DAY 1
The other side of Jerusalem
Jerusalem has been an idea in my head for perhaps decades; fed by stories from the Bible, history books and general religious chatter. And I am eager to see the historic and religious sights. But, I must wait. Today, I am to witness another side of this traditional city. I am seated in Shmil, a restaurant created in an old Turkish train station. The train, David Goldfarb from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs informs me, with typical humour, was so slow that a man who lay on the tracks in the hope of committing suicide, died of starvation! I am to realise that the people of Israel have a story and a joke for everything. They are happy to laugh at themselves. And they are eager to speak about themselves, to explain the strict rules that govern their daily lives. Almost like a ‘coming out’, a desire to be seen in their own garb.

Being a kosher restaurant, there are groups of men that belong to the Orthodox sects, at tables around us. They wear black from top to toe, traditional yarmulkes on their heads and sport dark ringlets bouncing around their faces. Kosher is a way of life that is followed by many in this country though not by all. It is a complicated system but superficially, kosher restaurants will not serve meat and milk simultaneously, no fish without scales and fins, will prepare food in a particular way and remain closed from Friday evening through Saturday, faithfully maintaining the Sabbath.

“Israel is an immigrant country with this in common,” David is now saying, “that we are all Jews.” The Jews arrived here in waves of immigration from around the world. Hebrew is the national language and the largest minority are the Russians. Jerusalem is the capital but most of the consulates are located in Tel Aviv. And the weekend is Friday and Saturday, strictly observed by the Orthodox communities. Shalom is a word that wafts around you; greeting and all-encompassing, it can mean “almost everything” informs our guide Sharon Pelleg: “Hello, goodbye, peace…it is also a first name.” We drop the word constantly; it becomes our anchor and involves us intimately in our experience.

We now hop around the corner to the JVP Animation Laboratories and savour a bit of high-tech Jerusalem, something you do not really expect. We view the Animation Lab and discuss the latest application being tried and tested here, called anyclip which will pull out any desired clip from hundreds of films by entering a mere word.

We are now driving outside Jerusalem, towards the Flam Boutique Winery. “Israel covers such a small area but has so many landscapes that a short ride seems to land you on almost another planet,” Sharon is saying, as we drive past ubiquitous olive groves and stone houses. With the strength and originality that I notice in most Jewish women, she has decided on a small detour that is not on our itinerary. Like errant children, but well pleased with ourselves, we cut through the Forest of Martyrs and its 20-foot-high memorial, the Scroll of Fire. This is not the greatest piece of art, Sharon admits of the copper monument created by artist Rapaport, depicting the Holocaust and the rebirth of a nation. But it is obviously close to her heart. The scroll, standing in the middle of nowhere, in tranquil surroundings, does speak of peace and harmony, something that this area has not been able to know much about.

Although sold mainly as kosher wines to a predominantly Jewish market at one time (and called ‘hammer’ wines because of the headaches they once gave), today wines from Israel can be found in supermarkets worldwide. Winemaking dates back to Biblical times in the Eastern Mediterranean but since the 1980s, the winemaking revolution began here in earnest. State-of-the-art technology and the planting of noble varieties, has put local wines in international goblets. Today, the Upper Gaililee, Golan Heights and Judean Hills are where the finest wines come from.

Flam Winery is among the most successful small wineries, or boutique winery as they call it. They are proud of their produce and conduct a tasting with great aplomb. I start out by actually sipping the mild liquid but progress to swirling and spitting as the flavours get deeper and my head starts feeling lighter. This is after a tour of the pretty winemaking centre reveals state-of-the-art equipment for making and fermenting and a cool climate-controlled cellar where the wine is stored to mature in casks. Having had no idea of wine from Israel, I am now convinced of its fruity and mellow tones and come away feeling that this could be the new idea that hits gourmet markets and personal tables. Not serving Israeli wine? Then you have not yet arrived!

