Food, glorious (kosher) food in Jerusalem's Mahaneh Yehuda Market

[Music] from the latest on Caribbean cruises to kosher safaris pilgrimages to Jewish Eastern Europe and award-winning wines and international cuisine in sundrenched Tel Aviv sit back and enjoy the trip with the travel edition of the Jerusalem Post podcast hello David Mark we haven't been on the road for a long time no not not since I got a little bit sick okay but we're over that you're back and fighting fit I'm on my feet still not allowed out the country I said David where would you like to go in Israel there's so many possible places I'd love to go as you know and I think listeners to this podcast have heard before I love AKO or AA I think it's fascinating it's sort of Jerusalem's Old City by the Sea televes full of life we've done a podcast or two from Tel Aviv and I guess you have to go to the number one place which is Jerusalem yes and what's the number one place in Jerusalem oh the Church of the Holy Seiler gets my vote Yes I would say the cotel but until they open up restaurants in a market there you don't get quite the same vibrancy either at the cotel or the Church of the Holy sea as you do where we are right now I'm looking for real nourishment and not spiritual nourishment so we are in Mahan Yehuda which is the Jewish Main Market in Jerusalem people talk about the shook that could refer to two things one is the Arab suck in the old city and the other in the western or modern Jewish part of town is makan Yuda we are going to spend a couple of hours in the company of a fun guide who loves to talk about food but we will interview him separately in a minute should we have a question yeah did you think of one I did think of one that's good cuz I didn't the main street of the shook is is M Yehuda the main indoor Street of the shock isim what does ET Kim mean o the answer at the end of the Pod you're listening to the Jerusalem Post podcast travel Edition find us on Facebook Instagram and Twitter at Mark davidp pod or mail us at Mark davidp pod gmail.com so we are joined by one of the the most brightly colored tour guides that you will find in Israel I had the privilege of meeting our guide in December when we both spoke at limud and Joel's sessions he's called Joel obviously his sessions were amazing because they were mainly about food which had me hooked for ages so my name is Joel hiber grew up in New Jersey lived in New York lived in La been living in Jerusalem here for a little over 14 years I'm a licensed tour guide and my most popular tour is a culinary tasting tour here in shuk makuda in makuda market and as I began to dig down into the foods of the market so that I could guide them better it opened up a whole world of food history in addition to guiding I research write and lecture about Jewish food history I want to get back to the color forgive the question but roughly how much did your shirt cost you this shirt cost me probably about $15 or something maybe less it's h for those who can't see which is nobody I wear a lot of Hawaiian shirts so uh I'm currently wearing a bright yellow Hawaiian shirt with pineapples on it you got to exactly the point I reckon your shirt costs less than buying a pineapple here in M de maret that is absolutely true for some reason even though pineapples are grown in this country like by the way about 85 to 95% of the produce that you can buy here for whatever reason pineapples are super expensive I heard maybe it's because they're very water intensive but I don't know why but they are very expensive here yeah and they're very small as well and you know that we get importer and local and the way you know which is which is whether the top is on them I remember when we spoke you were writing a book that is correct how is your book coming along great I'm uh nearing completion on the first draft obviously I'll have to revise it my book is not directly connected with the shook it's about food history I'm uh writing a book about Shabbat stews from all around the world Chul andin dafina for those who know what these are and using them I argue that they're variations on one single dish and therefore I use them as a way of tracing Jewish migrations throughout the diaspora it's Thursday afternoon in the shook are you taking us for chillun there's actually nowhere in the shook itself that sells CH there is nearby there's nowhere in the shook itself that sells CH so no we're about to head into the world of food just to wet our appetites in 30 seconds what does food and Maan conjure up for you so first first of all when I do my tours here I focus on the diversity of the food in the market there are foods here from literally and when I say literally I mean literally not figuratively over 20 different countries represented here and that's because Jews have come to Israel from all over the world we're the most globalized Nation on Earth we've spread everywhere and now that we've moved here we're bringing all of our food with us and so you see the diversity of the Jewish people and of the people of Israel via the foods that are here second of all though it is the freshness of the produce and the foods that are available here because we are an agricultural country and the food the produce is so good and so tasty and so fresh because you don't have to pick it early so that you can ship it halfway around the world you don't have to breed it for shelf life you can breed it for flavor and so we have delicious produce my favorite comment I ever got from a tourist we were eating somewhere and she says to me