Tel Aviv the Bike City
When I was in high school I used to cycle everywhere. It wasn’t the easiest thing to do in Tel Aviv, although this city is actually perfect for cycling: it’s flat, the distances are short, and the climate is convenient. However, riding my bike was always a battle between the parked cars (sometimes parked half or fully on the sidewalks), the dog shit and other obstacles such as human beings (I did not dare to ride on the road). Lately, every time I visit Tel Aviv I see an improvement in the biking field, and this time the biggest change was the shared bike system. It’s really cheap and convenient,…
Plums, Plums & More Plums
We always say that my friend Mari knows everyone, and in a way it’s sort of true. So when I mentioned at work how much Gili and I love picking fruit, and that we would be happy to pick some plums, she immediately connected us with friends of hers in Burnaby. We cycled to their place on a beautiful Sunday morning, and we weren’t sure what to expect. When we arrived, we knew we didn’t ride for nothing – the tree was absolutely full of fruit. We immediately got started and as soon as I tasted one plum I was in heaven. These dark purple prunes were so sweet and…
What to do with 130 pounds of Cherries?
A few weeks ago we had a crisis. While driving back from the Rockies we stopped at friends in Creston and returned with about 130lbs of intensely purple cherries. Like my sister said, it’s like we drove home with a whole person worth of cherries. And a very tasty person at that. We had to figure out what to do with them before they went bad. After giving some to friends, we still had a lot. I couldn’t resist and immediately began baking, which is when I discovered the sore reality of pitting cherries by hand – it is a lot of work. The next day we bought a cherry…
Easy and Delicious Lamb Shanks
There is a fairly famous and excellent Greek restaurant in downtown Vancouver called Stepho’s. Fame brought with it large crowds, and if you expect to eat around the normal meal time, forget it – you’ll often be waiting in line for an hour or more. But then again, the lamb at Stepho’s is amazingly tender, and the sides are almost equally delicious – baked vegetables, rice and tzatziki. Thankfully, the owners have kept their prices as low as can be, with a huge lamb shank plate costing around $10. But, if you don’t live in Vancouver or don’t dare brave the crowds, how about trying to cook up some lamb…
The ABC’s of Juicing
Several years ago Maya and I got a juicer for free from the pick-up area of our building (“where all good things come from”). For a long time it sat unused on our counter. Then we made hard apple cider with friends, from scratch. This was a lot of work, since the two home juicers we were using (one of them ours), kept on getting clogged every two cups of juice, and we had to juice over 20 liters! When the cider was ready, several weeks later, we weren’t too impressed, but a month later it was much better. However, we realized that we actually much preferred the apple juice…
Four Tacos and a Wedding: San Diego Moments
On April 1st Gili’s cousin Daniella was getting married in San Diego. Gili’s dad, Dave, came from Israel especially for the wedding, and invited us to join him for the weekend. At first I didn’t think I would go. It seemed a bit expensive to go just for the weekend and I thought that I’d be so beat up from skiing by then that I’d enjoy a relaxing weekend at home. But since my ski season ended early, and I “enjoyed” many relaxing weekends at home since then, a sunny weekend in San Diego didn’t sound that bad at all. So for these reasons Gili and I didn’t fly together,…
Triple Chocolate Brownie Cookies
I bite into a cookie and think: chocolate, chocolate, chocolate. These are the ultimate in chocolate cookies. Their texture is like a moist brownie, but they are shaped like a cookie. The moist dark chocolate loveliness is intertwined with the chocolate chips, reminding us that these cookies come from solid chocolate. Maya’s ingenious addition of white chocolate chips makes them all the more elegant. Whenever Maya makes these cookies they get rave reviews from friends, and I usually end up gobbling a quarter of a tray before they cool enough to be transferred to a box. Good luck resisting these! Triple Chocolate Brownie Cookies (Makes 40, based on a recipe…
Urban Exploration in Seattle
As outdoor activities like skiing and cycling are out of reach for me while I am recovering from the broken arm injury, we decided to head down to Seattle for the weekend, for some urban exploration. On Friday I had another x-ray and the fracture is still there but healing well, and the doctor said I can start using my arm more, wearing the sling less and start physiotherapy. I started to feel better and got tired of sitting at home, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to head to Seattle. Lately we heard from a few people of this magnificent chocolate factory in Seattle, where they produce delicious…
Culinary Moments in Boston
A few weeks ago I went to Boston for a conference – the annual March Meeting of the American Physical Society (boooring!). However, Physicists are so brain dead to normal life, that most of the conference was in fact in February! I wasn’t too pleased with having to go, since a snowboarder broke Maya’s arm just a day before I left. But I was giving a talk so it was too late to cancel. So, while Maya was at home suffering alone I set out to explore Boston, in the culinary sense. After getting some recommendations from friends and spending some time on the net, here are seven foodie highlights…
Rolled Up Red Pepper Bread
The smell of roasting peppers is irresistible. I have observed this fact over the past few years, and yet still manage to be amazed by it every time. A person walking into your kitchen while you are busy roasting peppers, is sure to be dumbfounded by the exquisite aroma emanating from your oven. I made this bread twice. The first time I followed the original recipe, which called for mixing the peppers into the bread. This is all very nice, but I ended up with a wet mess that was impossible to knead, and a bread that took forever to dry out in the oven. The second time I made…
