 | Jerusalem General Tips | Tips 1 - 10 of 218 |  |
 | |  |  | The Art of Buying Felafel | Tip Rating:   |  |  | |  |
Felafel is classic Israeli street food. There are fads that come and go. Dozens of eateries sprout up offering New York bagels, Thai food, Italian pizza, Dunkin Donuts, frozen yogurt, etc., soon to be replaced by whatever else happens to be the next big thing. But felafel stands never die. In downtown Jerusalem, the same families have been frying felafel balls, chopping vegetable salads and filling pitas for decades. The kids helped out when they were young and now they’re the ones running the business, with their kids at their side. Felafel is cheap, filling and good for you – if you buy it fresh. Here are a couple of pointers for making sure you get the best felafel.
First of all, look around and see how clean the place is. Don’t expect hospital standard cleanliness. Felafel is one of the messiest street foods around. It consists of pita stuffed with felafel balls (made of ground chick peas and spices), a variety of fresh salads, pickles and French fries. On top of that you drizzle various sauces, the most popular being tehina, a green hot sauce and a fiery red hot sauce (called harif). When you bite into a packed felafel, even the neatest eaters will end up with tehina on their shirts and shredded vegetables on the floor. But there should be someone cleaning away the mess every once in a while. Second of all, the best felafel balls are the freshly made hot ones. If just a few are sitting forlornly in the bottom of the bowl, wait until they make up a new batch - or go somewhere else. There are plenty of options. Same goes for the salads. They should be freshly chopped, not sitting around all day. And have a good look at the French fries (called chips). If they are wilted and oily – try another vendor. Some vendors stuff your pita automatically with whatever salad is cheapest and they have most of, like chopped cabbage. Don’t let them get away with it. Make a point of showing them which salads you want. In some shops, the sauces are in self-service bowls on the counter. In others, the vendor will look up and say: Harif? If you don’t hurry up and say “kzat” (a little) or “lo, lo” (no!), he will dump a whole spoonful of hot sauce in the bottom of the pita, which will burn your mouth off. So keep your wits about you. These guys are very quick. Felafel is sold in two forms: In a regular round pita that acts as a pocket (in most places, you can also buy a half) or as “eshtanur” – a spongy flat bread that is rolled up with the felafel balls and vegetables inside. Outside of Jerusalem, incidentally, "eshtanur" is called "laffa." A whole felafel costs NIS 10, and an eshtanur/laffa costs NIS 12. Leave a Comment
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This is one of many booths around Jerusalem manned by black-garbed ultra-Orthodox men who urge people (men, that is) to put on tefillin - phylacteries - and say a prayer. They believe that by fulfilling this religious commandment, we can bring the Messiah sooner. You will see them mainly in the downtown areas or near the Central Bus Station. The big sign on the table says MASHIAH, the Hebrew world for Messiah. Hung around it are posters of what the Temple might look like if it were rebuilt, which is what some religious Jews pray for. Personally, I wonder about that, considering that one of the main features of the Temple was sacrificing animals... The custom of laying tefillin is based on two verses in the Bible, Deuteronomy 6:8 and Exodus 13:1. Tefillin consist of two black leather boxes fastened with leather straps. One of the boxes is worn on the left arm and the other on the forehead. Inside are pieces of parchment inscribed with the relevant Biblical verses. The writing is done by hand by a scribe using black ink and special lettering. A scribe must undergo long training before he is qualified to do this work. Tefillin are worn at morning prayers, but not on the Sabbath. This is the first commandment that boys observe when they reach 13 and celebrate their bar-mitzvah. Apart from being called up in the synagogue and reciting a blessing over the Torah, they have to master the art of winding the tefillin around their arm in the proper way. But don?t worry. If you stop at one of these booths in Israel, these obliging fellows will do it for you. Leave a Comment
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| | | | From Armenia to Jerusalem | Tip Rating: | | | | |
When I was 15, my father took us all to Jerusalem for a year. What? A year? I was devastated. Who wants to be dragged away from their friends at that age? Why can't we go on a normal vacation like everyone else, I thought. You know, a couple of weeks in the summer. By the time the year was up, I had changed my mind completely. Now the hard part was leaving Jerusalem. We needed something to take back home that would remind us of the incredible year that had practically flown by. My mother's choice was Armenian pottery. Jerusalem is the only place in the world where the genuine article is still being produced. For centuries, the Armenians of Kutahya, Turkey were famous for their ceramics and pottery. As devout Christians, the Armenians had a special connection to Jerusalem. They used their skills to produce ceramic tiles to beautify the churches of Jerusalem, among them the Cathedral of St. James in the Armenian Quarter of the Old City, which boasts 6,000 of these distinctive tiles. Armenians began to settle in Jerusalem after adopting Christianity around 300 C.E., making them the first foreign Christians to establish a presence in Jerusalem. In 1918, three Armenian artisans, natives of Kutahya were brought over to repair the glazed tiles on the Dome of the Rock. David Ohanessian, secretary of the largest pottery shop in Kutahya came to Jerusalem with master potter Neshan Balian, painter Megurditch Karakashian and ten workers to open a workshop for this purpose. For some reason, the project fell through and the tiles were only repaired in the 1960s. But the Armenian potters remained in Jerusalem with their families and carried on their age-old tradition, producing gorgeous tiles that can still be seen in buildings around Jerusalem today (in the entrance hall of St.Andrew's Scottish Church and Guesthouse, for example, there is a wonderful niche inlaid with these ceramic tiles).
