Wine News (42)

Israeli butcher shop, Russian style In a country where muslims as well as many jews don't eat pork products, it is sometimes surprising to see how there's no problem for the pork lovers to buy and sell their delicacies. The immigrants from the Russian sphere which make a sizeable proportion of the Israeli population are of course the ones who are fueling this pork craze, and you'll almost certainly hear some Russian in the charcuterie shops on the markets and elsewhere. This population was mostly secularized in the USSR and the Russians brougt back their cultural habits including their pork products with them in Israel. I didn't check but I'm sure that you can find salo here too.
This picture wasn't even shot in Tel Aviv or in a major town, but in an arab village with mixed population north of Haifa. The sign reads мясная лавка свинина (Myasnaya Lavka Svynina), which means pork butcher.

Vodka shot to go with your salami To feel even better at home, nothing better than a vodka to go with your salami, zakuski and humus. As said before, vodka is the best selling alcohol beverage in Israel, part of the reason being the many Russians, part the fact that vodka is a relatively-cheap booze if you consider the ratio alcohol-level/price.
The first time I saw the weird limited-edition bottlings of Kalashnikov was in Russia last year. This vodka is one more among the new brands with fancy names which position themselves in the mid- to upper quality range, like Putinka and Medvedevka. It's not clear wether this vodka is made in Saint Petersburg or in the obscure Udmurt Republic between Kirov and Perm (in the Ural). Whatever, the famed Kalashnikov machine gun, which has been the weapon of choice of muslim terrorists and irregular combatants worldwide finds here its way toward liquid rebranding. Na zdorovia ! The other best bakery in Tel Aviv Of course I ate very often Abulafia's breads, pizzas and pitas again. This 6-generation arab bakery whis is open around the clock is an institution in Tel Aviv. The original bakery is in Jaffa but I would go to the Tel Aviv branch along the beach, there's nothing better than eating a treat of their pizzas for a mere 12 Shekels (2 €) while sitting along the beach after a swim. The video is an interview of Said Abulafia, development manager in Jaffa. Jaffa is basically a neighborhood of Tel Aviv, one kilometer from the modern town. You can see here how the bakery looks, with its wide access from the street, the products behind the glass and the gas oven behind, into which the workers put your order so that your pizza or pita comes out fresh and crispy when you take it away. The tel Aviv branch is built on the same model, same glass display along the street, deep gas-heated oven and so on.
If I believe this Facebook page, even Justin Beiber went to Abulafia when he spent time in Israel earlier this year (the second part of the page, in English, explains what Abulafia is about). David Alin : Honey from the Golan Moshav Givat Yoav, Golan heights
B. and I are avid honey consumers, for breakfast and as sweetener in tea (for B.), and I was particularly happy to stop in this honey production facility in the Golan heights. It is located in moshav Givat Yoav, an agricultural settlement in southern Golan which is also known for its milk production. David Alin has been making honey there since 1974. He decided to come here after speaking with a fellow soldier in the Army who was from the Golan, told him about his few beehives and invited him to come see the region. David ended up settling here and developped his business efficiently, capitalizing on the Golan spring with its myriad of wild flowers blossoming all around. He has now 500 beehives and two permanent employees, producing about 15 tons of honey a year in this sparsely-inhabited territory. Some of his customers are local Druze people for whom honey is a tradition. He sells also propolis, which looks like black truffles, flower pollen and cosmetic creams with health properties.
I'm enjoying right now a 1,5-kg pot of firmly-creamy honey from David
Read the transcription of an interview and discussion with David Alin on this page.
Phone of the honey facility : + 972 4 676 34 13
Purchase online on this page and on this page.
Pic on right : cool architecture spotted in the Moshav Givat Yoav.

