Here's this year's FRUIT HEAD, my special Rosh Hashanah custom, since my days as a vegetarian.
Shanah Tovah 5784
שנה טובה תשפ"ד
Friday, September 15, 2023
Monday, September 11, 2023
Summer- Sure Have Been Enjoying The Pool
The local Shiloh Swimming Pool is just a few minutes' walk from my house. This week is the the last of the season. Most of us would love another week, but this has already been the longest season ever.
Not only do we have "separate swimming" only, but the day begins and ends with 18+ adults only. That makes it a super pleasure. Our pool is very social, at least during Women's hours. No, we don't laze around on lounge chairs. We chat as we exercise in the water. Of course there are some serious swimmers, who are busy swimming laps, but many of us exercise with our heads above water most of the time. I'm going to miss the socializing as well as the water exercise.
Saturday, August 26, 2023
Body and Soul: The Torah Path to Health, Fitness, and a Holy Life
Yes, I said it. Traditional Jewish life, nowadays isn't very healthy, and to be honest secular life isn't any better. One big difference is that eating plays a major part in Jewish Life, and most people would be embarrassed to serve a meal that looks "frugal," which can be a negative way of describing a healthy meal or kiddush.
Body and Soul conveniently includes an extensive section with the calorie count of favorite Jewish foods including things like gefilte fish and kreplach.
Personally, I've spent my entire life trying to keep my weight down, and usually failing, though I don't eat the sort of menu Seinfeld and Grove consider typical. I hate to think of what I would look like and my health if I ate that typical high sugar and fat menu.
Early in Body and Soul we read of the dangers of sugars, yes, there are many different kinds, and the many seemingly "healthy" foods rich in it. Rabbi Seinfeld and Dr. Grove also explain how to calculate the amount of calories each individual needs to maintain present weight and a realistic amount to reduce to lose weight safely.
Because food and ritual eating is such an intrinsic part of Judaism, Body and Soul definitely has a market. Rabbi Seinfeld and Dr. Grove have written a very Jewish diet guide including typical, for many frum people, Shabbat/Chag menus, including what one noshes on at a kiddush. If you pencil in the calorie counts (from the guide at the end of the book) next to what you normally eat and then add it up, the chances are that you'd be horrified.
My most successful weight loss periods were when I kept a food chart, writing down what and how much I ate, plus the calorie counts. If you use a smart phone, that may be the best tool. There's probably an app which will make it easier. Rabbi Seinfeld and Dr. Grove also say that you really must know and keep track of what you eat. One of their tips is not to take second portions. For many people that makes a big difference in total calorie intake. And your total calorie intake is what's most important.
I would just like to add one of my suggestions. Simplify what you serve; make life easier and healthier. Don't give too many choices, because most people will try everything and eat more than they should. Serve just one carbohydrate. There's no reason to have both potato kugel and roasted potatoes. If you follow the custom of two and three kugel Shabbat, make spinach kugel, carrot kugel, along with either a noodle or potato kugel. There's no need to have three types of fleishik. One's enough, especially if you've started the meal with the first course of fish. Make lots of fresh salad and a choice of simple vegetables, no sugar/jam/honey added.
Body and Soul: The Torah Path to Health, Fitness, and a Holy Life is a very readable book and can really help people by opening their eyes and making them aware of what's in the food they eat. I recommend it as a very good start in improving one's and one's family's life and health.
Product details
- Publisher : Jewish Spiritual Literacy Press (June 1, 2023)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 510 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1680259156
- ISBN-13 : 978-1680259155
Monday, August 14, 2023
Theater in The Rough, Shakespeare in Jerusalem
Last night night I joined many at the performance by Theater in The Rough of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. It was fantastic despite the heat. Actually they started it at 6pm, a half hour later than usual, for the comfort of the actors and audience.