wow these tomatoes taste like tomatoes and that's the truth and so that's that's that's what I think of when I think about this place just a quick question and we'll ask you again at the end how do people get in contact with you so a few ways the easiest uh for tourism related stuff would be my email address is Joel that's j o l FJ israel.com FJ for funel FJ israel.com and if you're more interested in the food history Jewish foodbook gmail.com we are sitting down it didn't take Akers long to sit down and there's a word on the sign here that I recognize which is the word mleta now we're recording this podcast give you an idea not too long after pesak the Passover holiday that coincided this year with both Ramadan and with Easter the last night of pesak after everybody puts away their pesak plates and so on if you're from a Moroccan background you party and the one thing that I always hear people talking about eating or preparing is mufleta Joel what is it where are we there is a uniquely Moroccan Jewish holiday there are some other Jewish communities that have similar ones but the Moroccan Jewish holiday that starts immediately after Pak after Passover is called mimuna and traditionally in Morocco when the holiday ended the Jews would go next door to their Arab Muslim neighbors and they would get from them fresh fresh flour and yeast because they didn't have that over the holiday where there's no leavening and they would make a very lightly leaven dough and make fresh Crepes out of it those crepes are called mufleta now the traditional way of eating it back then is or back there I should say is with butter and honey on it for the land of milk and honey this place that we're at which is literally the newest eery in the shook I believe it opened about a month ago called Nuna is making mufleta they do make it the traditional way which is one of the ones that we're going to try then they also make all different kinds of wraps out of these mufleta Crepes what's really interesting about this restaurant is or eery is we have to see I'm curious if Israelis are going to be interested or put off by having mufleta all year round cuz really this is something that in most people's lives it's eaten one day a year now it's good and he's a nice guy and he did a great job on renovating the place so I hope that he's successful but it'll be very interesting to see but regardless it is going to be really tasty I have to admit I've never had mufleta because mimuna coincides with putting all the pesak dishes away and returning life to normal and by that point you're too tired to go out it's only politicians that seem to make out to mimuna parties in Israel so no it's also because you have a family say I'm a single guy I don't necessarily turn it over immediately so I can go out to mimuna and then turn back over tomorrow if I need to you know but anyway there is something very interesting not related to the the food specifically but there is a very interesting thing I've noticed about mimuna in Israel in Morocco where there were not going to say perfect but relatively good relations between the Jews and their Arab Muslim Neighbors when you opened your house for the festive party after during at the beginning of mimuna the people that would come over and you're not even inviting it's just an open house plenty of Jews but also your Muslim Arab neighbors the ones who gave you the dough and that was sort of a symbol of this good relationship that existed and it was a way of using this food to bridge a cultural divide unfortunately as I'm sure many people know we don't have as good relations here in Israel with our Muslim Arab neighbors however mimuna in this country still Bridges a cultural gap which is when in the 1970s there was a rise in recognition of non ashkanazi Culture by the way as a side note you may you may not realize this but in Israel ashkenazim are under 50% of the population we're a minority here ashkanazi being Central in European Jews for those who don't know under 50% of the Jewish population or under 50% of the whole pop well both under 50% of the Jewish population but yes therefore also under 50% of the whole thing even though we were a minority we were still the dominant culture culturally speaking and so in the 70s you start to see this shift and it's then that mimuna becomes popular again in Israel and again it is used to bridge a cultural Gap but they weren't inviting in their Arab neighbors they were inviting in their ashkanazi neighbors in Israel don't they sell all the humet to one Arab guy so if everybody has to go around to his house afterwards that's like 6 million people all picking up their flower he's going to have a lot of mimuna parties to go to so I don't know if there's one but I did hear a story I can't prove it I heard a story that there was one time that at least one of the main people who was buying all the ketes it was like an guy here an Arab guy and he's telling him yeah no problem and then one time after they they talk to him and they find out the guy's actually Jewish he's like oh by the way didn't I ever tell you that my mom was Jewish or is Jewish whatever and all of a sudden they had a big problem and they had to check things more carefully in the future but that's a story I heard I don't know if it's true but I heard it yeah one more question before we eat Israel generally I found doesn't do we talking about more flat but you said creps Israel doesn't do creps the way I want Israel to do creps all I see is Nutella which is this chocolate hazelnut spread and that's basically