Back in Jerusalem, we stretch our legs on Solomon Street, the main walking street that houses quaint shops from jewellery, pottery, Jewish artifacts and trinkets to interesting art galleries. The houses are built here as everywhere else, in Jerusalem stone (I read somewhere that you cannot build facades in any other material, by law) and the quaint balconies overlook cobbled streets, bustling with the orthodox in all-black as well as the trendy in faddish gear. David points out the ‘best’ local creperie, Babette, with a line of patient customers outside. The shopping street joins up with the Ben Yehuda Mall but we have little time to visit. We do get to make a 10-minute stop the next evening at Jerusalem Mall, Malcha. Israel’s largest shopping centre, housed in a beautifully designed architectural structure by David Azrieli, has a variety of jewellery shops, kosher dairy and meat restaurants, supermarket and pharmacy. Local fashion houses rub shoulders with international brands like Zara and Valentino and typical Jerusalem music shops and photographic shops abound.

DAY 2
Jerusalem, the Old City
We are driving along the old wall that more or less encircles the Old City of Jerusalem. Winding our way to the Mount of Olives which is a great place to start, with a spectacular view of the city, we discover ourselves in a traffic jam caused by a tourist bus hefting itself around a narrow lane. Everyone is screaming and agitated but soon sort themselves out and we are back on our way. The view is breathtaking and the wind whips around us like a banshee. The history of Jerusalem goes back to 4500 years BC and today it is the centre of the three monotheistic religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It is the place were Jesus was crucified, where Prophet Muhammad was sent to heaven and for the Jews, it is the site where the First Temple and Second Temple were built. Having breathed in the history of ages lying at our feet with the world’s holiest Jewish cemetery in the foreground, we wend our way down the hill on foot and Sharon makes another unscheduled stop – the Orthodox Church of Mary, which has been built in a cave. A service by Orthodox priests is underway and we are quiet in the dark, lit by lamps hanging from the hewn top and resounding with singing voices raised in prayer. This is surrealistic, like no church that I have ever been to. As the service ends, we follow the priests out and photographer, Ritam Banerjee, charged by the atmosphere, kneels and asks for a blessing, right there on the steps. He is thrilled to be obliged.

I now discover myself slightly dazed at the foot of the Mount of Olives, in the Garden of Gethsemane, yes the olive grove where Jesus was betrayed. The olive trees here date to 2000 years ago, and while the area is fenced off, urchin boys bearing branches, hustle these for a shekel each. I carry mine solemnly around, joining the strangely silent tourists and pilgrims who cannot help the emotional tears welling up. Did Jesus actually walk here? Did what we today label The Last Supper actually happen on this rough ground? I know that these are the questions that are uppermost in every person’s mind – the believers and non-believers. But then, in Jerusalem, which reveals layers of history that seem to peel off like an enormous onion, each step taken probably means something momentous, I ponder, as we walk into the adjoining Church of all Nations, so called due to the contributions made by many nations in its construction between 1919-1924. The presbytery contains a large fragment of the rock on which Jesus is supposed to have prayed the night before the Passion, today surrounded by a crown of thorns in wrought iron. This is indeed another ‘Jerusalem moment’ and I am not surprised to learn that every year there are visitors who succumb to the ‘Jerusalem Syndrome’ and imagine themselves the next saviour. We later admire the church’s frescoed façade brilliant in the afternoon sun and the view of the Eastern Wall of the City of Jerusalem.

Modern pilgrims and tourists come to Jerusalem to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, literally. The Via Dolorosa (The Way of The Cross) is the mile-long route through the Old City leading from the Antonia Fortress, where Jesus was condemned by Pontius Pilot, to Golgotha, the place of the crucifixion. This route is marked by 14 stations, at each of which, a chapel or marker depicts an incident in Jesus’ final mortal journey. The traditional site of Golgotha-Calvary is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Built in the 4th Cent CE and renovated by the Crusaders, this is the holiest Christian site where according to tradition, the Crucifixion, burial and ascension, took place.

