Foodie report from Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv is a great city to eat in, although I've heard that there are not enough kosher restaurants.  I had some great culinary experiences, so if you want to read, I'll tell you about them.

Tuesday morning I went to Benedict for breakfast.  I had read in a visit magazine that this restaurant had won the  best breakfast award for several years in a row.  Their signature dish, as you might guess, is Eggs Benedict.  I got an outside table, and ordered the special:  Eggs Benedict Caprese with a cappuccino (קפה הפוך).  It came with an Israeli salad and unlimited bread (with butter, jam, and Nutella).

There's toast under all those grilled onions, tomatoes, mozzarella balls, balsamic vinegar and Eggs Benedict.  Isn't it beautiful?  I felt like a restaurant critic photographing the food.  But it all was huge.  I didn't quite finish the salad, nor even the bread they brought at the beginning.  It was wonderful.  If you're in Tel Aviv, you should go.  They're open 24/7.  It's not a huge place.

Next report was from Tuesday evening.  I returned to Meze, where I had eaten in an earlier visit.  They have lots of vegetarian options, and it's near my hotel.  I got another outside table, a tahini trio (special, beet, healthy) with spelt pita, and a salad of goat cheese, beets (raw!), walnuts, sliced figs and greens with an apple vinaigrette.  Report on the tahinis:  the special was toasted sesame (yummy), the beet was pretty, but very beety.  The healthy had coriander in it - also yummy.  I put quite a dent in the tahinis.  I got a lemon verbena iced tea, and a Turkish coffee as a finish.  Very nice.

Only other remarkable report, was when I met a friend from Ben Gurion University on Monday.  We ate at Suzannah in Neve Tsion (near Yafo).  The supper was very good (tabooli, grape leaves, salad).  I got an almond drink that was very nice.  Not almond milk - a clear drink with some mint in it, too.

Old Tel Aviv/Yafo Train Station (התחנה)

I went over to the old Tel Aviv/Yafo train station, that has been remade into a tourist-type place, with food, boutique shopping and history displays.  My transportation was, shall we say, iterative, but finally successful.  The address wasn't really helpful because the train station sits off to itself (like one would expect), and my smartphone app wasn't up to that.  I was ready to give up and just walk over to the beach, when I saw a big parking lot, and investigated.  The train station buildings aren't tall enough to be seen from a distance.

Train station

I walked around, purchased a few things at the Made in Tel Aviv store, got a bit of orange-chocolate ice cream, and headed back to my hotel.

The view from the edge of the property shows how close it is to Yafo.

The Yafo clocktower is in the center distance.

Bauhaus White City in Tel Aviv

I arrived at the Bauhaus Center at 99 Dizengoff early on Monday to take the audio, self-guided tour of the White City.  Of course, the audio tour pointed out a number of aspects that I wouldn't have known.  Like the Bauhaus style changed architecture from a mass-based style to a volume-based style (where the balconies take up volume in a light way).  Here are a few of my photos.

Part of Dizengoff Circle

The "Thermometer" building - an intentional design by the architect.

You can see through to the central garden courtyard of this large, double building.

The tour emphasized how important gardens and trees were to the Bauhaus design, in fact it was difficult to see some of the buildings because of the trees (a wonderful problem).  I could see how the trees had grown up from the vantage point of my balcony.

From my hotel room balcony on the 6th floor

A modern building capturing the style.

We're pretty proud of our fountains in Kansas City, but we don't have anything like this.  The rotation, special sprays, and music are only periodic.  When I first saw it, I thought it was just a pretty fountain, more colorful than most.  I'm glad I could capture it on video for you (I'm even happier with my camera now).  This is in the elevated walkway above Dizengoff Circle.

And no Dr. O'Bannon walk-about would be complete without noticing the infrastructure:

Center of the manhole cover says City of Tel Aviv-Yafo

And walking (and taking the bus) around Tel Aviv and Neve Tsion, it's amazing to see the extent of the Bauhaus architecture.  It is by no means limited to the Dizengoff area.

Apricots (משמשים)

Fresh apricots are in the shuk.  The last time I had fresh apricots was when I stayed at a colleague's house in Budapest (1995).  Mmm.

Preparing for a guest (אורחת)

Anna F. is returning to my tiny apartment for the weekend.  I'm taking the opportunity to do some actual shopping at the shuk in Jerusalem (מחנה יהודה) for the occasion.  I've got to increase my inventory of meat dishes, so I purchased some disposableware at the shuk in Beer Sheva.  And she's fond of kosher gummi bears and sunflower seeds, so I laid in a supply of those, too.

I found a good place to procure salads at the Mahane Yehuda shuk, so I got stuffed grape leaves (!), tabooli (yeah!), and a carrot salad that's a little too spicy to buy again.  Then I bought challah and breakfasty pastries at a bakery.  Also bought a small red cabbage (כרוב אדום קטן) to make the best (Israeli) coleslaw ever.  And she liked it, too.

