Food

Tipping has gotten weird

June 4, 2023

Tipping in the 21st century has gotten weird. I grew up with a simple formula: Did a service provider improve your experience? Then leave a tip.

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Science denial and the wellness industry

October 10, 2021

Why are so many in the wellness industry opposed to basic science? Blame it on Louise Hay who proposed our thoughts create our physical reality

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Eating our way through Nazareth

May 8, 2021

Yum! A culinary “tasting tour” of Nazareth. Knafeh, kadaif, fatayer sabanekh, freekah, inar, al-ma’ashuka. Tour guide: Mona el Abu-Assal.

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Cancer is not magic

June 20, 2020

When I was first diagnosed with cancer, I so much wanted to believe in magic. Not for a cure but that the cancer would transform me magically into someone new.

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Can religion boost your immune system?

January 13, 2017

When I was young, I remember being taught that the laws of kashrut derived from a pre-modern understanding of hygiene. Pigs were “dirty” and you took the risk of contracting trichinosis if you ate raw or undercooked pork. Keeping kosher, as a result, was a way of staying healthier. Indeed, today even non-Jews will buy […]

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Crowdfunded shnitzel without killing coming to your kitchen

August 2, 2016

Shir Friedman calls me a care-nivore. “You’re someone who cares about not harming animals…but you still eat them,” she says with a smile. Friedman wants to change all that. If Friedman’s new company takes off – and judging by the rapid response to their Indiegogo campaign, I have every expectation that it will – I […]

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The Little Bakery that Could

February 25, 2016

When the German Colony branch of Jerusalem’s Pe’er Bakery closed down last year after 43 years of operation, fans of its signature sweet whole wheat challah let out a collective kvetch: where would we go for challah now on Fridays? But Pe’er’s challah is back in the neighborhood, albeit at another establishment – the Coney […]

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Ch’aliyah: immigrating because the bread is better

May 21, 2015

Ever since making aliyah, we’ve joked that we could never leave Israel, and certainly never move out of Jerusalem…because of the challah. All that changed two weeks ago when the bakery that has been the source of perhaps the best kosher sweet whole wheat challah in the world closed down. After 43 years in business, […]

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Lining up for the FoodTrip

July 30, 2013

We came for the food but stayed for the line – that magnificent, long and winding, eager and utterly un-Israeli orderly line that was so unexpected the program’s organizer felt compelled to break into the music, take the mic and comment on its very existence. The food and the line were both part of this […]

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Musty Smell, Fine Food

April 14, 2013

I’m not sure if the oddly wafting odor of mold, or was that mildew, emanating from the walls of Racha, a funky restaurant in the center of Jerusalem specializing in Georgian food (the country, not the U.S. state), was intended to be part of the experience. Perhaps the smell was meant to evoke memories of […]

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