To my surprise, the Via Dolorosa passes through a bustling Arab market with its undulating cobblestone streets passing busily under stone arches, lined with shops laden with artifacts. The newly trendy Arab headscarves in traditional and brilliant colours which have become a fashion statement in the East and West, blow in the gusty wind. Souvenir T-shirts with clever slogans, Arab jewellery, artifacts with certificates of authenticity, long robes and kaftans, Arabic sweets and breads, bakeries throng the thoroughfare. A moneychanger runs after me looking for business but is easily shrugged off. We bite into some sweet Iranian sweets in crinkly wrappers and smell the essence of rosewater. We stop at the Austrian Hospice, a hotel today and slither up to the terrace for a superb city view. Ritam almost hangs off the ledge in his excitement to capture the best panorama. Sharon informs us that the German Cafe at the Hospice serves the best apple strudel ever. But we have no time or stomach to indulge.

A visit to the Jerusalem Archaelogical Park and The Davidson Centre which is located within is a must. This park reveals the discoveries of Jerusalem during the Second Temple Period. At the foot of the Southern Wall of the Temple Mount, in the area known as the Ophel, visitors can climb the original steps of the Hulda Gates that lead to the Temple Mount. Highlights include a Herodian Street, huge fallen stones that are the only remains of the Western Wall, ritual baths, parts of a Byzantine residence and remains of the Umayyad Palaces. The Davidson Exhibition and Virtual Reconstruction Centre is an archaelogical tourist site exhibiting the history of the Temple Mount through an exhibition of archaelogical finds and computerised mediums. We catch part of the film Story of the Pilgrim, a reconstruction of the Herodian Temple Mount before its destruction.

The history of Temple Mount is fascinating and worthy of a quick recount. According to the Bible, at the command of God, Israelite King David built an altar near the rock around 1000 BC. His son Solomon realised his father’s desire to dedicate a Temple to the Lord in around 960 BC. It was destroyed in 586 BC when King Nebuchadrezzar sacked Jerusalem and exiled the Jews to Babylon. The Ark of the Covenant, enshrined in the Temple’s Holy of Holies, disappeared. In 10 BC, Herod the Great (Sharon’s favourite historical figure, she saw him as an eccentric and ugly genius) appointed by Rome as King of Judea, doubled the size of the Temple Mount. He dedicated a grand Limestone Temple which was a renovation of the Second Temple that the Jews had built 500 years earlier when they returned from exile. Jesus taught on the Temple Mount when he returned from exile one week before his death. In AD 70, the Roman army crushed a revolt here and torched the complex.

The Dome of the Rock stands today on this spot. It was built in AD 691, followed by the al-Aqsa Mosque. The rock is today venerated as the spot from which Muhammad ascended to heaven. Muslims conquered the Christian Byzantine rulers in 638 and began to build the Haram-al-Sharif, the Nobel Sanctuary, third holiest site in Islam.

The only fragment of the Great Temple that survived Roman destruction was the Western Wall or HaKotel HaMaaravi, in Hebrew. It was built to support the western side of the Temple Mount. These ancient stones form the most sacred site for Jewish people. Universally dubbed the ‘Weeping Wall’ I discover several languages floating around me as people from all over come here for prayer, redemption and renewal. I watch a young girl press a closely folded note into a crack in the wall, to wedge there with thousands more. Some lie on the floor and I am informed that these are collected and kept in a safe place. I look at this wall that seems so nondescript but commands such faith, having absorbed centuries of prayer. And I stand amazed that in this, the heart of The Promised Land, the Holy Land, that means so much to the three monotheistic religions, in one small area in the Old City of Jerusalem are three of the world’s holiest sites – the Western Wall venerated by the Jewish people, Islam’s Dome of the Rock and Christianity’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

DAY 3
The Dead Sea
Our bus is heading east on the highway out of Jerusalem and then we start moving south along the Dead Sea. Am I imagining it or is the highway gently sloping downwards? The markers at the side of the highway confirm this is so, we are driving towards the lowest point on the planet – 410 metres below sea level – and my popping ears attest to this. The landscape is sweeping desert with clumps of date trees, undulating hills and fantastic rock silhouettes. We stop at a lookout and see Jordan poised across this saltiest lake on earth and as the sun seems to move in front of our eyes, the shadows become shifty and beautiful.

