Rosh Hashanah-Food, Friends and Family

This year I hosted Rosh Hashanah for both friends and family, with each guest contributing to the festive table.  Like many mixed Israeli families, the menu centered on both Sephardic and Ashkenazi delicacies such as aromatic Moroccan chicken flavored with cinnamon, saffron and dried fruits which my Polish mother-in-law surprised us with as well as golden chicken soup with kreplach, a regular during the holidays.  I made meatballs with olives and preserved lemons and a variety of small dishes such as Kurdish stuffed grape leaves, roasted pepper salad, beet salad and fatayer, a Palestinian pastry stuffed with spinach.  My neighbor brought the drinks and coriander and grated carrot salad and finally Noah, my sister-in-law made the deserts, lovely stuffed crepes and honey muffins, finishing the meal on a sweet note.

It took me a full day to digest it all, sprawled on the sofa like a sloth and I didn’t even think of getting up until the second day. In fact I would have probably stayed in the same slouched on the couch position if my best friend, Yael, didn’t call to ask if we wanted to get together. After a slow start, we eventually were on our way to meet them at the Sataf, an interesting agricultural and archeological site with remnants of a small Palestinian village which existed there before 1948. Now it is used to demonstrate ancient agricultural practices of terrace farming using only sweat and brawn or farm animals to till the land.  The plots are irrigated using the local springs, Ain Sataf and Ain Bikura by underground tunnels which my boys crawled into to cool off.

There are pomegranates, carob, figs, almonds, bay and ancient olive trees with branches laden with ripening fruit. Best of all, there was a downpour in the middle of our walk and I thought this was a wonderful and hilarious way to start the New Year. Why hilarious? Like a flock of sheep all the Israeli’s immediately ran for cover under a very bare poplar tree looking ridiculous and getting as wet as we were.

After our walk we drove nearby to Shai Seltzer’s goat dairy for cheese tasting while the younger kids enjoyed watching the goats being herded into their enclosures. Abigail and Alon, both ten and developing foodies did not hesitate to taste even the moldiest looking cheese and discussed their merits between them;

“I like the Tamar cheese, but the soft charcoal cheese is also good”

“Yes, but the no name cheese is the best, it’s not as hard as the Bikurim”

I told them they should do a grape juice and cheese evening which at this age was received with embarrassed smiles.

At Abu Shukri's Hummus Restaurant

For a completely flip side of that we then headed to Abu Gosh for lunch where we  stopped at Abu Shukri’s to buy hummus, baba ganoush, salad, falafel and fresh pita to eat at our friends house. The rest of the day was spent lounging around while the kids played in the tree house and stole chocolate candies which our friends naively left unattended for our boys to swipe.

I’d say this was a perfect way to spend the holidays, outside and enjoying the diversity of what Israel has to offer. Shana Tova!