The location is the Blumfield Park, which is "under" King David Street, closer to the Yemin Moshe end. The scenes are in a few nearby parts of the park, each a short walk from each other. Most people bring folding chairs, stools or blankets for sitting, though you can rent a very comfortable folding chair for only NS30, which I did. There are still more opportunities to see the play:
Julius Caesar: in motion – August 8-24, 2023
There is no required ticket price, though NS40 is recommended, and they're grateful for any donation, more or less.
Here are a few photos I took at last night's performance. Public transportation and parking are nearby.
לפרטים נוספים – For more information
052-559-4257
info@theaterintherough.co.il
Thursday, July 27, 2023
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #39, Wonderful Surprise-- WC at Bus Stop
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #34 Binyan Clal Public Toilets Renovated
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #33, New Public Toilets Downtown
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #32, Har Chotzvim, Not The Gas StationPishers' Guide to Jerusalem #31, Good Deal in "Supersol Deal," Givat Shaul
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #30, Speedily Out of Order at New Train Station
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #29, Kotel WC, Prayer Come True
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #28, Machane Yehuda WC, Fright at First Sight
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #27, CBS Revisited, Worth The Shekel
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #26, New Kraft Stadium, Complaining May have Helped
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #25, New Park, New Loo
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #24 Horse Park WC Staff Horsing Around
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #23 For One Shekel in the CBS
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #22 "High Tech" Loo, Not for Use
Pishers Guide to Jerusalem #21, Perfect "Pit Stop" on Emek Refaim
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #20, Gan Hasus, Horse Park, Like Russian Roulette
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #19, Center 1 Has Gone Downhill
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #18, Shuq Loo for You Ladies
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #17, At Least It was Clean
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #16, Iconic Location-- Nauseating WC
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #15, New Guy in Town
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #14, Mega Yuck!
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #13, Hadar Mall: What Public Toilets Should Be
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem # 12, Center 1, Usually OK
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #11, Never Fear The Rami Levy WCPishers' Guide to Jerusalem #10, At Least There were Toilet-paper and Soap
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #9, Watch Out for Peep Holes!
Bus Changes, Again, Finding a New "Pit Stop"
After crossing the wide, complicated main road out of Jerusalem, I found myself admiring the lovely shade that seemed pretty new. Actually, the whole bus stop across from the road into Givat Shaul had looked unrecognizable. Then I turned around and suddenly saw the prefab public toilets that looked rather new. I quickly checked the efobus app and saw that I had five minutes, so I ran into the "ladies." It was clean smelling, equipped with paper and soap, but I was afraid to spend time photographing. So you'll have to take my word for it.
We must thank Mayor Moshe Lion for having so many new public toilets installed in Jerusalem and also making sure they're kept clean.
If you have some additional ones I should know of, please tell me in the comments, thanks.
Monday, June 26, 2023
Kiko, New Meat Restaurant in Armon Hanatziv near Arnona
Kiko Meat Restaurant,
15 Daniel Yanovsky St, Armon Hanatziv, Jerusalem,
Tel: 0778836883 Kashrut: Rabbanut Yerushalayim Mehadrin
As we walked over, we decided that if it didn't look acceptable, then we'd go someplace else.
Lucky for all, Kiko seemed clean and comfortable, plus the prices were reasonable.
We went over the menu, Hebrew only, though the guy working here insisted that he could explain it in English if needed.
There's a nice variety and choice of foods and presentations, sandwiches in different breads, platters and salads. We both ordered salads with meat. Mine was the kabob salad. After ordering, our meat portions were put up to cook.
We were very pleasantly surprised to discover that we could have our bowl filled with whichever salad ingredients and dressings we wanted, like at a salad bar. All we had to do was to indicate to the young man working there what we wanted.
Once the salad bowls were full, we waited for our meat to finish cooking, and then we were called to get our dinners. We brought them to the table and ate. Both meals were perfect. We weren't offered any pittot or bread, which was fine with us. Yes, we look forward to returning.