We are on our way to the archaeological site of Masada, located on a high plateau overlooking the Dead Sea. A cable car carries us to the fortress-palace built by a Judean king in the late second century BC. This was embellished by King Herod in the first century BC and later, during the Roman siege of AD 66-74, it was defended to the death by Jewish rebels. The story goes (and those who have watched the Peter O’Toole film, will know already) that the Romans set up garrisons all around the fort and built a rampart to reach the fortress walls. We see the site of this on one side, and climb down three levels of steps built along the plateau edge to view Herod’s palace of which nothing remains but a balcony that affords a sweeping view of the area. We had already seen scant ruins of the bath house which had hot and cold water systems, purification baths, tiny bits of surviving murals and mosaic flooring. A high-tech museum recreates lifelike tableaux from earlier times with fragments of artifacts discovered on this site. The tale of Masada is preserved here forever.

Having spent more than our share of time at this fascinating site, we now head to the Ein Gedi Spa. It is said that Cleopatra, knowing of the healing and longevity-imparting properties of the minerals found in the Dead Sea, craved to be gifted this area by Mark Anthony, which apparently he did. The Dead Sea is famed to contain the highest concentration of minerals in the world. These have been harnessed by skincare companies in spa cosmetics and products that lay claim to revitalising the skin. Cleanse, detoxify and treat with products and treatments available at the spas. We tour the sulphur pools and mineral baths at the spa, filled with ‘healing’ waters from the Dead Sea and then take a bus down to the real McCoy – the Dead Sea itself. The high content of salt in the waters imparts a bobbing or floating sensation and apparently it would be extremely difficult to drown here, though there are lifeguards in evidence. A young family, covered in the ‘healing’ black mud, climbs onto the open bus. A dip in the briny waters makes them good as new, again.

DAY 4
Into the Bubble
I step out of the van onto the pavement and the camera lights hit me. Was I prepared for this? No! But perhaps I should have been, I tell myself later, as television cameras follow us through Tel Aviv. Since this is what Tel Aviv – the cultural and fun centre of Israel, aptly nicknamed ‘The Bubble’ or Ha-Buah – is all about.

At first sight, Tel Aviv, reminds me of my home city, Mumbai. A huge urban sprawl leading down to the sea with old and new buildings. And, like Mumbai, I discover that the city is indeed a ‘bubble’ in the larger context of the country. Founded in 1909 by the Zionists, today it is liberal in its thinking and modern in its outlook. It boasts restaurants and clubs many of which open their doors only after 10 p.m. Shops and boutiques that display creations by international labels and local. It boasts the Silicon Wadi that is a centre for technology. The Tayalet, or sea-front promenade, bustles through the day and night with cafes and restaurants. And while Tel Aviv means ‘Hill of Spring’, it has been built on desert and continues to expand into the desert. The historic heart is called The White City due to its collection of Bauhaus buildings with Art Deco and Mediterranean influences and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2003.

I am therefore thrilled to be meeting up with architect Amnon Rechter who belongs to one of the city’s foremost families. His grandfather and father built much of the city’s finest landmarks and streets. Ze’ev Rechter who arrived here in 1919 from Russia, fought with fellow modernists to build Bauhaus-inspired buildings to house Jewish immigrants. Amnon proudly leads us through a temporary exhibition of drawings and designs of these buildings, originals saved over the years. He explains to us that these were built on columns to provide shade and space for children and adults to play and hang out and had flat roofs for recreation, socialising and drying of clothes. This came to be known as the International Style and thanks to Amnon’s grandfather, Tel Aviv now has the largest concentration of Bauhaus-inspired buildings which today compete with tall blocks but continue to impart an airiness and lightness that is reflected in the city’s easygoing attitude.

