Cultural Differences

There's a spice blend here called Hawaij, which is available in a soup-type and in a coffee-type.

(Oh! Speaking of which, Turkish coffee comes in three types of packaging here: red [regular], green [with cardammom], and other [decaf]. People are slightly evil.)

Years and years ago, I bought some hawaij for Coffee, because it smelled nice. Eventually, I started using it instead of sugar. Coffee with hawaij tastes good, similar to pumpkin spice coffee. This is not shocking, as Wikipedia lists possible ingredients of coffee-hawaij as aniseeds (licorice), fennel seeds (licorice), ginger, cardamom, cloves, and cinnamon . Wiki also says "Although it is primarily used in brewing coffee, it is also used in desserts [and] cakes." So yeah, clearly, this is the Middle-Eastern version of a pumpkin spice blend. 

I am going through this stuff so slowly and I enjoy it so much that I donated half-a-container to the kitchen in my office. This way, I can drink my instant coffee with yummy spices, and other people can also enjoy the goodness. 

However, it turns out that the only thing other people can enjoy is a giggle at my expense. Apparently, in Israel, Pumpkin-Spice coffee is not an autumnal beverage enjoyed mainly by women. Here, Hawaij-flavored coffee is strictly for old Yemenite men. 

Whatever.

Israeli Humor

I've mentioned before that Israelis don't pun nearly as much as I expect. 

What I forgot to point out, though, is that Israelis play with psukim, instead. Here's a WhatsApp message  that we got from BSM's teacher this morning:

בוקר טוב!
א גזינטע ווינטער לכולם 🤗
ישנה תופעה מטרידה של שכחת סידורים כרונית בכיתה!
אבקש מההורים היקרים לוודא את קיומו של סידור בנם, ולשלחו אחר כבוד בתיקו, ויקויים בנו מקרא שכתוב ״שבו האובדים מארץ האשור והנדחים מארץ מצרים״…
תודה!

Which translates as:

Good Morning!
A Healthy Winter to everyone 🤗
There is a disturbing occurrence in the class of chronically forgetting siddurim!
I respectfully request that the parents verify the existence of their son's siddur, and send him another one in his backpack. May we experience the fulfillment of the verse, in which it is written "The lost will return from the land of Assyria and the outcasts from the land of Egypt"...
Thanks!

Worth the Salt

We ate lunch at a friend's house a few weeks ago, and they taught us that your standard 2 shekel/kg salt available in a paper packet in every Israeli grocery store does not have any added iodine.

Naturally, iodized salt is a bit more expensive, but even at 10 shekel/kg, (which includes a sturdy plastic tub for easy storage) it's hardly worth importing the stuff. Still, being me, I've been shopping around.

Yesterday, I finalized my purchase at 6 shekel/kg in a mid-level cardboard container, and we once again have iodized salt in our house.

Naturally, now I need to figure out what to do with the unopened packet of non-iodized salt. Never fear, I'll probably use it for the kids' crafts.  

Fall has Arrived

I was helping Husbinator take down schach from the sukkah last night, when I felt something squishy underfoot. My initial thought was maybe it was just dropped food, but I was right to be pessimistic. 

As I know from years of gan, signs of autumn include nachlielis (White Wagtail birds), falling leaves, wind, and... snails. And snails include slugs. ICK!