19. Foodie Joy, Bauhaus Buildings, Singing in the Market, Rained Out. 1/6/23

6 January 2023

Greetings from Jaffa, Israel – where we are watching CNN and not missing the shit show the Republicans are creating—Who are these jerks?

First a little mouthwatering news from Popina – where we had dinner last night (after trying to make reservations for at least four other places and lucked out because there was a cancelation at Popina!) We took a taxi to the restaurant which was in a pretty upscale neighborhood with ultra-modern high-rise buildings. Popina bills itself as serving “modern food,” within the culinary landscape of Tel Aviv, and serving “central-region Israeli food” It’s located in an ancient building that is decorated with clean lines and retro stained glass, stone walls, and a green garden; the kitchen is certainly center stage. We had a hard time making selections since everything sounded so good and the plates coming to neighboring tables looks so yummy. 

We settled on two starters [a seafood pizza—what they call “Black Pizza,” which was cooked with goat cheese cream, shrimps and scallops, herbs, and chili oil; and a beef tartare with pumpkin, asparagus, oyster mushrooms and pickled egg yolk, sitting in what I think was demi-glace with mustard cream (?)] We almost ordered another starter called “gin and tonic sashimi” which really sounded good… For the main course, we had the slow-cooked veal cheek with green leaves, Jerusalem artichoke cream, and I think shiitake demi-glace (or something like that). All I can say is that each dish was fantastic. Oh… dessert, we selected chocolate mousse which was served inside some kind of pastry puff; with beet ice cream on the side. And the server brought an extra dessert (just what we needed) something very lemony and very good. I had Israeli wine and Mike (nursing his cold and claiming his drink is medicinal) had three “hot toddies” – He thinks he might be able to claim it on his health insurance.

Today, we started out at the Hotel Cinema in the district in Tel Aviv that has a lot of Bauhaus buildings. Turns out that there are many Bauhaus-style buildings here – constructed between 1920 and 1940, by German-Jewish architects who immigrated to Tel Aviv after the rise of the Nazism. Indeed, we learned that Tel Aviv is home to about 4,000 buildings that are in Bauhaus style and that 2,000 of them are protected by preservation rulings. [The Bauhaus school operated between 1919 and 1933 in Germany.] 

We strolled under the overcast grey sky to the very vibrant and very crowded Carmel Market (Shuk Hacarmel) — the largest market (shuk) in Tel Aviv. Here you can get everything from spices to clothing to electronics to fruits and vegetables to candy to cases for your cellphone (including one that shows Netanyahu sitting on a toilet). The Market is more than 100 years old, nearly as old as the city of Tel Aviv itself. The layout of the market is simple with one street that runs throughout the entire length of the market and several “auxiliary” short side streets. 

And within the market there are hundreds of little “restaurants” and cafes and food stalls where you can get lots of very appealing foods, breads, desserts, or snacks to eat as you walk. While we weren’t really that hungry, everything looked so good that we just gave up and settled into a little place that I think was called “The Greek.” It was just a counter that surrounded a bar and it was bustling. We were drawn to it because a lot of loud music was playing, and everyone was singing along with the music. We think they were singing Greek songs but in Hebrew (but not knowing either language it was a little difficult to discern). Everyone was drinking lots of Ouzo and eating while they sang. We waited for stools at the counter and once we had our seats (two of the 25+/- seats) we ordered dolmas and zucchini fritters and wine. Everything came with tzatziki and the food was great. 

According to my Shazam app, the songs that were playing with literally everyone (except us) singing along very loudly and knowing all of the words came from an album by Gabi Shoshan (love that Shazam!) As we were paying, two people were trying to grab our seats and we chatted very briefly. They said that Israel is good, but that the political leadership of Israel is terrible—they said if you can rate someone as a zero, Netanyahu would be seven time zero.

Then we continued walking through the market and were headed to two particular neighborhoods we wanted to see… but then the rains came. First we just stood under a canopy thinking it might be momentary, but then it was clear this would be a real rain and it would linger.. so we eventually ventured out to the street and found a taxi.

We are about to head to a restaurant called Dalida, which we assume will be as good as all the others. Can’t seem to go wrong with food here. Will report tomorrow.

Oh, a little side story that I forgot to mention in previous notes… I stopped into a small store, thinking I might bring back some of those Dead Sea face and hand cream products. I was perusing the stuff in the little shop when the saleswoman approached me. I said I was just looking, but she continued that I needed to get an “anti-aging cream” as well as some other stuff. Not very good salesmanship! I didn’t buy anything.

All the best –

Fern