Amnon leads us on a whistle-stop tour of city architectural highlights with a family history. His ‘Tel Aviv’ spirit is apparent in our first stop, which in fact has been designed by an architect friend. The Tel Aviv Renewal Port is exactly that – an old port, renewed. Shops, boutiques, restaurants and art works line the undulating boardwalk, an original touch reminiscent of sand dunes, perhaps. An exclusive women’s section, Comme Il Faut, proves interesting in its selection of shops including eclectic wear and a sex shop exclusively for women. Murals are fashioned entirely out of bras, appropriate for this corner of the port! We next visit the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Centre. Here the Opera House has been built by Amnon’s father while the Cameri Theatre adjoining it, has been added, in like spirit, by his son. This is a building without make-up, claims Amnan, who leaves the make-believe to actors on stage. Building materials have been left uncovered – concrete, rusted iron, wood.... He describes the foyer as ‘The Forest’ where tall iron ‘trunks’ are redolent of the forests of Shakespeare’s plays, The Tempest and Macbeth. He likes ‘intimate space’ he claims, not ‘large, open space’. The carpet has lines of modern hieroglyphic-like designs that again comment on elements of the building process. And yet the building remains unselfconscious and dovetails perfectly into the older edifice while adding immense dimensions of space as our tour backstage to the Green Room, reveals. We end with a stroll down the main Rothschild Avenue that forms the heart of the city. We stop at 13 Rothschild Boulevard donated to the city by its first Mayor, Meir Dizengoff, and where in 1948 Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel.

We now discover ourselves to be mini celebrities, gawked at and waved to by those who have watched us live on Channel 10 News. Lifestyle journalists from India, is the question we are asked as we wend our way through Tel Aviv’s oldest sector, Neve Sedek, built in the late 19th Century. We cross the square in front of the Suzanne Dellal Centre for Dance and theatre, soaking in the sun on a cold afternoon. This is one of the most fashionable and sought after areas in the city and retains its narrow streets and quaint houses which today harbour boutiques, fine jewellery stores, pottery shops and costume jewellery outlets. Gillian Golan-Saher, born into the jewellery business, is a consultant and wears no jewellery herself though she recognises pieces created by her father years ago. She finds that precious metal is less important with the city’s young buyers than fashion, leading to the use of various metals beside gold. Silver jewellery is big and the designs very different from anywhere else in the world. We wander through stores that custom-make jewellery, shops that display accessories made of lacquer and beads, customised bags with Beduin embroidery and lacquer bangles. Jewellers, Agas and Tamar, fashion necklaces and rings out of authentic Roman coins of bronze and gold; Sigal combines metal and leather to make distinctive pieces; Samy D. a famous creator of ceramics, adds real gold touches to his colours and shapes. Gillian has some of his pieces that were gifted to her at her wedding.

The larger Dizengoff Street presents an urban sprawl of shops. Anat displays original beaded jewellery, Emanuel is a favourite shop for designer bags and the most fascinating I discover is a small outlet called Dori C Sengeri. The ‘jeweller’ herself appears, flamboyant and colourful with her own creations and leads us off to her workshop where women intricately sew, stick and machine stones, thread, beads, bits of fabric and leather, even brooches discovered at the flea market, into pieces of fascinating jewellery. Dori is right when she maintains that this is, in fact, a form of art. This is statement jewellery at its best, worn to be noticed anywhere in the world. And organic, to boot!

Bracha Baron, a boutique that displays racks of clothes in neutral colours that can be layered any which way and offers a fashionable twist in its wearing, I am told, is a staple among stylish working women. Very eclectic and wildly stylish is Josef, one of the country’s top designers. This season, he confides, all his clothes are in black and grey, gaining inspiration from the shadow. Somewhat punky looking himself, Josef started out from nothing to become Israel’s fashion icon. Everything inspires him, he informs me in halting English – movies, art, women in the street....

