Tea with The Queen

Village square in Provence, France

The bistro was located in old Mouans-Sartoux village center. Like all old villages in the area it was medieval with a modern twist. We were given a table on the porch under a huge plane tree. We found the scenery to be very charming and although it was August the weather was bearable. There were the five of us: my dear husband, me and our three children. My youngest son sat in his stroller but the girls sat at the table and couldn't keep their mouth shut for a millisecond.

 While waiting for the food we ordered I pointed out to my eldest that the French family next to us has very quiet kids. 

"Of course they are" she examined them scornfully; "they get beat up every day when they come home from school."

The remark summarizes precisely my daughters' views on how to bring up well-mannered children.

Israeli kids don't have table manners. It is an unfortunate fact that doesn't help build my country's reputation in the civilized world. I must confess that as a born and bred Israeli my table manners are hardly polished. My parents really tried to bring up well-mannered children but failed miserably as I am failing now.  When my kids sit at the table, well the truth is that they hardly sit. They fidget and move and squirm. They always have very important things to fight about when food is served; usually the fight is very loud. Once they finish their meal they jump off the chair and have to run around, if we're in a restaurant we try really hard that they won't run into the poor waiters, we tend to sit outside so they will have space. Don't let me forget  the commentary they always make  either on the food, or the surroundings or the people. The word "yack" is very popular, and it's pronounced very loudly.

The thing is I hear myself saying time and again all the sentences I heard from my parents: "Sit straight!", "Don't shout!", "Stop running!", and the number one of all times: "Don't say yack on food!" but to no avail. We acknowledge the fact that we are very poor in disciplining our offspring. But I must admit that deep down inside I'm rather happy they are such free spirited individuals, loud and opinionated, not docile and placid as the French kids we saw.

I had already come to term with the idea that my kids and I won't be invited to tea with The Queen. 

Cheers! Celebrating at a bistro in Provence.

P.S. A few months ago a very talented Israeli writer Rutu Modan wrote a children's book on the matter, highly recommended to Hebrew reading parents. 

Winter in the Desert

Look at my DH taking pictures of the lovely view of Nitzana Hillocks near the Egyptian border. It is a beautiful area that we visited for the first time this year in our annual winter desert vacation. 

This is the third year we are heading south of Israel in January, when the heat is bearable for some hiking and  relaxing.  We stay just for the weekend, at the same hotel in Mitzpe-Ramon where we go out to our various excursions exploring the desert. The small quiet town of Mitzpe-Ramon sits on the edges of the Ramon Crater (Maktesh Ramon), a worldwide unique geological phenomenon and a great spot for family treks.

 Photos from 3 winters in the Negev area including ibexes, fossils, birds and great view.

 The desert provides the best opportunities for getting away and really reconnect with your family, yourself and of course nature in all its beauty. 

My kids  love these annual getaways. A weekend without TV but with a lot of birds, lizards and of course many ibexes (local mountain goats). Whenever we hike in the desert we meet one or more ibex and my kids are convinced it's all because of me, that I have a special bond with those animals since ibex in Hebrew is Yael.

3 winters of girls climbing on hills and trees.

This post is mainly about pictures, of family and nature. Going out with my favorite people on Earth to a place that might seem blank and lifeless but actually is full of adventure is one of my favorite things in the world.

How to bring up a hiker.

Indiana Jones style family in the old Nabbatinan city of Nitzana

Birthday celebration gluten-free

Well, we're now in the midst of winter, not a very harsh one I'll admit but still finally we have a  great weather. The end of the year and the beginning of the new one is a time for many birthdays of both family and friends. These events echo the birthdays we celebrate at the end of summer of other family members. Since we're partying I was reminded of the great gluten-free cake I made for my eldest birthday. Hope you'll enjoy it.

Summer is when dozens of farewell parties at school and other places are celebrated. And since parties mean food, as a celiac family we need to be prepared.  In our household, summertime is among many other things, birthday time because both my daughters were born in the height of summer.  Each year there is a whole festival: A party with the class and with the family, very specific present requests and of course for each event a candle lit birthday cake.

