Tel Aviv is the first Hebrew city
in Israel. Known locally as the Big Orange (referring to the famed Jaffa
orange) or to the two million residents who live in this 138-square-km
(55-square-mile) area as the city that never sleeps, Tel Aviv is the
New York of Israel. Once nothing more than sand, Tel Aviv has become
Israel’s cultural and business center. The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange
fuels business, while the world-class Israel Philharmonic Orchestra,
the museums and theaters feed the cultural needs of the city.
From coffee houses to night clubs, from the most ancient history to
today’s young scene, you can find anything in Tel Aviv. If you
are hungry, you can eat any of the world’s cuisines from Jewish
and Middle Eastern to Chinese, Japanese, Mexican and European. Just
as in other parts of the world , you can find fast food. In Tel Aviv,
you can pop into bakeries that are open 24 hours daily or go to samba
sessions at the beach on summer evenings. There are concerts, theaters,
ballet and summer festivals. You can roam the many galleries around
Tel Aviv or shop in the top clothing stores scattered throughout the
city.
Tel Aviv is for strolling, for admiring
glass skyscrapers and little houses in restored Old Jaffa where an evening
stroll is a must. I usually take walks in Old Jaffa at night, visiting
all the little galleries that are open daily till midnight.
Tel Aviv originally was named "Ahuzat
Bayit" by the 60 or so families that founded it as a neighborhood
near Jaffe. In 1910, the name changed to Tel Aviv, meaning hill of spring.
During WWI, the Turks expelled most Jewish people from both Jaffa and
Tel Aviv, but many returned after the war. These pioneering Jews were
later joined by immigrants from Europe, mostly Poland and Russia (my
grandfather immigrated to israel on the Ship "ROSLAN" which
sailed from Odessa to Jaffa via Istanbul and Beirut), and later by an
influx of German Jews fleeing the Nazis. These new urban arrivals brought
with them an appreciation for the arts and a passion for Europe's sidewalk
cafes. It was they who made the strongest social and cultural impact
on the Tel Aviv of the present.
Tel Aviv has several beaches, and when I was planning a surprise barbecue
party for my daughter’s 14th birthday, the beach was the first
thing that came to my mind.. And what a success it was beside the surprise
itself. The free and un-buttoned feeling, the mood of all attendants,
made it a great party in a great place.
The beach I picked for this event is known as Alma beach, at the end
of Charles Clor Park. Near us and above the beach in the park itself
we had Arab families from Jaffa, sitting and watching the sea, doing
their grilling as well. To the south you can see apartial view of Old
Jaffa.
The Arabesque structures in Tel Aviv’s center date from the 1918-30
period and from the early 1940s. Once they defined the city's image,
due to many refugee architects from Germany that sought shelter in Palestine
and brought with them what is called Bauhaus architecture. Balconies
and rounded corners in the style of Bauhaus architectur. grace many
of Tel Aviv's buildings.
I live in Givataim, a sort of residential suburb of Tel Aviv, but a
town of its own. This was the first Jewish workers' development in Palestine
in the 1920s. My house stands from 1942 and has a round balcony which
by now is closed with windows to make it my little hide-away study.
Here I write and do all my art works.
Markets of all kinds are my favorites places, and the ones I like best
are the Carmet market and Betzalel Market in Tel Aviv, as well as the
flea market in Jaffa. From clothes to antiques, tables and carpets to
Judaica crafts, the flea market gives a visitor the feel of a market
of the old orient. Bargain is the key word, of course.
Jaffa, or as we call it, Yafo, is an ancient Phoenician city that was
taken by the Israelites in the 6th century A.D. and later fell to the
Arabs (636), Crusaders (12th century), and Ottoman Turks (16th century).
Yafo was inhabited mainly by Arabs until the state of Israel was proclaimed
in 1948. Since 1950 the city has been part of Tel Aviv-Yafo. Overlooking
the Mediterranean sea, Jaffa is one of the most ancient towns in the
world. The name of the city in Arabic is Yafa el-Abqa ("Old Jaffa").
Open-air cafes offer all the sweet
pastries common in the Middle East, such as baklawa, kadayif, zlabiya
and malfuf. Jaffa, a part of Greater Tel Aviv, has many restaurants
for any budget. One that I like to go to is Phua, a small coffee restaurant
located just outside the flea market. Phua is casual, relaxed place
with good food.