Later, at the boutique-style Montifeoury Hotel, we come face-to-face with the owner Mati Brodo’s rather disturbing art collection, hung outside rooms designed like libraries, with large bookshelves holding offerings in Hebrew, English, French and Russian. Most of his artwork is political and most of the nuances I fear are lost on me. Mati claims that he has adopted contemporary art as his religion. His hotel is housed in an eclectic-style building with no name outside, in keeping with his ‘ideology’. He has designed and furnished it himself, with help from his wife. The night before, he spent partying at his nightclub and the city’s latest trend and rage, Rothschild 12, with Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino. It was quite a night I figure from the excitement on his face and while the evening is still very young by Tel Aviv standards and Mati is all set to spend another evening out, with his visitors from India, we are spoilsports and go home instead. Not in the spirit of Tel Aviv, at all.

DAY 5
Jaffa
We dump our bus and walk along the Tayelet, cool sea breeze in our faces, watching surfers crest the waves of the Mediterranean. At the very end, we enter the ancient Arab port of Jaffa, one of the oldest ports in the world, mentioned in the Bible. Jaffa’s ancient sandstone buildings seem to tumble over each other up the hill. We walk around the Clock Tower Square, lined with shops and antique sellers. There is much happening here in the way of restoration and renovation. An old Turkish prison is being converted into a luxury hotel while the former train station is being converted into a shelter for artists. The ancient port too is being transformed. We walk along the city’s ramparts, through quaint tunnels that house artists’ shops, all perfectly restored and yet faithful to their original silhouettes.

And as the light fades, we witness a Mayumana show at their special theatre in Jaffa. Founded in 1996, this group ‘embraces the joy of artistic creation, gathering multi-cultural performers from different disciplines to develop a unique theatrical language based on personal skills, rhythm, visuals, dance and music’. I’m a lion in the water/ Let us all be one with change/ frames of time/ The sand is falling… sing the acoustic musicians and I feel a sense of peace creep over me and I send up a prayer for this harmony to be manifest, everywhere.

MUST-VISIT MUSEUM

A whippingly windy day turns dark and heavy with rain and reflects our mood as we enter the Yad Vashaem Holocaust Martyr’s and Heroes Museum, a must-visit in Jerusalem. Situated on Jerusalem’s Mount of Remembrance, Yad Vashem’s 45-acre campus includes museums, outdoor monuments, memorials, garden sculptures and world-class research and education centres, all intent on a meaningful and dynamic commemoration of the Holocaust and its victims. We have time only for a quick tour (normally give yourself from one-and-a-half to three hours) of the Holocaust History Museum, which tells the story of the Holocaust from a Jewish perspective, using authentic artifacts including testimonies, photographs, film clips, works of art and music collected by Yad Vashem over the last 50 years.

For the museum, internationally renowned architect Moshe Safdie, has designed a prism-like triangular structure which penetrates or tunnels through the mountain with both ends dramatically cantilevering into the open air. The route through the museum is marked from the centre and branches into ‘chapters’ on either side, while maintaining an uninterrupted view between the two ends of the prism. I enter and am enthralled by Living Landscapes a video art display by artist Michal Rovner, being projected onto the triangular wall, using archival film footage and photographs of the Jewish world before the Holocaust. The next ‘installation’ is a collection of half-burnt photos and personal documents found in the Klooga Concentration camp. At the end, the Hall of Names contains the archives of the names of Jews who perished in the Holocaust. I burst out into the evening light again and a magnificent panoramic view of Jerusalem, and it is as if life is affirming itself and aligning with hope rather than despair.

OF FALAFAL AND HAUTE CUISINE
Discover some mouthwatering immigrant cuisine at bustling cafes and restaurants

We are at Shmil at the Lab, a bistro located in a warehouse that was part of the old Jerusalem train station. The simple décor, with retro ’70s touches and a fireplace, pays homage to the historical building. Chef and owner, Shmil Holland, plies us personally with a Mediterranean selection of dishes with Eastern European influences. His repertoire is different, fresh and kosher. “When we say Israeli food, we mean something different for everyone,” he says. “For me, it is the food of memories.” Shmil’s parents came from Poland and his cuisine is a mix of the slow cooking traditions of Eastern Europe mixed with the freshness of vegetables, tomatoes and olive oils from the Mediterranean. We dig into platters of smoked salmon with blinis, crostini with mushrooms, creplach which he describes as a Jewish ravioli stuffed with potato and the pièce de résistance, a salad of wild rice, barley and mushrooms that is a personal interpretation of the kasha dishes of Eastern Europe. “This is not fusion,” he clarifies. “The dishes exist side by side.”

