Food, Museums, & Shabbat (I forsee this to be a reoccuring theme in my future)

I think one of my favorite parts about traveling is eating the local foods. Wednesday I went to Aaron’s birthday party at a Moroccan soup place and thoroughly enjoyed the sweet potato soup (marak patata), and definitely see myself going back there.

Aaron's birthday

At the grocery store I also picked up 2 new items. Firstly, I had to buy the “chocolate milk in a bag.” Having heard from multiple sources that it was better than any chocolate milk I’ve ever had, I had to try it. Verdict: delicious, yes. The best? That’s hard to judge. I also wanted some yogurt, but was looking to get a local Israeli brand, and not necessarily Yoplait or something else I recognized. I picked out what I thought was yogurt, only to find out it isn’t. However I was pleasantly surprised and loved what I bought. It’s called Lebne, I believe. They call it a cheese, but I think it tastes like a mix between yogurt and cream cheese. It’s great on toast.

Chocolate "shoco" milk in a bag

My new favorite dairy product- lebne

Another food picture for good measure. This is the life changing rugulach.

Thursday I went with a couple friends to a museum called Museum on the Seam (http://www.mots.org.il/)- a socio-political contemporary art museum. Needless to say it was a very interesting museum that touched on a lot of interesting subjects, however there were a couple sound installations that you could hear throughout the majority of the museum that were intended to invoke a sort of anxious feeling from the listener, and it certainly did for me, which made the experience a little less enjoyable (think: modem dial-up noise, on repeat). They did have a rooftop terrace though where I was able to snap this photo that I like as it has the new light rail train in the foreground and the Old City in the background.

First piece of art you see upon entering the museum

On the wall when exiting the museum

(The quotation reads: "Some are eager to stroke the flames of division and to stand in the way of progress. Some suggest that it isn't worth the effort- that we are fated to disagree, and civilizations are doomed to clash. Many more are simply skeptical that real change can occur. There is so much fear, so much mistrust. But if we choose to be bound by the past, we will never move forward. I want to particularly say this to young people of every faith, in every country: you, more than anyone, have the ability to remake this world." -Barack Obama, Cairo University 04.06.2009)

View from rooftop of Museum on the Seam

For Shabbat this week I went with a couple of my roommates to the Old City. One of their cousins is a Chabad Rabbi who lives in the Old City and runs a program (http://www.jerusalemconnection.org/) that welcomes students, people who have newly made aliyah, and in general anyone who wants a place for Shabbat to come have dinner. Dinner started around 6:30, and I don’t think we left until around 11:30. It was quite the experience. The dinner was several courses (hummus, salads, salmon, chicken, and dessert), and throughout the meal we said a variety of blessings both for the food, but also discussed a few things from this week’s Torah portion. It was cool being in the Old City for Shabbat because you can hear other people’s dinners and services happening at the same time all around you. Plus, I still really enjoy that while walking down the street on Shabbat and in passing strangers you exchange “Shabbat Shaloms.”

I rounded the night out tonight by checking out the falafel place down the street. It’s hard to find anything open on Shabbat, but this place is Arab, so they were. I rate it 2 thumbs up. Very delicious and very cheap.

While this photo may not make this falafel in lafa look appetizing- I assure you, it was