My visits in the Golan took place several days before the violent events at the Syrian border, with this smart new tactic of sending busloads of paid militants to storm the fence by force. It is quite worrying, these countries around being on the brink of chaos and its people being made believe that by going after Israel they'll improve their own lot. The likely access to power of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt is also a reminder that the vaunted "Arab spring" doesn't imply automaticly peace and positive-minded economic development. The Muslim Brotherhood, which was founded in 1928 and has been the ideological source of many islamofascist groups since then, should be particularly worrying for the Egyptians (at least the freedom-loving ones), who will be the first to face disaster under its rule.
Welcome smile at Wine Route (Tel Aviv wine shop) We went again to this large Wine Route wine shop in Tel Aviv where there is a good choice of wines from both Israel and abroad. The only critic I would make is that many of their purchases in France are from large négoces, I think that they could take the pain to look for individual wineries in the French regions even if wholesale prices would be a bit more expensive.
On certain days the wine shop offers free tastings of a selection of wines and that day I tasted a Muscadet by Chereau-Carré, a fresh and balanced white priced at 40 Shekels instead of the usual 45 Shekels (8 € or 11,5 USD). Then a Merlot by Duboeuf, IGP Pays d'Oc 2009 at the same price. Nose inexistent and poor mouth. Third, a Georges Duboeuf again, Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 Pays D'Oc. Nose more interesting, mouth with noticeable tannins, I could swallow it but that was not a pleasant wine. Then, a Syrah 2009 from Duboeuf again, harsh mouth and quite unpleasant. Lastly a Lussac Saint Emilion Christian Mouiex 2007/2008, a weird blend of two vintages (never seen that before, I had to look at the label several times). I didn't note the price but not worth it.
I think that Georges Duboeuf makes a bad name to the French vinous reputation with these wines and although working with négoce is convenient I would recommend to this shop to importe wines from individual wineries.
Whatever, the shop is a gold mine if you're looking for good Israeli wines, and for Israeli Arak of course, like the El Namroud which goes for 59 Shekels here (pic on left - 12 € or 17 USD). Sampling Israeli products is what you're looking for primarily when you're a visitor from abroad, so the foreign imports are not that important. I spotted an intriguing bottle made by the 2006-founded Trio winery and named The Secret and which is a good wine according to the manager (costs 100 Shekels or 20 €, 29 USD). The winery is located in the Jerusalem hills and buys grapes for its wines. Belgium beer tasting There was a Belgium beer tasting in the wine shop too, with excellent savoury beers that are also very expensive. Here we're tasting a Floreffe blond beer made by the Abbey of Floreffe, it's another of these traditional breweries operated by monks in Belgium. 6° beer, a blond beer with bitteness and character.
Then we tasted a Floreffe Triple, a 7,5 ° beer. Good, darker beer with character.
Then we tasted an Opus, a Belgian bière de garde. 8,3 °. Very nice beer with honeyish aromas. Excellent. Costs 17,9 Shekels that day (3,6 €).
Then a Blanche de Bruxelles at 11,9 Shekels (2,4 €) and 4,5 °. A white beer with aromas of lychees. Jem's Beer Factory - Jeremy on right Then in the same shop there was a stand with a free tasting of the Israeli Jem's beer factory, and the guy on the right is the manager of the brewery if I remember, first-named Jeremy. He is an American who was working in the White House a few years ago and dreamed of creating his own micro brewery (to say it short). Listen to his audio interview in English on this page, he explains everything about his project (and says at one point that he also serves wine there). Like Pavo, he opened a restaurant cum micro-brewery, it is located in Petach Tikvah near Tel Aviv. They make 6 kinds of beers at Jem's and we taste 4 of them here :
Jem's Black Lager (German Lager). 5 %. Taste of caramel, smooth beer. I appreciate the generous pours. Good balance between the bitterness and the smoothness. Like it. 13 Shekels at the shop (2,6 € or 3,7 USD), 4-pack : 44 Shekels (9 € or 12,7 USD).
Jem's 808. Like a Belgium beer. Makes 8,08 ° in alcohol. Fruity and sweet, with good bitterness at the end. Nice beer too.
Jem's Wheat. Bavaria beer style. 5¨%. Light, unpasteurized beer. To light for me though, a bit too bland.
Jem's Amber Ale. Nice beer with Ale character, the bitterness with a sweet side.