Tel Aviv’s Tazduro restaurant has an open-air patio with wrought iron tables and we settle here for breakfast, the meal that the city loves. The elegant Janna Gur, publisher and chief editor of popular gastro magazine Al Hashulchan (On the Table) is busy ordering the morning feast. “What has happened here in Israel in the last 20 years, has been unprecedented,” she says. “Earlier, Israelis felt that the concept of good food was frivolous; survival was more important. Twenty years ago, people had a craving for normalcy – we didn’t want to be soldiers all the time.” From a desert culture, the country today has discovered the joys of good food. Modern Israelis are in search of the best that the world has to offer and Tel Aviv, founded by ascetic Zionists, is today a city of hedonists. “You can always have great food here, even at 3 a.m.,” Janna informs.

History has had an important bearing on Israel’s food culture. “During the Diaspora, wherever Jews settled, they created their own cuisine because of kosher rules, because of the Sabbath and the elaborate food cooked for holidays and during shiba, the traditional seven days of mourning. Jews were traders and moved around a lot – they introduced marzipan to Italian cooking; British fish and chips arrived with Jewish fishmongers who lived in the poorer areas. Thirty to 40 different ethnic groups arrived here starting from the beginning of the 20th century and each one brought their own cooking tradition. Besides, in Israel cross marriages are usual – I am Polish, my husband is Czech and I learnt cooking from my neighbour from Egypt,” Janna tells me. And so traditional Jewish dishes like gefilte, a stuffed fish in hot sauce and chreime, a dish served on Friday nights, were augmented by North African couscous and Hungarian goulash.

“Even before we had the food culture, we had the Israeli breakfast,” Janna is now saying. Israelis love to eat salad for breakfast, a tradition that started on the kibbutz where workers back hungry from early mornings at the fields, chopped up the fresh vegetables that were easily available. But now the table is groaning with a very European bread basket; a very traditional shakshuka which is basically eggs cooked over a tomato mix; eggs cooked on Swiss chard and spinach; on mushrooms and with asparagus. Chef Joseph Mesilati’s signature salad with yogurt sauce is also in evidence. The coffee is thick and wonderfully aromatic . This is indeed ‘breakfast like a king’.

Olia on Frishman Street, is a boutique that specialises exclusively in olive products. Reminiscent of a French wine tasting, we taste 12 different types of olive oils in little plastic cups, ranging from the regional Soury variety to specialty genres indigenous to European cultures but today home to Israel as well. Despite the ubiquitous olive tree in this area, Israelis did not traditionally use olive oil. It was the fashion of the Mediterranean diet that opened their eyes to this indigenous product. Today, olive oil boutiques are the new gastro rage and every chef has his own favourite type, for salad or for cooking.

I am following Tel Aviv’s popular young chef, Daniel Zach, owner of Carmella Bistro, through the amazing colours of the local Carmel market, where he shops daily. “I like to smell rain and sand on the product,” he maintains. “I get more excited to see a local tomato than a lobster.” A mix of the exotic and local produce are available here. Serell, dragon fruit and prickly pear are heaped on wooden stands. (I am informed that the prickly pear, a cactus fruit, is a symbol of born Israelis – prickly from the outside, soft inside.) I get a falafel from a local stall and fill it additionally with an entire boiled egg, fried eggplant (a popular dish here) and amba, a spicy mango pickle. The city is big on street food and the falafel is today rivalled in popularity by hummus, a dip that formed part of the mezze table in Damascus and Beirut and the shawarma from Turkey. “Traditional food becomes street food becomes restaurant food,” says Janna, citing the example of the sabikh, a sandwich combination that started out with Iraqi Jews for Saturday breakfast and that is today a popular restaurant food.