So when my gluten-free daughter is invited to any of the mentioned festivities we usually prepare her own dessert (a piece of gluten-free cake I make or buy) and because she’s very mature and responsible she sticks to munching potato chips and pop-corn, staying away from the pizza and hotdog in a roll. I must admit that once in a long while a conscientious parent from the class will call me in order to prepare a real meal without gluten. There was a mum that cooked especially for my girl a corn based pasta Bolognaise.

When we entertain at our house it is much easier. The cakes are gluten-free and my girl gets to gobble a lot of pizza without wheat. Her latest birthday party with the class included watching Shrek 4 in 3D. With the mounds of pop-corn from the cinema, I supplied the cake that was my own version of a recipe that my daughter saw in a cookbook and liked very much.

For a festive and yummy cake you’ll need:

Ingredients:

For the sponge cake

4 medium eggs

225gr soft butter

Cup of sugar

1 cup soy flour

2/3 cup corn starch (Gilam gluten-free flour)

2 tea spoons baking powder

For the chocolate cream

200gr chocolate 60% cocoa solids

100ml cream 38%

20gr butter

A 22cm round baking cake tin

1. Pre-heat an oven to 180C and oil the tin and place a piece of oiled baking parchment.
2. Break the eggs to small bowl and stir them well with a fork.
3. Mix the butter and sugar until you get a foamy mixture, and then add the eggs while mixing.
4. Sift the flour and baking powder and add them while mixing.
5. Pour the mixture to the tin and bake for 30 minutes.
6. While the cake cools, melt the chocolate with the butter and cream either in the microwave or in a double bath on the gas. Mix the chocolate and cream to unified crème.
7. Slice the cake in the middle so you'll get 2 parts. Smear some of the chocolate on the bottom cake and then place the second half to create a "sandwich". 

The cake cut in half

Putting the cake together

1. Coat the cake with the rest of the chocolate.

Coating with chocolate

Happy Birthday!

For more information about gluten-free dining you can leave your comments and questions and I'll be happy to answer.

A night out at the Bistro

After a few hectic weeks I finally got a chance to spend a quiet evening alone with my husband. Going out with our 3 energetic kids is not my idea of a romantic experience. I think in one of my next posts I'll describe Israeli kids behaviour at the table, very different than what we saw abroad.
Anyway, we finally found a new reliable babysitter because our former one was enlisted to the army.

Dating my husband is no trivial matter these days. Finding good babysitters is just half the problem,  the other half is we're just too tired. A lot of times we're just giving in and stay at home  Zombie Mode in front of the TV.
Sometimes though, one of us takes the initiative, books the restaurant ,calls in the sitter and voila! We're going out!
Our last date has taken place in a lovely bistro near Shuk Hacarmel in Tel-Aviv. The place is called "Carmela Banachala" ( it roughly translates to Carmela in the Estate). The restaurant is a part of an old building from the beginning of the 20th century which is now being restored.
I loved the interior decor, it was simple but not shabby comprised of a lot of white wood and lovely photos of old beautiful building of Tel-Aviv on the walls. Though they sat us near the toilettes, we were not interrupted. The atmosphere in the place was quiet with a lot of chatter in English. It seems many tourists visit the place or are taken there by their Israeli companions.

We first ordered bubbly Cava cocktails. Not as stylish as real Champaign maybe, but good enough for us. The food part was a bit trickier; everything in the menu looked so good!
After consulting our cute and helpful waitress, we decided on a tasting menu, when you can order each dish in a smaller size to sample as much food as possible. It turned out to be a wise choice. Now I'm no food critic and not a great gourmet eater, so I won't analyse each dish and describe every nuance of taste. Everything we've sampled from the starters like beef fillet carpaccio, through the extremely fresh fish tartar was excellent. The crab bisque was creamy and well seasoned. When the "homemade sausages with sauerkraut and bacon served with "shpetzley" arrived we were already full, but bravely moved on. I wasn't too enthusiastic about the sausages dish but my husband was extremely pleased with them. The food was consumed with a carafe of local wine (Yekev Yatir) that was tasty and not expensive.