"Palestine Pottery," owned by the Balian family, is still at its original location at 14 Nablus Road, opposite the American consulate. Another outlet on Shlomzion Hamalka Street in downtown Jerusalem is run by Arman Darian. Here you can buy hand-painted tiles, mirrors, plates, mugs, made-to-order door plaques, vases, bells, candlesticks, lamps - even coffee tables. Don't be fooled into buying the cheap imitations in the Arab market. This is the real stuff. The charming tiles my mother purchased so many decades ago are still as glossy and beautiful as ever (apart from a little chip or two). Now they are hanging in the bedrooms of her grandchildren. Leave a Comment
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| | | | Outside the Wall: En-Kerem [2] | Tip Rating: | | | | |
Cradle of Christianity Ein Kerem is the traditional birthplace of John the Baptist. From Luke 1:39, we know that his parents, Elizabeth and Zacharias, were living in the hill country, in a city of Judah. While John was in Elizabeth's womb, the pregnant Mary visited her[the Visitation Church]. Mary's Well - Virgin Fountain An ancient fresh-water spring, where Mary, Mother of Jesus visited Elisabeth, Mother of John (The Baptist). Opposite Mary's Well (Virgin Fountain) stands an old stone-mansion, surrounded by beautiful gardens, The Ein Kerem Music Centre, Targ Centre, a site not to be missed. The Church of John the Baptist The present building, located in the midst of the village, dates from 1674, when the Franciscans, aided by the Spanish monarchy, built it on the ruins of its predecessors
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Jerusalem has a rainy, temperate winter and a hot, completely dry summer. It is especially pleasant in the summer when the air is clear and the cool evening breezes bring relief from the noon-day heat. There is an occasional snowfall in mid-winter lasting only a few days
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| | | | Jerusalem- orientation | Tip Rating: | | | | |
You're watching the most fascinating strip of land, geologically, topographically, historically, archeologically and more, a picture taken by a sattelite. Geologically it's part of unstable Syrian-African rift. This area suffers earthquakes from time to time, not destructive, fortunately. In the middle you see the city of Jerusalem - its altitude is 700 m above sea level. The northern part of Dead-Sea, in the lower right, is the LOWEST point on earth - 400m under sea level. Jordan river(upper right, not rich in water), which is the international frontier between states of Israel and Jordan, goes(from north to south) to Dead-Sea from Kinnereth(Lake of Galilee, not seen in the picture). Distance between Jerusalem to Jordan river (left to right, west to east) is not more than 50 KMs. North to Dead-Sea you see a green stain. That's the oasis of old Biblical Jericho, one of the most ancient cities [if not most] in the world - about 10,000(!) years. Left(west) to Dead-Sea is Judean Desert where Qumran Scrolls were found, amazingly well preserved for 2,000 (!) years, thanks to extremely dry climate. Check, enlarge and explore the original sattelite's photo belongs to NASA: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/Images/aster_jerusalem_03apr00_15m.jpg
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on February 2, 2005
on March 31, 2006