Carmella dishes up fine gastro fare, Daniel bringing his German influence to the kitchen. A signature herb salad, fish carpaccio, kalamari in yogurt sauce and beef in silan (date honey), sea bream with parmesan make for fabulous fare. The chef appears for dessert to whip up organic tahini and silan into a dessert dip, traditionally served with dates. “I am trying to be honest with my cuisine,” he says. “I will do nothing because it is fashionable which sometimes makes me not as modern as I would like.” But we are unanimous in our appreciation of his culinary offerings and as Janna tells us the story of the traditional Jewish mother who threatened suicide because her son threatened to cook, I realise that Israel has indeed discovered the joy of food.

TWO AUTHORS

In Jerusalem, I meet up with two women authors who are Israel’s current reading fashion

Anjelika restaurant in Jerusalem is quiet and when we enter she is already waiting. In stylish western clothes, author Mira Magen could be any global lady in an international eatery. I discover however that the author of ‘almost’ seven books in Hebrew, was born in an orthodox family. An air of sadness seems to hang around her, though this could be her general thoughtfulness. Her voice is soft as she says: “I write about life of course. My own life is led between the religious world and non-religious world. It is not simple. I wear these trousers; I would not dare wear them to my parents’ house. I spent my childhood in the religious world; it was a certain way of bringing up children.”

However, today, Mira’s novels appeal to the new generation of readers who, in the last 10 years or so, are demanding books that relate to their own lives. Mira began writing when she was a nurse at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. “I worked there for eight years and while I was working, I wrote at home. It was an antithesis to real life in the hospital. I had many difficult questions to ask God and at one time I was at a crossroads to decide whether to stay at the hospital or leave. The fiction balanced my real life. I cannot change destiny but I can change destiny in my book. I decided to stay at the hospital.”

Today, her novels have been translated into several languages. Her liberal ideas, however, may not be acceptable to everyone. Some members of her family will not allow her books into their homes; her brother will not read any of them. But, her mother stands by her. “We made a decision not to discuss politics since their views and mine are opposite.” Mira’s books are not easy reading but rather thought provoking and she is possessive of her creations. “The characters in my books are always with me. They are all my sons. Writing completes life,” she whispers.

On another cold evening, in a cosy individual room at the La-Guta restaurant, we spend a lively and contemplative evening with Shifra Horn, author of several books of fiction, non-fiction and a children’s book. This award-winning writer has lived in Japan, New Zealand and Israel. She loves India, she tells us, and spent a month in Varanasi. She is a fan of Indian food and her son’s home is totally Indian in its décor, even displaying a collection of Ganeshas. Shifra has an innate energy, a certain happiness despite the fact that she spent two years in hospital recently, battling illness.

We discuss that Israelis love to read books. She has an enormous library and dozens of Indian authors translated into Hebrew. Her own books have been translated into English, French, Dutch, German, Greek, Estonian, Mandarin and Turkish, which she says is like “kissing someone with a handkerchief on the mouth”. She is a self-confessed chocoholic who pecks at the dinner but attacks the dessert with gusto. And after, she slips into a beautiful black coat that warns us that winter is almost here.

FAR AND AWAY

Getting there
El Al has the only direct flight to Ben Gurian Airport which connects to both Jerusalem and Tel Aviv (Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays). Turkish Airlines flies via Istanbul and Royal Jordanian twice a week.

Currency
The Israeli currency is the New Israeli Shekel (NIS). One shekel is divided into 100 agorot.

Shops
In major cities, shops are open from 9.00 a.m. until 7 p.m. Sunday through Thursday. The large shopping malls have more flexible hours. Best time to visit Most of the year is hot and sunny; winters can get cold.

Take-home buys
Gold jewellery, lacquer and beaded jewellery, ceramics, wine, local fashion, international brands, religious souvenirs, Jewish memorabilia.

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