We hardly conquered the desert, but we were very content. The food, the atmosphere, the service were terrific. The best part was to be reminded that my husband is a fun and interesting person, and that we can have animated conversation on various subjects not only the kids.
It's good to have a night out from time to time.

The first weekend of 2011

The past couple of weeks and weekends were spent in a similar way to the one I've already described a year ago, when I reflected about getting myself a tattoo of a washing machine. 

This last weekend was a really pretty one. The sky was grey and rain drizzled from time to time and finally we were all feeling well.  We decided that no kind of weather will deter us and we'll get out of the house. Our plans for some grand hike were cancelled when we discussed the issue with some friends of ours who wanted all of us to spend the Saturday together. We went instead to the big city Tel-Aviv. Actually it was closer to Jaffa because we went to wonder around the old train station that led from Jaffa to Jerusalem.

The place was recently renovated and reconstructed and now it's a yuppie shopping center with some nice cafes, but it still holds a nostalgic charm. 

  

We mostly run around the old tracks with the kids and admired the architecture because of our  friend Shiri who is an architect. 

Shiri's favourite: old wood shutters holders in shapes of human heads.

There were lovely shops that we liked looking at but they were quite expensive. I liked the interior design though

A pretty store for utensils

Even inside the shops they tried to keep the old decoration.

After a short burst of rain the sun came out and we decided that we must go down to the sea. The children wondered what is the sense in that but Shiri explained it to them by declaring that "the sea in winter is not the sea in the summer", which I found to be a very Zen saying. So we went down to the board walk to watch some crazy surfers. It was quite beautiful.

Sea in winter

One crazy surfer

We ended the lovely tour back home with a great diner of steaks and fries. 

A wonderful start for a new year.

The only Christmas I ever saw

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Tropical orchids in the Singapore Botanical Gardens

-          Is this snow?

-          Where?

-          Over there, at the entrance to the Tanglin Mall.

-          It can't be snow, its 27c degrees outside.

-          But look! It's all white!

-          I think it's only a foam making machine.

-          Oh. Well it does seem weird to have a white Christmas in Singapore….

This bizarre dialogue was carried out between my husband and me while riding our car from our home to Orchard Road, the center of Singapore. It was December 2002 and we had already lived in Singapore for 6 months and it was Christmas time. Up till then I've never seen Christmas celebration anywhere. As a born and bred Israeli Jew who never lived anywhere else, Christmas was only something I saw in movies and sappy TV shows.  Living in Singapore was my first and only experience as an ex-pat, and it was quite an extraordinary one.  

One of the major sports in Singapore is shopping. The island is shoppers' heaven. No matter what you like: electronics, gadgets, high fashion, bags, shoes, toys, and cosmetics, you name it they have it and on sale. I've never seen so many malls and shopping centers as in Singapore. Orchard road for example is a long street compiled from one huge shopping centre after another: The Tanglin Mall followed by The Forum followed by The Paragon followed by the shrine of shoppers The Takashimaya.  Come December we were amazed to see the amount of effort invested in decorating and adorning the entire Island. Orchard road and all the malls became fantasy land of light and sparkle. We were awe struck by the size of the tree that was put in the entrance to the Takashimaya center, and were quite amused by the snow machine at the entrance to the Tanglin. My then 3 year old child thought it was an amazing sight.

The Singapore river on New-Year Eve 2003

I think that in Singapore the main meaning of Christmas are more sales and having free time to do more shopping because the majority of the population is not Christian. There was defiantly a surreal quality to reindeer images, and huge fir trees in a tropical island sitting near the equator.  We were amused by the scenery. The only Christmassy gesture we performed was exchanging presents with our Austrian-Nigerian neighbours before they went to their skiing vacation in Europe.

We on the other hand celebrated Hanukkah with Israeli friends and our family that came to visit from far away.  We got some great stuff in huge discounts, it was on sale!

The year after that, we were back in Israel and Christmas was again only another date in the calendar that is mentioned in TV specials from abroad.

 

Happy New Year to us all! May 2011 will be a wonderful year.