what you see in crepper is I want a crep with bit of cream cheese bit of um some form of French maybe a melted camon bear mushrooms is this place going to make it or are people just looking for the Nutella experience so first of all I will say that I have seen craps that have all sorts of better feelings but Israelis in general have a a sweet tooth there's no such thing as too sweet for an Israeli what they're putting in and it's not only Nutella there are many other types of fillings but yes Israelis just like sweet stuff and that's what's popular here so I think you do need to look but you can find ceries that will put better let's say or more traditional fings in but like what you see here at this place he's not doing Nutella maybe there is one but there's not a lot of that he's putting in interesting combinations we are going to be getting one of the fillings we'll be getting is a French style filling I don't remember the detail of what's inside but we'll see it and yes he's putting in highquality artisanal let's say feelings into his mufleta here and uh I think afterwards we're going to get a chance to speak with him and you can ask him about what his inspiration is uh our mufleta has just arrived we have two different kinds here so one of them is pretty much the traditional mufleta it's got butter and honey can't be bad we'll try that first and then we have another one one we have it cut up into pieces that's called a French one the official name of it in English is our neighbors from France inside it has two different kinds of cheese Kar and mozzarella which is not French but that's okay Cherry Jam some kind of lettuce that I've never heard of actually called Batavia lettuce pesto also not French olives caramelized peans and black cumin I'm sure it's going to be delicious but why don't we start with the traditional you have yours first while I'm talking and then we'll eat there's an interesting there I've had some of the butter and honey mufleta I can tell you I am very satisfied so far happened to be the with us in the background is somebody from Canada and the one thing I'm thinking while I'm tasting this is maybe because of the the mix of the butter and the honey maybe we're heading in the maple syrup Direction it does have a reminiscent flavor of maple syrup does it not yeah I mean it's not obviously it's honey but there is I you're noticing yeah cuz it's it's probably I'm guessing we'll ask him later I think he's using just your basic store-bought honey he's probably getting a nice artisanal honey and each honey tastes different based on what flowers the bee were was pollinating so you get a whole array of flavors in Honey and so this is a very tasty one more of a general question it's 4:00 in the afternoon is the market open all day do all of these restaurants stay open at night or some of them a for lunch what are the timings in the market really if you were to go back let's say 15 years years everything would be shut by the evening there was not a single soul here at night now this is the latest change I would say in the within the last about 12 or 13 years there's a nightlife in the shook the shook has become the Hub of nightlife all of the bars and restaurants are open late at night there's music there's events there's tons of people here and that's a whole new phase not new anymore it's already 12 years old but a new face to the shook that didn't exist before but there's no rule rules about when any store opens or closes they can do whatever they want and they do it depends what type of a store it is what day of the week it is and that's really what determines so some things will be open from 8:00 a.m. or 7:00 a.m. some things won't open till 10:00 some things will close at 5:00 but on Thursday night because people are getting ready for Shabbat they might stay open till 7 o'clock and the bars might not open until 11: or 12 instead of opening at 9:00 A.M because there's not that many people at 9:00 a.m. even though there's probably some just you and me Joe no and some of the local drunks that we see here should we hit our second mufleta the cheesy mufleta it is so we should dig in Bon and beton an apology now to all our French listeners I am not an olive fan and I'm trying to ignore the olives that are in here but it's really really good and you found a kindred spirit cuz Joel doesn't like olives either right what's interesting is the difference in consistency so the first mufleta that we had which is the traditional one slightly chewy soft and this one has I assume been toasted or grilled and is much uh crispier that's part of I think their thing here they do make it the traditional way but all the others are kind of like using it as a wrapped crepe for those after they wrap it up they do like either toast it or grill it and so it is crispy but it's very tasty but you need to remember that that's not the traditional way of having mufleta mufleta by the way we didn't talk about it but there's a really interesting way that they are made the traditional way of making them you have a frying pan you spread one crepe there one mufleta once one side is done you flip it over then you don't take it out of the pan the next one is spread on top of the first one and you flip both together and then you spread another one on top of that and you flip all three together until you have a stack of mufleta we have managed to drag the owner of this fabulous establishment out of the kitchen I'm sure he's welcoming the break to talk to us his name is IC Levy iik this is a new business why did you