P.S. She had asked if she could do laundry here, which was fine.  I asked why, and here's the funny answer:  the charity she's volunteering at in Sderot has a clothing donation program, and volunteers have had their laundry pilfered before, so she was counseled not dry her laundry there!  I'm just glad everything dried before she left on Sunday morning.  That's one great thing about living in the desert.

Lightrun 5K

I went to pick my race number on Tuesday and scope out my transportation options.  Bus #16 has a stop very close to my apartment, and goes close to the Grand Canyon mall (where I needed to go, and where the race begins and ends).  The problem is that bus #16 doesn't come very often and doesn't run at all in the evening.  This would be a problem because the race starts at 20:00.  But I could take that bus to the race, and a different one home.  On the other hand, there were a lot of religious people on that bus, and I'd rather not be riding in my running togs and offending them (I'll offend other people!).

I arrived at the Grand Canyon mall, and could see where the race will start, because they started setting up barriers.  But I couldn't find the pickup site within the mall.  I walked around, I asked the Information ladies, still couldn't find it.  Went back out and asked the security guard, and he pointed inside and upstairs.  Fine, I had already walked the second floor.  But I saw a young man go in with a bunch of race signs in a shopping cart, and asked him if I could follow him.  Sure.  We get in the elevator, he pushes the button for "2", and then I realize my folly.  In Israel, the ground floor is always "0", like my apartment is on the first floor, but you have walk up one flight of stairs.  The pickup site was on the SECOND floor.

I knew my registration number, got my packet, and left.  Since I noticed a גלידה באר שבע in my walk-about, I decided to get some caramel ice cream (that's the kind of thing you get in malls, right?), before heading out.  I decided to take the #9 bus, which is now the route of choice.  It runs really frequently, it runs until 23:00, and it goes downtown where I can pick up my usual bus (#12).

The registration packet has Turkish coffee, a pen, some lotion, a bookmark and a few advertisements.  And the requisite shirt.

THE REPORT
Well, the race website states that there were more than 5,000 runners for the 10K/5K event. Wow.  But a few of the Kansas City races I participate in are that big, too (like the Santa 5K at JCCC).  The pre-/post-race site was really different.  There were about 15 race-related vendors, selling running shoes, running clothes, and running accoutrement.  I wore my official race shirt, and got my required glow stick bracelet (which glowed a faint and ghostly lavender).  My officially posted race time is acceptable, but not my best ever, at 37:57.  I did pick up a medal that was available for each participant.

Of course, I had to take two buses each way to the race site, and two of the four bus drivers commented and laughed a little.

And another of seven species (תאנים)

I'm certain I have similar photos from our trip to Israel in 2006 (same time of year), but I guess I'm trying to photograph as many of the seven as I can.  I had to go to Sde Boqer to find this one, and I recognized the leaves first.  And, I might add, the tree is quite a bit taller than me.

Baby figs

I probably won't be close enough to grapes and wheat to get meaningful photos, but I see many fields of them when I take the bus to Jerusalem (the desert is blooming - Ezekiel).  I don't think I can identify barley from a distance.

Seminar at BGU Sde Boqer campus

I was invited by a new colleague in the agriculture group to give my rain garden seminar today.  After my trip to Tsin Canyon, I got cleaned up, cooled off, and ready for my talk.  We had a little tech problem with my flash drive (those things aren't perfect?), but Naftali solved it with a different computer.  We had a full house in the room - a mix of environmental engineering, agriculture, and architecture professors and graduate students.

I did a general background on stormwater problems in the States, what rain gardens are, how we instrumented the eight rain gardens in Kansas City, and some of our results.  There was more resonant information that I would have thought, since Israel captures and reuses as much of its water as it can.  But brief urban flooding (and desert flooding) does occur and they're starting to think about solutions like rain gardens.

I have no photos of the seminar itself, but here's an oldie, but a goodie from my slides.

Flume installation in Kansas City

A proper trip to Tsin Canyon

I left early to Sde Boqer to be a tourist before I gave my seminar.  That was a good reason on two counts:  it's cooler in the morning, and it got dusty in the afternoon today.  The #65 bus dropped me off on the highway, which would have been weird except that I could see where I needed to walk.  But being dropped off alone on the highway in the desert is sobering.

Walk from the bus stop

Entrance to En Avedat Park:

I thought I needed to buy a park ticket, but I didn't.  I did receive a park brochure, and directions to walk along the top of the canyon.  Since I was alone and time-limited, I did not attempt to walk down to the river (נחל צין). 

Buses and cars can drive down there, and one would have a great chance of observing wildlife (like ibexes (יעלים)) - Tsin River is perennial and always has flow.

The walkway began after the Ben Gurion gravesite.  I thanked G-d for Ben Gurion's life.

Walk to the gravesite

David Ben Gurion's grave

The graves are to the left of the photo.

