Being Kosher in China

I just came back from my first trip to China.  Two colleagues and I visited Beijing for business, and one is an observant Jew.  So at least for a few meals, eating out was quite an experience. 

Our first night, we asked the hotel concierge for an all vegetarian restaurant and was recommended Pure Lotus.  It turns out to be a vegan restaurant started by some buddhist monks or something like that. And just to be safe, our observant Jew tried checking with the kitchen that indeed no meat, eggs, or milk were prepared there, but fortunately for us, no one spoke English.  The place was amazing, from the interior decoration to the food.  One of the interior doors of the restaurant was like something from an old palace castle, weighing a ton and requiring 2 waiters to open to allow us in.  And since no one spoke english, we had no clue the size of the dishes we ordered.  By the end of the night, we were fully stuffed, having canceled an order of rice, but somehow making sure we tried three different desserts.   

Pure Lotus.  The place is amazing.

Not all of our meals were Kosher.  Our colleague was considerate enough not to demand that of us for each meal.  Most of the meals, he joined us and either had a diet coke or fruit.  On our third night, he asked if we could once again go to Pure Lotus so that he could get a nice, cooked meal.  I was all for it.  However since that morning we had visited the Israeli embassy, the other colleague thought "Hey let's ask them what place they would recommend."  So rather than enjoy the wonders of Pure Lotus, we enjoyed the anti-wonders of Dini's Kosher Restaurant, the only Kosher restaurant in Beijing.  From the outside, it looked like a fancy banquet hall.  From the inside, it looked like a kibbutz cafeteria, from the yamakas to the long communal tables.  Now I have not had Chinese food in Israel, but I assume the Chinese dishes we had at Dini's were as Americanized or Israelized as that found in America or here.  So being in Beijing, this dining experience was quite the disappointment even though one could consider it "off the beaten track."

Dini's Kosher Restaurant.  This place is not amazing.

And one late evening, I did make it back on the beaten-track to visit Ghost Street and the row of restaurants opened all night long.  I didn't take this adventure to the extreme, by-passing the turtles that were on display on the street.  I did however point to a bunch of photos of various grilled items, only half of which I had any clue of what they were.  All but one turned out decent or edible.  The inedible one looked good, but one bite into the meat made me nauseous.  A swig of beer made me all better. 

Ghost Street.  Avoid the meat in the middle.

One last thought.  Contrary to the view I had before going, Beijing is an amazing place.  There's a great vibe to the place.  There's no doubt it's going to be the dominant power in the near future.

Hiking The Golden Arches

The summer heat has made it an obstacle to explore the many sights of Israel.  Hence, on the first sign of cool air, we ventured out for a simple hike.  The cause of the temperature drop was a downpour a day before, the only downpour of the summer I believe.

We went to Ramat Hanadiv which is a park built by the Rothchilds just north of Tel Aviv.  We hiked there before at the beginning of the summer when the heat was just bearable and walked along the "easy" trail.  This time around, I wanted to explore the other, more advanced trails that would take us to scenic views of the Mediterranean. Not more than 2 minutes into the hike, we ran into trouble.  Jana led the way as Atom was strapped in a backpack on my back.  And what looked like a solid dirt path instantly morphed into soggy mud patch.  Jana sank deeper with each step until all of a sudden one of her shoes became locked in the mud, and she hopped out with just her socks.  I couldn't help but laugh hysterically while she whined for me to get her shoe.  I carefully stepped around the mud and bent down for the shoe, but as I finally pulled it from the mud's grip, I lost my own balance and subsequently also my shoe in the mud.  Jana had to come save both Atom and I.  She said Atom had the look of terror on his face during the whole ride.  We decided to forgo the advanced trail for the same one we hiked the previous time.  It turned out to be trouble free. 

Evidence of our misfortunes.

Pali saw no problem with the mud.

On the way home from our hike, we decided to give McDonald's here in Israel a try.  Long story short, don't give it a try.  Photos below of our dining experience.

Like others in the US, this McDonald's is next to a gas station.

The Texas specials made me feel like home (for a split sec).

I wanted to see if it tasted the same as in the States.

Then I remembered that I never ate Big Macs in the States

Atom's Happy Meal.  His toy was better than his food.

Worse than the Big Mac.

The fries were decent, especially with lots of ketchup.

Atom passed out from hunger.

Hagana

Where all the Chamarro Jews settled in Israel...

The "Ha" in front of a words translates to "The" in Hebrew.

A special shout out to "Soap-ie"!

Oma arrived 3 weeks ago with 3 suitcases for her one month stay.  One suitcase was filled with special toys from "Soap-ie".   He really enunciates the "soap" part. 