decide to open it in the muda market he wanted a place that you could taste the atmosphere and their mlas which are mlas with fillings are good both for breakfast for lunch for dinner and this place is alive at all times also it's a place that reaches internal tourism external tourism it's a place of entertainment and it's also a place of the locals coming to shop and all of those things connect with his mua mufleta is one night every year mimuna how do you make it last for the extra 364 days the Jews typically as I describe make it in this stack and it's soft but the Arabs there make it in a crispier version so he did go with the mufleta more in the direction of the Arab crepe but with the fillings and the process it is more of our local stamp on this food it would be an absolute shame if all you did was have this awesome dough once a year you have to have it every day and that's what he says that's what gave him the idea I'm thinking of opening a mutab restaurant I we wish you a lot of luck with this it's incredibly tasty thank you for your hospitality thank you for your warmth we hope you [Music] succeed we have literally walked about 50 m but figuratively we've crossed the Mediterranean oh that's so beautiful don't mock me man oh oh and the food's here so bye Joel more olives Joel it's you and me Olive t oo fun fun fun no we've gone to Turkey and one of the things that I want you to understand I spoke before about how there's people from all over on this podcast today we're going to be trying four main foods each from a different continent okay so we were just in Africa now we're on Europe because it does come from the Istanbul side of turkey and what we're going to have we're in a restaurant called Cafe Turkey Turkish coffee and what we're going to have here is called water Bor or subi you know Bas Bas are a Turkish Jewish food that basically spartic Jews Jews from Spain after the expulsion moved to Turkey and they kept making empanadas which were actually a Spanish Jewish food in the Middle Ages in Turkey they discovered something called a Bor or k bori which is an arm Bor because it's shaped like a folded arm and they said let's take Bor flavoring stick it into our Empanada and then you got a BCA what we're having now is the grandchild of that on the other side so it's aa's cousin this is a more modern kind of a Bor the dough is stretched paper thin dropped into boiling water for 1 minute so it's like a noodle and then it's layered with cheese in this case we got cheese and spinach and butter not margarine like you get in most Bas not oil butter so it's Rich you're killing us man I'm trying I'm trying uh and it's going to be crispy on the outside soft on the inside Maan Huda is really like a Global food tour Israel is a global food tour that's one of not the only but is one of the defining elements of the Israeli Cuisine the Israeli Gastronomy is a blending of foods from all over the world which brings me to a very important question from my perspective but first let's take a bite it's very light to touch it feels actually maybe a little bit lighter than the Bas that you would buy in a bakery in Israel weightwise yeah and texture Wise It's much much softer I'm crumbling over the microphone no actually it doesn't really flake no that's true I'm you know what I'm always really scared cuz on when I finish work there's a bakery right next door to where I work and I want to pick up half a dozen Basim the ones that are made in Israel and eat them on the way home but I'm petrified that my wife will find out cuz the crumbs will be all over the you know the foot well in the car so he just has a cigarette inste to get rid of the taste so it's really tasty my question for you is and and this is one that I'm sure you could give many lectures or write a book on is there such a thing anywhere in the world as Jewish food 100% so for example the topic of the book I'm doing is a food that is uniquely Jewish all of the Shabbat stews there are descendants and cousins that are eaten by the Cuisines but that is that but I won't object to your question but I'll say that your question is based on a certain false um assumption which is that to be called a Jewish food it needs to be uniquely and genuinely and only Jewish I don't believe that's true we don't nobody thinks that pasta isn't Italian even though noodles existed in Far East and in the Arab world long before they ever arrived in Italy nobody cares that Kish and Ratatouille have precursors in Germany England and Spain before they became French food they are French food it's only Jewish food that people say oh well it has to be something that only Jews make or something like that but as you said earlier the Jews are the wandering people so how how does it work do you do you take those foods with you or do you pick up the things that you see around you first of all as I've said and I'll just underscore there are definitely without a doubt foods that are originally Jewish invented by Jews that some of them are uniquely Jewish for example matah and therefore if matah which isn't so good is Jewish then everything made from matah like matah bri is Jewish okay so there are uniquely and originally Jewish foods however there's also many foods that we have our own iteration of for example foods that are inherently unkosher that there is a kosher version of in Italy Jews made uh goose pruto pruto is made from pork Jews made it from Goose so that is a genuinely Jewish food and also there are many foods that the entire world identifies with us I'm not just talking