View to south

View to north

It was absolutely hypnotic.  It was like I couldn't stop gazing.  There was no time.  I kept stopping, not just to take photos, but to gaze, and thank G-d.  One of the good things about being alone in the desert, is that my singing would not offend anyone (halachically).  The only song that came to mind (over and over) was "And the glory of the L-rd" from the beginning (#4) of Handel's "Messiah."  There was a little bench and table set up along the path that faced the canyon, so I stopped to drink water and have second-breakfast.  More marveling.

The canyon walk continued into the next park.

I managed to start back in plenty of time to ready myself for my seminar, but it was like tearing myself away.

I got a ride back to Beer Sheva later in the afternoon with two graduate students, and I got confirmation from the Israeli student that while we don't know why, but we just want to look at the amazing scenery.  I took more photos, but they look like these.

This website has an interesting video from March 2014 of desert hydrology, and specifically Nahal Tsin:
http://www.timesofisrael.com/negev-rivers-rebirth-caught-on-film/

Graduate student leadership workshop - part II

I gave my second leadership workshop - this time with a voice!  It's so much easier that way.  The topics were: developing your leadership role, being mentored, receiving criticism, women in leadership, and encouragement.

One of the Ph.D. students has accepted a faculty position at Ariel University, so we talked about that a little after the workshop.

I had a scheduled meeting with another graduate student today.  She is a Ph.D. student in geography (GIS, remote sensing).  It became something of a speed-mentoring session, but I sent her off with some action items, and we'll talk again in a few weeks.

Another of the seven species (רימונים)

I went out for a run this morning and walked past a bush that surprised me.  I always thought pomegranates grew on trees, since they're a large fruit, but this bush in someone's yard is not as tall as me (I know I'm tall, but I'm not taller than trees!).  I know we saw pomegranate flowers on the trip to Israel ten years ago, but I didn't remember anything about the plant.  I don't think I'll be here long enough to see how the bush holds up all this fruit.

P.S. I saw a Pizza Hut (!) delivery motorcycle on my way back from the park.  Really.  Do we really need Pizza Hut in Israel?? Of course, there's hope - Starbucks tried to get a foothold here, and then pulled out.

Departmental trip to Jerusalem (14 May 2014)

Wednesday was a student-off day, and the Structural Engineering faculty and staff (including secretaries, machinist, computer tech, mechanical tech) planned a day in Jerusalem, and I was invited, too.  The out-going department chairman's, Dr. Oren Vilnay's, father had written a history of Jerusalem, so Oren arranged a tour for us as our tour guide (מדריך).  We picked up one faculty member along the highway at a bus stop, and met two other faculty in Jerusalem.  We started at the Allenby Monument near the bus station.

Central bus station in the background

Oren said the details on the monument represent knights leaning on their swords

 Then we went over to the Mount of Olives, and the lookout to the Temple Mount.

Oren and faculty/staff

Temple Mount

Mercy Gate (שער הרחמים)

(You can see the security gateway to the Kotel in the top left corner)

Dung Gate (שער האשפות)

We went to the base of the Mount of Olives (הר זיתים) to the Dominus Flavus church and the Garden of Gethsemane (גת שמנים) which has some really old olive trees.

 

We walked part way back up the Mount of Olives to a very old cemetery (in very poor repair):

We ended our tour at King David's tomb on Mount Zion, which is a very nice facility.

We ate a very late lunch/early supper at אמא:  lots of salads (tahina, hummus, baba ganoush, tabooli, carrot, etc.) and pita bread to start (and we were ravenous), then our entrees (I had stuffed grape leaves).  Most of the faculty were dropped off at the Central Bus Station because they live (on the weekends) in Haifa.  The rest of us headed south toward Beer Sheva, but as we approached Latrun, one of the professors pleaded for a coffee stop (we didn't have any coffee after supper), which the driver was happy to oblige. Then we continued south, dropped off that same professor at the bus station along the highway, and arrived in Beer Sheva.

מחנה יהודה - (Mahane Yehuda shuk)

I finally made it to the shuk in Jerusalem this morning.  I was meeting a friend for coffee and asked to meet there.  There's a light rail stop labelled "Mahane Yehuda", but it doesn't stop immediately in front (it's about two blocks up the hill on Jaffa Street).  I recognized the sunshade from photos in my cookbooks, so I knew I was in the right location.  It has only one big aisle from Jaffa Street to Agrippa Street.  The shops are much deeper even than at Carmel Market in Tel Aviv, and they even have some prepared foods, like salads, not just basic materials.  There are at least two cheese vendors, and at least three halvah vendors (wow, I have to check that out more carefully - one of the places looked like it had 25 different types of halvah).

Then in some side streets from the main shuk street, they have actual restaurants (but I was there too early in the morning for them to be open).  Very charming.  Of course, we had coffee at a place outside the shuk that she really likes, but I have my bearings now.  I shall return!