on the menu that are not sold back home, I opted for a classic and ordered a Big Mac. And you know what, it tasted the same. Minus the cheese, of course. I'm lovin' it!

Looks the same, taste the same, cost the same. McDonald's stays true to its flavors.

Jewish à la Paris

Paris is one of the most Jewish cities I have visited. After New York City and Jerusalem, it's a city where I most saw guys wearing kippahs and synagogues marked all over the town map. And, well, what do you know! My observation was spot on, as France has the largest Jewish population in Europe and 3rd largest in the world - after Israel and the United States. Makes a lot of sense.

In addition to the Memorial de la Shoah and Musée d'art et d'histoire du Judaïsme (the latter one saved for my next visit), there is a neighborhood in Paris that has the nickname of being the Jewish Quarters. Being a novice in the city, I thought it must be the area where all the synagogues seem to have gathered. I was ready with my phone to snap photos... But there was nothing Jewish about the area and even the synagogues were not visible to my shiksa eye.

Running through my facts with some locals, I was enlightened that the Jewish quarters are actually the area of Le Marais, spread across the 3rd and 4th arrondissements of Paris.

Go here!

So, what "Jewish" can you find in Le Marais? Jews settled in the region over 600 years ago, so no wonder Hebrew letters decorate the windows of many establishments there. I ventured a bookshop but to my misfortune, the books were either in Hebrew or French. The topics would have been interesting but with my language skills I wouldn't have been able to read them. Then, there was a falafel place, of course, and lots of them to choose from. This is the part of Paris where you can find one of those authentic, delicious falafels that you just wanna sink your teeth in and come back up for air with your chin smeared and dripping with tahina. Messy, but so worth it!

In addition there were a lot of Jewish restaurants, serving dishes I have only heard spoken of. Gefilte fish, blintz, knish... You name it, they have it. The delis and bakeries offered also to-go alternatives for those craving for Jewish cuisine and one of the latkes on display found its way to my mouth.

Le Marais isn't all kosher with just Jewish stuff. It is also known as the gay area in Paris and in addition to all the Jewish restaurants and shops, there are trendy boutiques as well. Sounds a lot like Israel - the country is much like this as well: a blend of everything. If you're ever around in Paris, visiting the narrow streets (= this is how Paris used to be) of Le Marais is worthwhile. And needless to say, it would make a perfect Sunday destination. On Saturday, thou shall not bother ;-)!

Random pictures of the Jewish Paris. Chez Hanna? Oui, s'il vous plaît!

Eilat, Eilat

Eila is a Finnish female name. That's why the Israeli town ”Eilat” sounds like two Eilas in our language. So, what about visiting these two lovely ladies – if you get my joke? :)

It all started with my cousin actually. It was a painfully long Finnish winter. Dark, cold and snowy – the usual stuff. A break in a warm, sunny destination sounded like a great idea. As Spain, Italy or Greece aren't too warm in March/April, we looked for a destination more in the South, but close enough for the trip to be reasonably priced and worth going for one week. Eilat fit our criteria. But, between my work projects and her thesis pains, we weren't able to find a time slot that would fit both of our schedules.

I told my mother about this who then suddenly jumped at the chance: I want to visit Israel! It didn't take long until we booked the holiday in Eilat in January, and my long, dark winter started looking much better as I had something to look forward to in early March. From then on, it was counting the days till we leave.

And finally the 8^th of March came. The charter flight took something between four and five hours, and when landing at Ovda airport my tired, blinded-by-the-winter-darkness eyes saw palm trees, desert and the so bright sunlight. It was like landing in a bliss of my own making, guarded by an armed man when stepping out of the airplane.

The formalities entering Israel did take a while. The border control people were very keen on our holiday plans, and probably found it interesting that we had different last names – yet were family. Never mind, after the 24 questions we were greeted by smiling Israeli men at the airport, welcoming us to the country.

There was an hour drive from the airport to the town of Eilat, and the scenery was nothing but desert on the way. Those kibbutzim build in the area seemed like an utmost miracle, how anyone could cultivate anything in this dry land. The tall palm trees standing in orderly rows in the desert, pushing out delicious dates for us to enjoy, reminded me of persistent soldiers – standing there straight, diligently, and loyally persisting the heat and sun.