Jaffa is a port city on the Mediterranean sea, a picturesque area with
3 very special places to me - the Andromeda Rock, the Zodiac alleys
and the beautiful seaport.
The Zodiac alleys is a network of restored alleys, named for the Hebrew
signs of the zodiac and is filled with art galleries. This leads to
the Jaffa seaport. The structure of the port retains much of its ancient
history. Today it is used as an functioning fishing port
The Andromeda Rock. Andromeda means "ruler of men" in Greek.
According to Greek mythology, Andromeda was the daughter of Cepheus
and Cassiopeia, king and queen of Ethiopia. Given to bragging, Cassiopeia
asserted that she was more beautiful than any of the fifty sea nymphs
who were daughters of the sea god Nereus. In revenge, this god of the
sea and earthquakes, sent a flood and a sea monster to plague the land.
Cepheus consulted the oracle of Ammon, and was told that he had to sacrifice
his daughter to the sea monster in order for the problem to end. His
panic-stricken people forced him to comply with the oracle, and he chained
Andromeda to a rock by the sea. She was rescued by Perseus who killed
the monster and then married Andromeda.
In Jaffa is a beautiful orange-colored church. This is the Roman Catholic
one, St. Peter's Church, situated on the hill above the old port of
Jaffa. Jaffa is a mixed city
with Jewish, Christian and Muslims living together in harmony.
The Grape Man Wine
and Spirits Center
I would like to tell you about a
special place in Jaffa, which is called "Grape man", a Wine
& Spirits Center.
In recent years there has been a revolution in the Israeli wine industry
and the vast numbers of imported wines and spirits offered on the Israeli
market resulted in a growing number of wine labels overflowing the local
market. The variety of different wines offered to the average consumer
has therefore been somewhat confusing and in most cases even intimidating.
Thus a wine culture began to develop amongst what seamed to be the majority
of the Israeli consumers’ market and the need for professional
assistance and guidance was, as it has always been, greatly needed.
The Grape Man Wine & Spirits Center was consequently founded, and
its founder, Haim Gan, has ever since been considered the first and
foremost authority on wines. Gan started his carrier at the oldest and
most respected wine companies in Israel - 'Carmel Mizrahi Wines' as
a national manager of the food andbeverages business division.
Haim Gan is part of the 'Volcanic'
institute of sciences forum of wine tasters, a member of the judicial
council of the international 'slow food' organization, a respected journalist
and a world wide authority on wines and spirits. In his position as
founder of The Grape-Man Wine & Spirits center, he has been advising
some of the leading companies in the food and beverage industry for
many years, and has been called upon to give his' professional perspective
on many of the Israeli wine products in the market today.
The Grape-Man Wine & Spirits
center resides in the oldest section of the city of Jaffa, amongst millennium
old buildings. The twelve hundred year old structure, beautifully restored,
holds an important part in history, for it is through its very walls
that Napoleon, the French emperor, stormed in to subjugate the city of Jaffa.
The three story building comfortably holds a large wine lounge, a luxurious
wine tasting chamber and two wine cellars. The upper cellar is a custom
made, high tech, glassed cased, refrigerated room. Here, just as in
the lower cellar, located in the underground cavern of the buildings'
lowest floor, there is a traditional wine cellar. Each of the cellars
contain up to 50 different wine labels fromaround the world and also
holds Haim's private wine collection.The wine center offers numerous
training courses, wine tasting sessions, beer tasting events, new wine
and spirits launching ceremonies, food and beverage correlation courses,
and many other tutoring lessons especially designed to meet the needs
of growing business related customer list. The Grape-Man Wine &
Spirits center offers the most meticulous and extensive wine tasting
course in the wine business today. Up to fifty different wine brands
are tasted by the average trainee throughout the basic five weeks study
unit.
Grape Man - Wine Center
Mazal Shor 9
Old Jaffa
Tel: 03 518 0533
Fax: 03 518 9001
to e:mail:
haim@grape-man.com
A Night of Dining in Old
Jaffa
Another unique place in Jaffa is
"House Number 3" - a restaurant which is a house, a house
which is a restaurant.
House Number 3 is located in a beautiful old Arab building, dating from
the Ottoman Empire.The house has been restored by its owners, Laila
and Hamoudi Habashi, and is located just across the Flea Market. Stone
stairs, antique floor tiles, Persian carpets, cushions, candles and
ethnic furniture will welcome you when you enter their dining room,
invoking thoughts of Sheherazade telling the stories of 1001 nights.
