The trifecta

After months, weeks and days of waiting it’s finally here. It’s a trifecta event, Chanukah, Shira’s birthday, and my army induction.

To celebrate Shira's birthday we are going to Papagaio tonight to eat several cows’ worth of meat with family. Shira's middle name is literally Chanukah, which makes it all the more special. Chanukah is Israel is amazing, walking down the street last night, you can just smell the latkes and sufganiot smell everywhere. It's going to be great to get out with everyone tonight; I need to limit the amount of meat I eat so I am OK tomorrow in the army.

Tomorrow morning I will be joining the IDF, the first one in my family to do so. I guess by the time I finish my service, my Hebrew should improve to the point that people no longer ask me about my accent. Over the past year quite a number of people have asked me if I am French, perhaps it’s the Canadian Hebrew accent. As far as the army, I should be somewhere in the military for six to eight months. The great thing about having the armed forces all in one branch is that I could end up in the army, navy, air force or any number of other places. Since I am an old out of shape shlav bet (second stage, condensed service for people older than 18) guy, I have a feeling its not going to be glamorous, but that’s all part of the fun. One of the exciting things about Israel is meeting new people from all over the world and experiencing so many cultures. The melting pot in Israel, the commonality everyone has is in the army and I am excited to get the adventure underway.

I don’t know where I’ll be or what I will be doing, but I am sure it’s going to be interesting. I do know that I will be in basic training for a month, probably in Michveh Alon, but I am not yet sure. From what I understand, I report in Jerusalem tomorrow morning, and from there everyone heads to Bakum (the main processing base) near Tel Aviv for in processing. Shots, x-rays, pictures, uniforms, equipment, questionnaires, and much more follow at Bakum before I go on to my basic training base and a tent. That’s about all I know at this point. I will post updates as I get to access to the computer; I hope to keep notes as I go along. From what I understand, I cant post any specifics while I am serving, more on that later.

Thank you so much to everyone for their thoughts, prayers, cookies and candy, keep ‘em coming, I really appreciate all the support.

Sufganiot explained

My friend Sarah recently asked me about when people in Israel start eating sufganiot (jelly doughnuts) to celebrate Chanukah. Here is a slightly more detailed explanation of what we eat, why, and when.

Back in North America, it’s typical to eat latkes, or fried potato pancakes. The miracle of Chanukah was that the oil in the temple burned for eight days, and to commemorate the special oil, we deep fry everything. Latkes are usually eaten with a variety of condiments, each family having their own tradition. It ranges from your basic apple sauce to sour cream or ketchup. I am sure there are die hard Canadians who have their latkes with a liberal drenching of maple syrup.

Here in Israel, the national Chanukah food is sufganiot, or as I call them, sufis. Unlike in North America, we don’t just have Chanukah where one eats greasy fried food, we have Chanukah season. Bakers wanting to try out their machinery and deep fryers start cranking out fresh doughnuts months in advance. I think I had my first sufi of the season about three months ago, and its still two weeks to Chanukah. When you walk into the corned market and get a whiff of the deep fried powered sugar covered goodness, you get the feeling Chanukah is right around the corner.

For many years the only flavors available were raspberry or strawberry jam filling for the more expensive sufis, the cheaper ones had a generic red goop. I am sure the red goop comes from the same factory where they make petel or Israeli bug juice mix, but that’s a whole different story. Not wanting to be behind the times, I am sure some enterprising Israeli baker visited a Krispy Kreme in the States and saw the multitude of jelly stuffings. He then decided to bring some of the shmaltzy goodness back home. You can still get cheap (2 shekel) red goop doughnuts and a number of mid level jams and fillings. However, there days at many bakeries around the country, you can now get crème and caramel, butterscotch and chocolate dipped. They also have whip cream filled and topped and I have even seen a halva sufi, a simply deadly combination (with a calorie count in the low thousands).

So while we now have many choices, we don’t yet have a Chanukah tradition of dressing up like a Macabee while eating our Chanukah sufganiot, or while playing driedel. I think Sarah is on to something; we should have a recreation Chanukah, and give everyone lots of free food. I think it could be the best festival, ever.