Friday, June 16, 2023
Rosh Chodesh Tamuz Women's Prayers
תפילת ראש חודש נשים בשילה הקדומה בתל שילה
Join us at Ancient Shiloh, Shiloh Hakeduma, Tel Shiloh the same location mentioned in the Bible. Yes, it's the place where the Mishkan Tabernacle stood for 369 years, Chana Hannah prayed for a son and later brought her precious son, Shmuel Samuel to be trained for leadership. Today there's a wonderful archeological site with activities and explanations for all ages to enjoy. Contact 02-578-9111, visit@telshilo.org.il. Accessible by public transportation.
Wednesday, June 07, 2023
Beer Tasting, Four Different Beers
1- Alexander's Fest
2- Schnitt in a joint production with Lervig of Norway, How's- It Hanging --
3- Shikma's HaMishteh, which used traces of 3,000 year-old yeast. This is a special edition, which can't be purchased in stores.
4- BeerBazaar Brewery's OMG Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout from 2019
The format and atmosphere of this tasting session were very relaxing; we sat around a dining room table instead of wandering in a noisy festival.
Unlike our tastings at festivals, here we had the bottles, and the one can from Schnitt, with us to examine, so we were able to check out things not usually known to us. We discovered a connection between the alcoholic content and the calories per 100 ml. They were amazingly (for the ignoramus -like me-) similar. I wasn't all that happy in discovering that. Apparently there is a need for more sugars/carbohydrates to produce alcohol. So if you're concerned about calories and carbohydrates, the alcohol content is easier to discover than the calories on the bottles; the print is usually larger.
We started off by sharing the bottle of Alexander's Fest Lager, which we all agreed was pleasant, fruity and light. It's the beer you can drink socializing on a summer evening without eating a real meal. Only afterwards did we discover that it had the least alcohol and calories.
We suggest more of a meal or snack with the Schnitt-Lervig beer.
HaMishteh is definitely recommended with some food.
So far, we agreed that we enjoyed the first three beers we had tasted. Now, would the fourth be better or worse?
Then Oh My Gd!
We finished our tasting session with BeerBazaar Brewery's OMG Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout from 2019! It was like drinking a sweet chocolate-coffee syrup with the kick of a strong beer. We almost fought over the last drops; it was that good. For those who like coffee and/or chocolate liquor, you'll probably like BeerBazaar Brewery's OMG. It's more an adult drink than the sweet liquors, and nobody would expect you to limit yourself to a shot glass. It's beer! And, yes, it does have more alcohol and calories than the others, but it's worth every last one.
To summarize, all four beers were good, pleasant to drink and flavorful. Thanks to Doug for inviting me to the tasting and looking forward to the next one.
Monday, May 15, 2023
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #38, Gan Sacher Room for All
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #37 Jerusalem's Safra Square's Renovated
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #34 Binyan Clal Public Toilets Renovated
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #33, New Public Toilets Downtown
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #32, Har Chotzvim, Not The Gas StationPishers' Guide to Jerusalem #31, Good Deal in "Supersol Deal," Givat Shaul
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #30, Speedily Out of Order at New Train Station
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #29, Kotel WC, Prayer Come True
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #28, Machane Yehuda WC, Fright at First Sight
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #27, CBS Revisited, Worth The Shekel
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #26, New Kraft Stadium, Complaining May have Helped
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #25, New Park, New Loo
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #24 Horse Park WC Staff Horsing Around
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #23 For One Shekel in the CBS
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #22 "High Tech" Loo, Not for Use
Pishers Guide to Jerusalem #21, Perfect "Pit Stop" on Emek Refaim
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #20, Gan Hasus, Horse Park, Like Russian Roulette
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #19, Center 1 Has Gone Downhill
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #18, Shuq Loo for You Ladies
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #17, At Least It was Clean
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #16, Iconic Location-- Nauseating WC
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #15, New Guy in Town
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #14, Mega Yuck!