Leila’s hosting skills are felt right away. She takes care of each
one of her guests with her calm and warm personality. And when you sit
to eat, you will find the freshest of ingredients, selected personally
by Hamoudi, a gifted and respected chef who will settle for nothing
but the best.
An endless selection of great gourmet mediterranean seafood and meat
dishes are accompanied by excellent wines. In spring and summer, after
dinner, the guests are invited to the roof for Arab coffee and dessert,
where as a finishing touch to the great meal, coffee, sweets and the
great atmosphere, a nargilla is passed among the guests. You can relax,
drinking in the view of the Mediterranean Sea, the old tower and general
look of Old Jaffa just beneath you.
Amongst the fantastic dishes you can find sauteed fish fillet with sweet
potatoes, grilled kebab of lamb with pine nuts, goose liver wrapped
in bacon, foie-gras with house confiture, beef carpaccio with olive
oil, okra salad with oriental spices and many more. All dishes are served
with home baked bread.
Leila has shared with us the house recipe for Fish Kebab with Tzaziki
sauce and included Chef Hamoudi's notes:
click for recipe
House Number
3
Amiad
St. Jaffa
(corner of #23 Yefet St)
At Layla & Hamudi Habashi
Telefax: 03-6814052
e-mail:Layla@housethree.co.il
Shopping in Tel Aviv
The Carmel Market is one of the biggest open air markets in the Middle
East. Basically the market is a long street with colorful stalls ("bastot"
in hebrew) standing on either sides, presenting their goods, and they
are the lowest prices in the city. You can find all kinds of bread and
pastry, delicious olives, dried fruits and exotic spices, fresh fruits
and veggies. But there are also clothes and cd's, sunglasses and artificial
jewelry, cheese and flowers, cosmetics and art supplies, small coffee
places, butchers and fish shops, and much more, all proudly presented
by the owners of the shops and stalls.
Bezalel Market, just off Ha'carmel market, was once full of falafel
stalls, though now only one is left. This is now a real bargain place
mostly for clothing, swim suits and small presents. There are such fine
bargains here that you can buy a dress priced from five shekels (just
under a dollar) to twenty shekels. Plates and glasses are one shekel
each.
Next to Ha'carmel market is Nahalat Binyamin street, where every Tuesday
and Friday there is a street crafts fair market. You can find anything
from fine hand-carved wooden boxes and attractive glassware to artisan
made, quality silver jewelry. There are coffee houses and light meal
reasturant, even a Bedouin tent where I usually buy "laffa with
labane and za'atar" which is a large pita bread with sour cream cheese, sprinkled with za'atar.
Nachlat Benyamin is a street that has been closed to cars or public
transportation. On an everyday basis you will find shops selling cloth,
whether nylon or silk, cotton or Indian materials.
Just opposite Nachlat Benyamin is
Shenkin Street which has a character all of its own. This is a young
and trendy area with small coffee places near young clothing designers,
tattoo places and candle and soup shops. Everything here is hip, funky,
and kitsch.
Whenever I take a day off for Metzies
(bargains in Yiddish) I start at King george street off to Betzalel
market to Hacarmet market and end up eating in Shenkin street.
Another interesting place, not far away is Suzanne Dalal Center for
Dance and Theater in Neve Tzedek, Tel Aviv’s oldest area. The center
combines 19th century architecture and 20th century landscaping. The
atmosphere inside is dramatically different from the surrounding busy
streets of old houses neighborhood galleries and shops that occupy the
old houses. Neve Tzedek is located in the south of Tel Aviv, a five
minute walk from the beach and five minutes from "shuk hakarmel."
Neve Tzedek means Oasis of Justice, and is actually the first neighborhood
of Tel Aviv, founded in 1887 by Aharon Shlush twenty-two years before
Tel Aviv came into existence.
Neve Tzedek was connected to Achuzat Bayit to form baby Tel Aviv. Many
of the neighborhood’s turn-of-the-century houses can still be seen,
and while the neighborhood has gentrified in the past few years, it
retains much of its old charm.
Editor’s
Note: Many thanks
to Haim Gan and to Leila and Hamoudi Habashi for sharing with us so
freely and warmly. We dream of that special form of travel called a
magic carpet - one that would take us to Tel Aviv and Jaffa to meet
strangers who are already friends.
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