Happy December

December is finally here, and it’s going to be a great month. Among the many events happening this month: my army enlistment day, Shira’s birthday, Chanukah and of course, the advent calendar on NeoPets.

I didn’t know what the advent calendar really was until one of my friends from the UK told me that she was excited about the chocolate and gifts one gets in December from the advent calendar. Thinking she was referring to the NeoPets advent calendar which gives free items every day during December, I told her how my NeoPet, HelenDixon, now has over a million neopoints and has been looking forward to December all year long. It was a bit of cultural miscommunication, and after a bunch of emails back and forth, me figured it all out.

If you have no idea what NeoPets is, don’t worry, neither did I. I was introduced to it by my seven year old sister Emunah about a year and a half ago. Since then, I have perfected my neopoints earning strategies and wasted an endless amount of time on the site. The games are addictive, you can collect endless items, and there is a whole community of people out there playing all the time. It’s amazing how a site that appeals to kids holds the same fascination for adults as well. It’s hard to describe the allure and the endless places in Neopia for you to explore. I think the best way to understand it all is to try it out for yourself. You can sign up for an account here.

My Neopet, HelenDixon, is named after my friend Helen Dixon who I met at the Tel Rehov excavation in 2005. She is from Georgia, always has a story, and is a wonderful person to be around. She has long red hair which was the natural inspiration for my red neopet. As Helen puts it, she has the perfect name to run for President because it looks great on a campaign poster. It’s a great looking name because it has five letters and five letters and has a memorable ring. I am sure when she grows up; the world will need a US President fluent in ancient languages.

Back to advent calendars, I did a little research and was told my Mr. Wiki the true meaning on advent calendars here.

In short, the traditional calendar consists of two pieces of cardboard on top of each other. Twenty four doors are cut out in the top layer, with one door being opened every day, from December 1 to December 24. Many calendars have been adapted by merchandisers and manufacturers to include a piece of chocolate or a sweet behind each compartment, aimed at children.

I always thought that while everyone just had the one day of Christmas, we had eight days of Chanukah. Now it seems that some people have a whole month of chocolate and presents. I think we should start a movement to make an entire holiday season, say half a year, with presents, chocolate and school vacation. Although now that I think about it, when I was growing up we had to go to school on Chanukah, and I am sure a candy season would not be that good for anyone’s teeth.

I think Ill stick with the traditional Chanukah, where we take everything and deep fry it.

Chanukah Math

In Israel, we do Chanukah a little differently than everywhere else. Our dreidels have a different letter, and Israeli’s don’t get down with the latkes, rather its sufganiot (jelly doughnuts). While latkes can be eaten with sour cream, apple sauce or ketchup, in Israel sufganiot are stuffed with everything from jam to cream, caramel, and chocolate fudge. For good measure, most sufganiot are covered with a liberal dousing of powered sugar.

My sister told me that since the army gives them to soldiers, and I am enlisting on Chanukah, I should try to make it worth my while. If it wasn’t for me wanting to go to the army for patriotic, Zionistic, or nationalistic reasons, perhaps service for food would be an interesting concept. I signed up looking forward to the real army experience; I think it’s going to make for some great stories. However, say someone did sign up to break even through eating army food.

Here is my calculation. The average plain jelly sufgania sells for about 2-3 shekels (which is about 25-30 cents). Assuming an average monthly salary in Israel of $1462 or 6300 shekels, you would have to eat about three thousand doughnuts. Factor in the salary from the army and multiply by the number of months you have to serve in Shlav Bet (second stage) and account for the other services the army pays for like food, accommodation and transportation. According to my calculations, you would have to eat about 10,800 sufganiot to break even with the army over the course of six months in comparison to the average salary.

In my particular situation however, the only problem is, I am starting my army service on the fourth night of Chanukah, leaving only four days to eat 10,800 jelly doughnuts. Accounting for sleep and bathroom breaks, that totals up to a whopping 175 doughnuts an hour for four straight days!

I guess I will go back to dreaming up loof recipes and take it easy this Chanukah.