about things like Bagels but also the fact that you go to you go around the world there are foods in almost every country that are literally called Jewish style this if everybody else says they're Jewish who are we to say that they're not give an example other than aroke in Rome good so you're referring to kop Alia or judia which is a Jewish sty aruk just in Italy alone there's at least five six seven different foods that are called something Al judia Al mosaa from Moses ala for example konata which comes from Sicily there is a style of it many of the non-er ones have shellfish and things inside there's a style called Kata I think it's judia or on Mosaic or something like that that is without those things in it in America you can go to a regular supermarket and get a jar of kosher dill pickles they're no more kosher than any other pickles they're called kosher because that means these are the Jewish style of pickles you can also go in and get a bag of Jewish rye bread that's what it's called we didn't invent either of those foods but we were the ones that popularized them in America and so they became identified with us there's foods from Den mark from Holland from Spain all these foods that are called Jewish this so there's one like a I've heard of a a cookie cake from if I'm not mistaken from Holland called udis buttercake a a butter cookie that has ginger in it and it's called Jewish butter cookie so we went to Nuna and now we're in Cafe Turkey and and these are like oneoff restaurants they're not parts of national chains correct there are very few chains in the sh there are a few like there's Aroma here and there's Burgers bar but most of the places here even if they have a few stores they're not big chains there's one that started here that became a chain which is pasta Basta but they started here in this market and the biggest well one of the biggest supermarkets Ramy Levy started around the corner that's true but that was like a little Maka as we call a little grocery store but yeah now there's that but yes this is uh the first maybe there will be more the owner Sammy is from Turkey he moved here only about 3 years ago maybe even a little bit less unfortunately he's not here right now to talk to but uh if you talk to him everything Turkish is the best can't disagree other than the wonderful Berea that we've got here what else did they sell here well uh he Imports a lot of stuff so I'll bring you in a moment real Turkish delight from Turkey okay so we'll try that or Locum as it's called there they also sell kaf which I believe he just told me that the EU recognized it as originating in Turkey I always thought that originated in the Levant in Israel Palestine Lebanon this region but maybe I'm wrong I haven't researched it enough but regardless KFA for those who don't know melted cheese on the bottom crispy Kad semolina noodles on top sugar syr poured all over it usually served with pistachios it's super rich both sweet and savory you eat like one bite you're like oh I can't eat any more of this then you take a second bite you're like I can't stop eating this I've noticed over the last 2 or 3 years as you walk down a K Street there's canfy like every third store yeah so it it does bother me a little bit that one of the things that happens here in in makan Market in chuda is that if one person does something that's successful all of a sudden you get a lot of other people copying it and I prefer if it weren't like that but it is but yeah that's what we [Music] got Jerusalem fact file L flies to benorian airport from most major European cities plus New York Boston Miami Los Angeles and Johannesburg at Canada ba ca Del United and virgin all fly direct to Tel Aviv Turkish and Emirates offer excellent connections to borian there's an excellent inexpensive train service from just outside arrivals at benorian with buses and taxes also available for the 35-minute journey to Jerusalem there are hotels and hostels to suit most budgets but be aware Jerusalem is an expensive city our hotel recommendations include the brand new tatron opposite the Jerusalem theater the colonial King David overlooking the old city walls and for Budget Travelers the Abraham hostel is very popular there's little to no chance of rain from May to September with July and August hot in the day but cool at night there can be heavy downpours in the winter months even occasional snow but the days can often be warm the currency is the Israeli shekele $100 will buy you 373 shekels as of the end of May 2023 outside of Maan Yehuda Jerusalem offers many food Styles if you don't keep kosher it's well worth dining in the Arab quarter of the Old City kosher options include piccalino eucalyptus and the old favorite EMA [Music] should I go first then Mark yes David I've got a big nose I don't have to bend down that far don't stick it in the food we've all got to eat that it's a sharing plate oh do you know I've gone off that already oh it's good oh I've made them oh look what I've done I've managed to get is it tahina all over my shirt when I bent down to sniff that is what you call aromatic I'm just going to lick my t-shirt where we are is a place called Manu bashuk I'll tell you about the name in a minute but this is a Lebanese restaurant the dish that you're about to eat is called kidra the kidra is actually the word for a clay pot anybody who's ever learned the gamar the talmud Learned Shabbat the word for a pot is a Cadera it's the same word this dish made in The Clay Pot has rice vermicelli noodles Cho meat chickpeas vegetables and a