Food, a Road Trip and Friends

I was thinking about writing something, but I cant remember what I was thinking of writing. I was positive it had something to do with food, a road trip and friends, so here goes.

I woke up, confused, not sure where I was. Staggering out of the car into the freezing cold, I noticed we were in a gas station. I looked at my watch and realized I had been sleeping for at least the past eight hours, and really needed to pee. Once I had answered the call of nature, I headed back to the car and slept until I was awoken by the smell of fresh deep fried chicken. That was a very strange trip to Washington DC and Silverspring, Maryland. It was made stranger still by the many police stops while driving back to Canada, it seems that I was in the back sleeping each time and my friend was driving, apparently just a bit too fast. But this story was not about any of those things, in fact, it’s the story of a completely different road trip.

In this completely different story, I was with a bunch of friends in New York on a road trip. One of my friends, being very into food and teenage hi-jinx, stopped into a popular restaurant and ordered us all food. While we were waiting, he dumped the toppings and condiments intended for several hundred into his cooler and we spent the next four days eating relish and pickled onions.

It does not seem like that’s what I was thinking of either. I guess I can try one last time to jog my old tired memory into the right story.

There was this one time I was fishing with a friend in the boat a couple of kilometers downriver from the small Northern town my family was living in at the time. After an hour or so of trolling for bites, the engine suddenly spluttered and stopped. We tried pumping the gas, kicking the engine, praying for a miracle, but nothing worked and we were stuck, floating in the middle of a small lake. My friend suddenly went into panic mode and started talking about living of the land, Tom Hanks in Castaway, cannibalism, and would anyone ever rescue us. I pointed out we could row back, or for that matter, get out and walk along the shore for twenty minutes to get home. I think that just made him panic more. I gave the engine one last kick and tried to start it, and shockingly it sprang to life and we were saved. Heading back to the town we were just on time for dinner and I was not even a bit hungry.

Yemenite breakfast

Some days you just wake up and feel like an Israeli, or at least pretend to feel like one. This morning I had two fried melawach smothered in cheeses, hard boiled egg and schug (extremely hot pepper sauce). According to Mr. Wiki, Malawach or malawah is a Yemeni-Jewish bread. Resembling a crepe, malawach is made up of hundreds of thin pancake layers. It is usually fried. It was excellent, definitely a change from cereal and milk, French toast and pancakes. I am usually not much of a breakfast person, but I figured I would give something new a try. Using Scott’s recipe, I covered them in spread-able Bulgarian cheese, Labeneh and Zatar. They also got a liberal spread of red and green schug, I am really feeling Yemenite this morning.

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.

Kubah Soup Recipe

Someone searched Google for “Kubah Soup Recipe” and got my blog. I feel bad that I don’t actually have one posted, so here is my recommendation where to get some. One of the best things at my favorite Yemenite restaurant, Marvad HaKisamim (The Magic Carpet) is the Kubah. There are many other amazing dishes; I would of course recommend the shipudim (chicken/meat on a stick) and the salad platters. Kubah served on a plate as a side dish is normally deep fried, it’s a small pocket (or cone) of fried dough, stuffed with ground beef and pine nuts. The kubah in soup is usually boiled instead of fried, and slightly rounder, resembling a matza ball. In Israel, you can pick up frozen packages of kubah ready to drop into any dish.

My Dad and I used to go to their old Jerusalem location fifteen years ago, since then it has gone from being a well kept secret to a Jerusalem landmark. The food is excellent and they have recently opened several new branches around the city. I have been with a number of visitors as well as friends from Israel, and everyone loves the place. I like the huge amounts of salads, choices and value. It’s really authentic; the bread is baked fresh and melts in your mouth. For a review and a coupon, click here: http://eluna.com/rest/Marvad.asp?mumu=251

I don’t have a recipe for the perfect kubah, but eating it at Marvad is better than making it at home.