Today was bittersweet. On the one hand, I had a full day filled with adventures. On the other hand, I knew that my flight is tonight and so I will be leaving the Holy Land.
Here’s how the day went. The food recommendations were courtesy of my friend Marc, and he was on point each time. (Yay Marc!)
I started off by going to Gagou de Paris, a French bakery. Below are photos of everything on offer there.
I chose to go with the strawberry and cream croissant, a chocolate tart, and a hot chocolate.
So far, I’ve only eaten the strawberry and cream croissant, and it was delicious!
After breakfast, I headed over to Pomeranz Books.
I was hoping to find a copy of ‘Traveling With the Bible.’ Unfortunately, they were sold out of that book (although they had ordered more copies). Happily, I was able to find a number of other interesting books, including some I don’t think they sell in the States. I mainly purchased books for my children, but I did buy a copy of the Daat Mikra Atlas for myself (it was cheaper here than it was on Amazon).
Nahum Pomeranz, the store owner, was extremely gracious, helpful and kind, and I had a fantastic experience shopping there.
After Pomeranz, I headed over to Marzipan to purchase their rogelach. I was told these are the best rogelach in the country and that I needed to bring them home and give them out to various relatives, who would enjoy them.
I wandered through the Shuk at Machane Yehuda for a while. It was fascinating. The shuk was teeming with people- a colorful, living, breathing mass of humanity. It was loud and lively and people were happily shopping. I could walk through their daily. There’s such good energy being generated there. As a huge fan of markets and floating markets in books- Neverwhere is my favorite Neil Gaiman book- it was nice to see a real life version of an open air market.
Then it was time to meet up with my friend and former roommate Dana and her amazing husband Sam at Casa Lavi!
I credit Dana with having given me a very important talk that convinced me to date my husband. Who knows what would have happened without Dana’s thoughtful, penetrating, out-of-the-box perspective?
Here are our lattes from Casa Lavi - which is a fun, trendy, artisanal place that provides gluten free and vegetarian/ vegan options in addition to other dairy food.
(If you’re wondering why I don’t post pictures of the friends themselves, it’s because this Substack is a public space and I didn’t ask their consent to do so. But be assured I was far more excited about seeing my friends than I was about the lattes, as good as they tasted.)
This was my first time meeting Sam and it made me happy to see how happy Sam makes Dana. It’s wonderful to see friends experiencing good fortune. May it continue.
I then headed over to say goodbye to Marc and Moore. (It was really nice of them to make time to see me even though this is still during their Sheva Brachot!) The same applies to them as to Dana and Sam- it’s good to see people happy together.
After this, I headed to Shula’s to drop off my packages.
Then I went back on the bus (my RavKav has been getting a lot of use!) to go back to the shuk and experience Ishtabach. (This was Marc’s recommendation.) Ishtabach is a Kurdish meat restaurant. I figured: when else will I have the opportunity to eat kosher Kurdish food? I ordered beef cheek shambushak with a coke, and the meal was excellent. As you can see from the photo, shambushak is a kind of bread served with the meat (which has a delicious spice and fried onions mixed in) served with three types of salads/ dipping sauces.
I wandered around the shuk some more, taking in the sights, sounds and overall humanity that filled the space. You feel very alive when you are in the shuk, and I enjoy that.
As you can tell, today was a free day. I didn’t engage in any kind of formal education experience (no tiyul, no shiurim) and that was perfectly fine. It was wonderful to engage in a sensual exploration of Israel in addition to an intellectual one.
And now I’m off to the airport! Although I can’t sleep on planes, I’ve already downloaded Fauda Season 4 to my phone, so I shall be well-occupied.
Soon enough, I’ll be back in Chicago, and I’ll have to hold on to the memories generated by this impactful, life-affirming and very special trip. It’s been a privilege to learn with the women of Matan, and I am so grateful for the opportunity that was afforded to me!
Did you ever consider becoming a food critic? You certainly have the writing skills to analyze creations of various eateries and publish the results. One more thing to add to your busy schedule 😊