blend of about 14 different spices the main one being cardamom but actually that's how it used to be made because about 2 years ago they turned to to be a fully vegetarian restaurant so there's no more Cho meat in here but it's still incredibly delicious moist tender and very aromatic dig in what's the difference between this and is it called Tajin from Morocco CU they also served it in a Tajin looking Clay Pot both dishes are named for the pot in which it's prepared the thing about a Tajin is that it's about keeping the food moist uh and I know a lot of people don't like that word but I love it so I'm going to use that word basically the idea of a Tajin is that the steam Rises hits the top and then drips down the side so it stays in there this is just probably what they had in the region it's just a pot that happens to be clay I don't believe it's designed for that purpose so other than the fact that they're both named for their dish there's not a lot of similarity I've got a challenge for you David go on from where you come from in northern England Manchester Northern England yeah can you think of a dish that's named after the the thing that it's cooked in from northern England something that I grew up with well it's not black pudding no unless a pudding is a pot right uh something that's a pot well maybe a hot one oh a hot pot a Lish a hot pot oh right no I I thought you were talking about haggus which is also named for what it's in yeah but anyway guys you got to eat this yeah we're going to taste so we'll keep the microphones going shall I be Daddy no cuz Daddy knows how to serve it without wearing it on his shirt so actually when you're 3 or 4 feet away from it yeah it's more aromatic than when you got your nose right up to it or maybe that's cuz my nose is broken I don't know well we're also sitting in the restaurant where this is one of the Staples that they make so it's behind you as well as on the plate should we give it a go yeah one of the wonderful things about this shook is it's covered so you can go from place to place and no matter the weather no matter the time of year you can go and have a good meal you'll notice that this T this tahini is rather lemony which I like a lot I was just about to say lemon and you'll also notice don't know if they've always had I think it's more new but there's pine nuts in here as well which are a really nice touch I really like those and they're expensive in Israel they're very expensive relatively yeah they're expensive everywhere what do you think have you tasted it yet Mark yeah no it's really nice yeah I'm not a big tahina fan but it goes really well with the rice as Joel said it's moist this is Mark from the Jerusalem Post podcast travel Edition find us on Facebook Instagram and Twitter at Mark davidp pod or mail us at Mark davidp pod gmail.com Sophie Sadia is one of the owners I think is it is it your husband is the other owner it's a family business with my husband because my husband was born in Lebanon is a Jew from Lebanon and the Jew left Lebanon in 1968 and it was under French protector he doesn't look old enough to have been around then I know so the Jew of Lebanon left Lebanon in 1960 867 and they split everywhere in the world and my family-in-law went to live uh in Paris why is the restaurant called Manu bashuk CU my husband his name is Emmanuel we call him Manu so where is Manu Manu is in the shook very easy joking and also because uh we start with Lun Lun is a lianes pizza and uh we did like a Bible uh it was L man who say man is coming from the the Mana the way they write the Manu is his English French name but the way they write it in Hebrew is actually a quote from the Torah why was the Mana called the Mana because the Jews looked at and they said Manu what is this so in Hebrew it says man bash instead of manash what is the Ence of Lebanese or maybe Jewish Lebanese food we do all the food is a recipe from my mother-in-law for example you have lahmajun lahmajun it's a pizza we are vegetarian and vegan so now we do with vegetarian meat vegetarian meat it's soya and flour and we prepare Lun it's a minced beef with onion bell pepper and juice of pomegranat it's very typical you know most of the people know Baba Gan but here we do W eggplant cook in the oven with sesam cream garlic and Trina and on the side we put some Falafel or vegetarian meat or mushroom and we do ku ku is something fry it's not like Falafel it's more oval like a rudby balloon okay and it's a bulur and it's filled with mushroom and sarim uh P pine nuts voila and we do also KU exactly the same but cook in the oven the first one was fry do you do one of my favorite dishes is kuet and soup do you do that as well we do also one with lemon very sour it's Kua and it's a bulur and filled with mushroom and we have the one with um beetroot what's it like to work in this noisy vibrant environment where it's from the moment you get here till the moment it closes it's buzzing it's happening it's noisy there's been people walking to a political protest going through here how do you cope with this day after day first it's life so you feel the life in his shook we open this place since 10 years this year and I used to and when it's very noisy evening because evening it becomes like iiza you have music like crazy it's a disco I works with a earplug and I propose to my customer if you want some air plug but my customer are very uh how to say Fidel they used to come and come and come back so I told them come earlier today we have a one guy crazy shout but tomorrow can be quiet you