We stayed at Hotel Astral Coral which definitely was worth its price tag. It was centrally located, and the proximity to the Eilat Airport (located right downtown) did not bother us at all. When arriving at the hotel, the reception desk was congested with Israeli tourists all shouting and yelling very loud, and the hotel poor staff trying to meet their demands. Typical Mediterranean mess where no one seemed to get nowhere. It looked like it might take a while until we get a room, so I dug out my Greek attitude and elbowed my way rudely through the masses of these loud, short, dark-haired pensioners and handed over my passport to get a room. It paid off, as the guy at the reception gave us a very, very spacious room with a view to the pool. Toda!

Just looooved waking up to this every morning!

The first thing we did was to head for some food. And something local, please. We headed for a street side restaurant serving falafels, Jerusalem mix, shwarma and my personal favorite – hummus. After the confusion on how to order (sit down and wait, go to the desk, pick it up yourself, what about tipping, how much is this in euros) we got huge plates of fresh stuff in front of us – and couldn't even finish the half of it. Delicious! Then we visited a supermarket to pick up some water, local snacks and dates.

Eilat isn't a very big place, so we decided to check out whatever the tour guide had recommended. Right the next day, we took a taxi to a nearby kibbutz where shabbat buffet dinner was served. Never mind the humble surroundings, the buffet table was something I had never seen before. There were... So. Many. Different. Dishes. Everything fresh, everything local. It does not get any better than this! By the time I had sampled through the delicious salads and veggie stuff, I barely had room for the meat - let alone dessert. Israelis know how to eat, and they do it well! The people enjoying this massive feast were mixed: tourists like us, young teenagers working at the kibbutz and local Jews. They recited their shabbat prayers and blessings without anyone interfering or getting annoyed. Only my mother and I shyly spied on them and wondered what they were saying in Hebrew, as we had never seen or heard something like this in Finland.

Unfortunately I didn't take photos at the kibbutz, but this was just the salad section of the dinner at our hotel. One night, the hotel treated us for the dinner for free. Toda again!

A couple of other things I enjoyed in Eilat was, ehm, the Mall by the Sea. It doesn't take much to please me, but visiting the Gap, Gant, shoe shops etc. keep me happy no matter where I am. When entering the mall, handbags where screened for weapons or bombs - but that's just how things work in Israel. At least you know you're safe inside. Another sight is the local Aquarium and underwater observatory. Getting there by local bus was cheap and relatively easy. It was fun, and the perfect way for us non-divers to see the underwater wonders of the Red Sea without getting our feet wet.

Here you can get familiar with the wonderful fauna and flora of the Red Sea.

A souvenir I picked up at the Aquarium.

There is also a quite nice beach promenade in Eilat, packed with little shops selling souvenirs and whatnot. I stocked up on affordable but good Dead Sea cosmetics as they were a steal at €2/tube or jar. A special offer at the sunglass hut prompted my mother and I to buy sunglasses: Marc Jacobs for her, Dior pour moi. My vacation also included a day trip to Petra in Jordan (be prepared for some border control formalities) and a day visit to Jerusalem.

A holiday in Eilat offers two birds with one stone: catch the ancient city of Petra in Jordan while you're in Israel.

Eilat is a nice destination for a vacation, if you're looking for a quiet place to spend a relaxing week at. Compared to the other Mediterranean countries, here you won't be bothered by pushy (door)men at restaurants, nightclubs or souvenir shop but may stroll around in peace. I saw only one stray cat during my visit, and no one got food poisoning (hooray kosher?:). For beginners, it might take some time getting used to armed soldiers, kosher hotels (e.g. automated elevators and coffee machines on shabbat, no meat at breakfast) and Israel is not a country of low prices compared to Finland - price levels are more or less the same except for the cheap cosmetics and falafel joints. I would go to Eilat again, and then seize the opportunity to swim with the dolphins and buy the Mulberry Alexa bag tax free at the Helsinki Airport upon departure!

I just wanted to grab a small bite. Not chicken wraps the size of my arms and a whole loaf of bread...!

Let there be light

It is not at all a bad idea for Jews to celebrate Hanukkah, also known as the Festive of Lights, this time of the year. Fine, it wasn't really tailor-made for the Finnish latitudes - but most definitely would brighten things up around here, too.

When thinking of Hanukkah, you know, in my life BB (= Before Boyfriend), it is again kind of funny how many things Jewish I used to know were thanks to American TV shows. I vividly remember an episode of OC where the Cohens celebrate Christmukkah, or how Ross on Friends explained to his son Ben about the Maccabees while wearing his infamous holiday armadillo costume. Is this - seriously - where I (and probably some others too) base their knowledge on? Dangerous..!