He must remember her trip to Israel.  Every day AND nite we read the photo book "Omes" made from the Limtiaco's travel.  He kisses Sophie and when he doesn't see her on a page he has a whine fest saying "soapie, soapie, soapie!"  He flips through the pages til he finds her and then hugs and kisses the photo.  He even dresses himself in the same outfits he wore while they were here.  His "monkey" (aka small paul) shorts, tevas,  bull shirt, etc.   Yesterday I caught him trying to feed a photo of Sophie a lollipop.  He said "Soap-ie, lollpop!" Today he asked for her camel back thermos.  Luckily I was prepared and had Scott pick up one with dinosaurs when he was visiting the states in September.  

He made this special Shout out to Sophie video before we moved from our Alroy'i apartment.  I figured she would receive his Thank you video before the Israeli post office would get to sending a thank you card, considering the country has been closed for almost 3 weeks.

Todah Cousin Sophie!  We miss you!

Conductor hat from Sophie.  Matches his
Small Paul pj shirt! Cho Cho train here we come!

Practically a month off!

This October has been filled with Jewish holidays.  And when I say holidays, I mean vacation days!  I've had the luxury of a series of four day weekends, and overall a month of productive laziness.

The festivities started with Rosh Hashana which literally translates to "Head of the Year" or New Years.  It was quite funny when a neighbor greeted Jana with "happy new year," and only then did Jana realized the Rosh Hashana holiday was New Years.  

We were invited to a traditional New Year's BBQ at our friend's parents' place.  The mother is Moroccan, and like most Moroccan mothers, kept the food coming and coming.  At one point, Jana was being served like a queen.  Atom, on the other hand, warmed up to the hosts and formed an impromptu band.  

The day after, the Vinegars joined us on a hike through the Kula forest.  We started at the Alexandroni monument commemorating one of the many battles between the Israelis and Arabs in 1948.  The Israelis won this one.  The hike then lead through the Kula forest and to a 2000 year old Roman tomb that is still standing.  A hike that I expected to be short ended up lasting 2.5 hours and also brought us views of motocross bikers and horseback riders.  Israel is indeed quite diverse.  More photos of Rosh Hashana can be viewed on our Picasa web album. 

Rosh Hashan was followed by Yom Kippor or Day of Atonement.  It is preceded by a week of asking for forgiveness, both my God and by the people you have somehow crossed.  I was waiting for a host of apologies, but they never came.   I tried reminding Jana, but she ignored me.  Yom Kippor itself is a solemn day where Jews fast and do not drive among other rituals.  That means the streets rather than being filled with crazy and wild Israelis drivers are filled with crazy and wild Israeli kids on bikes.  Atom and his little bike joined the festivities.   

The morning of Yom Kippor, we took our bikes and headed towards the major highway cutting through Tel Aviv.  It's amazing that a bustling city of over 3 million people can seem so deserted except for the random biker looking to enjoy the once in a year day of peace and quiet.  More photos of Yom Kippor can be found seen here.

And for the past week, we've been celebrating Sukkot or Feast of the Tabernacles.  The holiday commemorates the Israelite's 40 year journey through the desert back to the homeland by erecting tents to represent the Tabernacles used during the journey.  Today's Sukkots are draped with cloth and palm leaves and decorated with shiny ornaments.  It's like a Jewish version of decorating a Christmas tree!  Once again we went to our friend's place for Sukkot dinner, but this time it was served inside the tent.  Atom was entralled with all the decorations however did not want to take part in wearing a yamaka like his dad.

Sadly, work starts again on Sunday. 

Ice Skating in Israel

One evening last week, we stopped by the old train station that was recently renovated and now serves as a yuppie shopping center.  It's right next to our neighborhood and has a toy store with large stuffed animals that Atom loves to visit.  

This evening, the center was hosting a festival.  And to our surprise, there was an outdoor ice-skating rink.  The rink was small, and the skaters were wearing helmets.  

As we approached the rink, it turns out it wasn't ice at all.  The floor was made of white plastic boards which are quite obvious in the photo below.  Maybe this is why Israel doesn't do so well at the winter olympics.

Monsieur Nguyen

Scottie is back in the news again! This week an interview with him by Jean-Patrick Grumberg was featured in a French blog dzrr.fr  An english translation of the interiew was then featured in The New English Review. For all those who do not read french I suggest either a) reading the second article or b) reading the first article using google translate.

What's funny is Jean-Patrick conducted the interview in English and translated it to French for the dzrr.fr article.  The New English Reivew article seems like a google translation of the French version back into English.  I assure you that Scottie's English skills haven't deteriorated that much.

And one last thing.  There is a comment posted on Scott's PRI interview by Kristine Santos, "Dr. Nguyen's contribution to science, energy, and fashion get 2 thumbs up." Looks like Scott is reliving his childhood and the feathered hair style is making a comeback! Check out his photos. His "wings" are protruding from his glasses. He did get a hair cut a few days later once he realized his hair was beginning to feather.