In the basement of the same wine shop there were other beers to taste :
Alexander (pic on left), blond, Belgium style beer. 5,3 °. Made in Alexander brewery, a boutique brewery 30 km from Tel Aviv Pleasant beer with pepper feel in the mouth. Not filtered, not pasteurized.
Alexander Ambrée, French style. Natural gas for all the beers, nothing added. They make also a dark, 7 ° beer in winter, called black.
At another table, I tried a US beer made by Samuel Adams, Boston Lager, 4,9 °. Very nice beer indeed, costs 12,2 Shekels here.
Then Samuel Adams Winter Lager, a5,6 ° season beer. Sweeter, very nice beer again indeed.
I also tasted another Belgian beer : Abbaye de Maredsous Triple (Shiran holding the bottle on right), such an intensity in the mouth ! 10 ° Really great beer. Unearthed antique wine press and vat in Hebron Thanks to Michel Murciano of Hevron Heights winery, I had the chance to visit an archaeological site in Hebron with remains of a wine facility dating of the Talmudic period 1500 years ago. It is located in Tel Rumeida, a tiny settlement set up deep into the town. Most settlers houses here consist in mobile homes grouped around a kindergarten, the only cement structure being the one built over the archaeological field (high on pillars) to protect it from the rain (general view on left, with circular grain storage in the foreground). One thing they didn't think to was to protect it from the children whom I suspect go here to play, if I consider the various debris strewn here and there. You can see here remains from various eras, from the Early Bronze Age (4500 years ago), from the reign of Hezekiah (2700 years ago), from the Israelite settlement period (3100 years ago), the wine tools dating from 1500 years ago (this page shows pictures made during the Hebron excavations). They consist in a few open wine tanks and ducts, with the flat foot-stomping area above it so that the juice can flow into the tank for fermentation and lees settling. You can see on this wine-tanks page several pictures shot by researchers on the Hebron/Tel Rumeida site and explaining how it worked. I shot a picture on a particular vat (on right) where you can have a better view of where the people would trample their grapes to let the juice flow through a hole in the stone into the open tank (which was then maybe covered by a light structure. The Tanureen restaurant near Magdala Magdala, lower Galilee
This is about the arab-restaurants issue, there is a growing number of good arab restaurants in Israel, and Israeli food lovers go out of their way to eat there, sometimes on weekends if it's a long drive from their place. The most well-known of these restaurants is El Babor on Route 65 in the arab village of Umm al-Fahm. Paradoxally, some of these restaurants saw their business increase with the construction of the separation fence, which brought quietness in areas where shooting and suicide bombings were a threat. El Babor has now another branch in town.
Zeev told me that everything began in an arab village named Turan in lower Galilee, where arab restaurateurs decided to make food tagetting specifically the Israeli loving arab food. It worked immediately and other followed around the country.
>e stopped at one of them for lunch, the Tanureen which is located along the highway near Magdala (the native village of Mary Magdalene) at a junction. It's a large restaurant with parking lot which can accomodate group. Very good service, there's a wine fridge (we didn't try wine though) and the food is both excellent and cheap : we paid maybe 9 € each for a vast quantity of small plates full with all sort of food, bread, and Italian water. Couldn't finish even though it was excellent. The cuisine is said to be Lebanese.
Tel Aviv is considered expensive and people find ways to try different food at lower cost by coming here on weekends on their way to the Galilee or the Golan. Near Tel Aviv proper, people go to Jaffa for arab restaurants where there is good affordable food too. Arab fast food Somewhere in Galilee
This was along the road in an arab village in Galilee. We stopped for a quick lunch in a Schwarma eatery that we spotted there. This was probably the cleanest kebab joint I've ever seen. Very tasty food. There seems to be quite a good level of economic activity and investments in some of these villages even though on the whole they seem less developed than jewish towns and communities. My favorite eatery in Tel Aviv I went several times to this Schwarma joint in the middle of the Carmel market. Very good mixed sandwich with roasted chicken, vegetables and Humus. Large size which is sufficient for a quick lunch. They have a few tables and seats in the back (from where I shot this picture) to eat quietly and enjoy the market's atmosphere. It's right hand when you go down the market alley, roughly at mid distance I would say, hard to miss. This treat costs 20 Shekels (4 € or 5,8 USD). Eating in Tel Aviv can be both cheap and delicious. On the market, try the avocados : even if it was not the season, the ones I bought were so good, I guess they had been picked ripe compared with what you usually find in Europe. The Israeli Dud Shemesh How we're being ripped off in Europe...
This picture symbolizes what should be the indicment of overpriced European home solar technology : If you've been thinking to install a solar water tank system in your home in Europe (or worse, if you have already installed it), you can't but be scandalized by the prices practiced in Europe for the installation of these systems. 4000 € is basically the starting price in France for this now-almost necessary heater in individual homes. The European systems are unncessarily complicated and computerized, and need much more maintenance compared with the original Dud Shemesh units, the water tanks that you see everywhere in Israel. These very simple systems (which were invented here in 1953) work by gravity, no pumps or computer needed, just these two things that you can install by yourself. The cost of this system starts from 300 € to 550 € from what Israelis told me, WHICH INCLUDES INSTALLATION, and again it's so simple that many of us could set them up ourselves, the important thing being that the tank must be above the panel. If we want to hide the tank for esthetism reasons, we could have it fixed just under the top of the roof, with the panel lying on the roof but slightly below the tank level. I think that also many people with a country house would be satisfied to have such a Dud Shemesh system working between say, may and september, even if at times the water may not fully hot, who cares when you spend zero on electricity for your showers. I think the reason we don't see these systems here in Europe is the European norms, another weapon that the European bureaucracy including the French one have found to slow the economy and hamper individual initiatives. The green activists should be inspired to let aside their usual political agenda and invest themselves in this important issue. If these systems were available in France for example, many modest homeowners would choose to heat their water with solar panels and thus spare on electricity. Europeans should shortcut these normative laws and order the two elements to install this simple system by themselves. Israel has of course many solar heater companies as well as individual distributors in the field, but I think that you can find the components in Europe and assemble them on a plan (here are a few of them), an other important thing being the isolation valves. The investment should be small enough that it's worth to try. Beach party in Tel Aviv Last, more music from a cool place
This was an impromptu beach party in a bar on the sand in downtown Tel Aviv. This is how this city goes, always ready for fun and good time. Although I was aware of it since my first trip here, it is still a surprise to experience how people who don't even know each other can share and let themselves go without any selfconsciousness... Kudos to the lead musician and singer Fernando Seixas, an Israeli musician with Brazilian roots.
The place, which is located right in front of the Abuelafia bakery (Tel-Aviv-beach branch) seems to be a hot spot for partying and dancing on the beach, if I believe this video or also this video. Now you understand why Tel Aviv is called the city that never sleeps...

This is a High Resolution video (even if its quality was diminished by the transfer on youtube) . If it stops all the time just let it buffer to the end, then watch it quietly - or download a video accelerator, it works very well.

Comments

[Jeff]

Thanks for your continuing articles on the fascinating diversity of Israel and its food/wine life.