Home Cooking

  
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Mahane Yehuda is about a 15 minute walk from our apartment. Now that we have figured out how to operate the stovetop and little oven, and have worked a plan to keep things cold in spite of the defunct refrigerator, we are in business preparing simple meals.

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So far, for our breakfasts we have prepared a combination of the following: Israeli salad, oranges, figs, cheese, eggs, pecans, labeneh, hummus, and pita bread. We spread labeneh and hummus on pita bread and and also top it with Israeli salad.

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The first decent dinner we prepared was Israeli farm-raised tilapia. This is sometimes called St. Peter's fish. I have been told that it used to be harvested from the Sea of Galilee (known here as the Kinneret) but due to the decreasing water level commercial fishing has been suspended. At the market, some tilapia is black and some is orange-yellow; we have tried both. The fishmonger said the yellow-orange was milder than the black, though we could detect no difference. He filleted it for us. We prepared some simple vegetables (also purchased at Mahane Yehuda) - eggplant, garlic, onions, bell peppers, broccoli - all cooked with an Israeli spice blend. It was a very healthy and delicious meal.

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We are also happy to report that we have had no intestinal discomfort, as has happened before when we have visited foreign countries. I have opted to not clean the vegetables with solution, hoping our bodies would adjust to the food. So far so good. We do use lemon juice to purify the fish and lemon is an ingredient in the Israeli Salad, so I suppose that also helps keep tummy pests at bay.