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #13, Hadar Mall: What Public Toilets Should Be
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem # 12, Center 1, Usually OK
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #11, Never Fear The Rami Levy WCPishers' Guide to Jerusalem #10, At Least There were Toilet-paper and Soap
Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #9, Watch Out for Peep Holes!
Bus Changes, Again, Finding a New "Pit Stop".jpg)
Considering that Gan Sacher is a humongous city park by Israeli standards, it's important to state that the loo is close to the Nachlaot and Cinema City end of the park, if I'm not mistaken. I got there early in the morning with a neighbor by car. It's also near a section "fenced in" for dogs to run and play.
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I visited the loo very early in the morning, about 6:30am and found it clean, pleasant smelling and fully stocked with soap and toilet paper. You can't ask for more.
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If you know of a public WC you think I should review, please let me know in the comments. And, of course, please share this post; it is a public service.
Thursday, May 04, 2023
Israeli Craft Beer Festival in Jerusalem First Station
Considering that it's much more difficult to find these smaller and newer craft beers commercially, versus the beers I've mentioned, I didn't miss the big ones at this venue.
It may be hard to believe, and even I'm very surprised, but besides one beer which I found rather tasteless, they were all drinkable to excellent.
How did I manage to sample a very large percentage of the beers?
On the right you can see me in my "beer tasters T-shirt." At various Israeli beer events, you'll probably see Doug Greener of Israel Brews and Views in a similar shirt. I'm one of the crew. Some of you may be familiar with his beer reviews in the Jerusalem Post.
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| Doug and the beer tasters at the Israeli Craft Beer Festival, Jerusalem First Station |
At last year's Israeli Craft Beer Festival in Jerusalem First Station, the odd man out was an Israeli Whiskey, which we had also sampled. This year I was disappointed when I couldn't find them at the fair. It was excellent, so no surprise that soon after the festival we heard that it had won first prize in an international contest. Milk & Honey (M&H) has been awarded the title of ‘world’s best single malt’ by The World Drinks Awards.
If you have the opportunity to drink/buy mead, go for it. I prefer those I tasted at the festival to many wines.
Don't be afraid to try the various Israeli craft beers if you have an opportunity, and if you can make it to next year's craft beer festival, go.
Following are more photos from the festival.
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Sunday, April 23, 2023
Honeyed Challah Rolls! Great Results
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| my latest batch of challah rolls baked with the cheapest honey rather than sugar |
For decades I've been making challah rolls with whole wheat (now 70%) flour, never white. In addition I use brown sugar, which has a stronger flavor, much more suited to whole wheat flour than white sugar. Click here for the standard recipe. Since we're not big bread eaters, I bake challah rolls and freeze them. This way each batch will last for over a month. Last week my local store still hadn't gotten its new supply of brown sugar, and I really wanted to bake a Post-Passover supply of challah rolls.
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| step 1 |
Now the dilemma was how to measure honey without wasting a lot or eating/licking what stayed on the measuring cup.
Luckily I remembered a trick/technique I had once read about. As you can see in the photos, it's really pretty easy.
First I put flour in the mixing bowl. Of course I had to calculate how much honey to use instead of sugar. I checked with Pâtissie (Pastry Chef) Google. Some experts said use half the quantity you'd use for sugar and others said three-quarters.
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| step 2 |
My research also said to decrease some of the water, since the dry ingredients were less than usual, and honey is moist, but the truth is that I used almost the same amount of water and oil. And for some strange reason, I didn't need more flour. Just so you know, I knead by hand, since I don't have a mixer.
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| step 3 |
No doubt you are curious as to the success of my experiment. The challah was much lighter and rose a lot more than usual. Granted that I had a fresh package of dehydrated yeast, but over the decades a new package hasn't made any real difference in the density of the baked challah.
In another couple of months, when it's time for a new batch, I'll try baking with honey again. Let's see if I get the same results...
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