Well, anyway, Ross was right. It is about the Maccabees beating the bully-Greeks and regaining control of the Temple. The Temple had been defiled by foreign malpractice and the Maccabees decided to purify it by burning oil in the Temple's menorah for eight days. But to their disappointment, there was enough oil left only for one day. What do you do in this kind of situations? Well, all you need is a miracle, and so, the light burned for the necessary eight days after all.

Hanukkah isn't (apparently) religiously so important in Judaism but has become a popular past-time anyway. The way I have got acquainted to it is actually by the dreidel, meeting the Finnish hillomunkki's Jewish relative sufganiyah and now more recently tasting some delicious home-made latkes (potato pancakes). Coincidentally enough fried in what else than oil - there's plenty of that going around this time of year!

Latkes, lamb and some Israeli wine. Yum!

And pssst, a very observant pair of eyes spotted a hanukkiyah in my neighborhood...

Déjà vu for the sweet tooth

I am always kind of surprised if I find some similarities between Israel and Finland or the Jewish culture and the Finnish culture. I mean, come on. Finland is a Christian run country with somewhat 1000 Jewish inhabitants. We haven't been exposed much to Judaism. Even Stockholm has a Jewish museum - Helsinki doesn't. So these two countries and cultures have kinda grown and evolved isolated from one another, unfortunately.

But, I guess it doesn't always apply when it comes to sweets. Everyone's got a sweet tooth no matter what religion, faith or background, or where you live - if you're Jewish or Finnish... It could be like the question of the chicken and the egg – who had it first? I would be guessing the Jews, since when the Jews were already writing, witnessing miracles, building temples and all that, the Finns were still some one-celled organisms in the bottom of a muddy, murky local lake.

So, how did then a Jewish hamentaschen end up evolving into a Finnish joulutorttu? They might taste a bit different but look nearly identical. The Finnish version has powdered sugar is added for a snowy, wintery touch, though.

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Or how did a Hanukkah treat end up at the coffee break table in Finland? Sufganiyah translates to hillomunkki? My mother would surely love visiting Israel for Hanukkah, as she's a die-hard fan of these jam-filled doughnuts. And for an Israeli, any day at a Finnish office at 14:00 would be like celebrating Hanukkah all over again. The miracle never ends...

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sinuhe.fi

Happy Hanukkah!

Still in love with falafel

Remember how I earlier wrote about that great falafel place here? Well, I recently paid another visit to Fafa's and just have to mention it again. To my regret, the place is located a bit far from my home so I rarely cross paths with this lovely small food joint. But sometimes, my hunger for great falafels grows so big that I need to make a pit-stop here!

News since the summer, Fafa's now has an official website and they have their own pita bread factory as well. This might explain why the pita doesn't taste like the same industrial stuff served in other, similar style restaurants. They are also opening a new branch in Kallio, Helsinki, so I might be in the future able to pop in for a lunch when at the office...

As before, this place comes highly recommended, and everyone that I have taken there has also loved the food!

Fell in love with falafel

Accidentally, one Sunday morning when walking to have bruch at Kokomo Tiki Bar, we spotted a new fastfood place at Isoroba 2. The joint, called Fafa's by the way, was closed but we went to take a look at the menu: it was loaded with falafel and lots of interesting sounding things (I wasn't sure what they are), such as tabouleh, matbuha and sabich. Luckily I had a walking dictionary with me to explain which ingredients are behind these names.

Taking a closer look, my companion noticed a mezuza nailed at the doorpost. So the only conclusion was that this place must have connections to Israel or Jews, yay! Needeless to say, the food just had to be tasted! But let me me just add that the expectations were high, as the food in the real promised land is something else we're used to up here in the North...

So, did Fafa's pass the test? Like all of my three vacations so far in Israel, a visit to Fafa's again nurtured my tastebuds. I chose to have the sabich, which was an overflowing pita pocked filled with moist falafel, hummus, eggplant, boiled egg, tahina, matbuha and various veggies. All for 7,50€. The staff wasn't from Israel, but the business cards of the place were held in a shalom engraved case.

After visiting Fafa's it would feel like a crime to eat falafel anywhere else in Finland. The food simply was the best gastronomic fireworks in its league, and my only regret is that they don't do home deliveries or have another shop closer to where I live. The best falafel in this corner of the world – amen!

This reminded me of the Tel Aviv street art graffiti...