never know what can happen Sophie thank you very much you've got more customers so we want to talk now with Joel about the market beyond the food there are elements of the shook that are beyond the food it's definitely not the core but they do exist so for example yes there are plenty of eateries here which is what we're spending our time at there's also of course it's at its core a fresh food market so meat fish fruits vegetables grains Dry Goods nuts things like that but we have many stands here that are not food related at all something that sells granny carts or uh something that sells House wears things of that nature kot other judaa even things that are chachkas and Novelty gifts so those exist you also have something that unfortunately is sort of Disappearing but uh many many people know about uh what we call the shook Gallery where when things are closed all of the shutters the metal shutters are painted many of them with portraits and things of that of famous people the majority of them were done by a local artist of English descent called sunny or Solomon Souza his nickname is sunny that's already many years ago that he did this and it was really a gift to the city on shabat but when everything here is closed it's not that nice to have a big area that nobody walks through on Shabbat but now with that paintings people had a reason to come here and look at the beautiful art unfortunately a lot of the paintings that he has done are no longer visible some of them they renovated the store and they just changed the doors others unfortunately there are people as this is the nature of street art they've been def faced some of them have even just been painted over when they open a new sand they just painted it black I've seen which is really sad and thankfully for his sake he's gotten to do a lot more you know commissions and things that he's getting a lot of money for and so it doesn't make sense for him to keep doing this he does occasionally do one here and there but yeah how much has the population of this Market the customers the people who would come in day-to-day week by week buying their vegetables old ladies with with trolleys laid them with all of the cheap Goods fruits and vegetables how much have they disappeared because we've got more more eies more breweries more Hala andina making places so well first of all I have to correct there's no breweries in the shook there are there are craft beer places that make their own beers they don't make them in here it's also based I think a bit on a false assumption the changes that have taken place in this market over the last let's say 10 to 12 years it is absolutely very different than it was but it is a change through addition not displacement with almost no exceptions very few exceptions all of the eies and bars that are here did not displace what I would call a traditional stand meaning almost none of them are in the same place where there was meat fish produce things of that nature you'll say well then what happened almost all of them either moved into what were previously empty storage units and so now the storage units are outside the market so that's an addition some of them replaced other non-traditional things like if somebody was selling granny carts and now they're selling beer they're both not traditional here and many of them now especially after all this time are replacing other eateries that have closed so it really is through addition in at least one or two of the examples that I can think of where it did displace what you might call traditional it was the children of the previous owners it's the same family it's the Next Generation and they didn't want to be sewing meat and one of those places that was a butcher then became a bar is now back to being an eery but it's a meat eery and so it's a really interesting change and the other thing I need to add is that when I look at the history of this Market there's only two things that are constant in this market one of them is change and the other is people complaining about the change 21st century shopping and eating supermarkets food delivery at home I've seen a couple of Cycles from one of the big delivery companies driving up and down the market how is that affecting the market is it challenging the store holders or is it giving them new avenues to sell stores here in the market are not going to be able to compete on price with Ramy Levy or any other big supermarket chain they have volume they can undercut so the people here are never going to be able to compete what I believe they do compete on is quality and especially selection there's a much wider variety of things that you can find here than in any supermarket and you're getting a really good quality it may be a little bit more expensive but I think that's the trade-off that you make that's the first thing in terms of the you know the modern things yes many of these stands themselves have started to do their own deliveries many of them are using some of these food delivery services I think it's more of the eateries than the produce stands but even them there are some that do the deliveries so it does do it and means maybe some fewer people are going to come here but I always talk about the fact that the population of this city is about 950,000 people this Market has about 300 stands in it there's enough people to go around for all of these stands and plenty more so even though many people are going to go to supermarkets or other local groceries for their shopping there's plenty of people coming here to this market and keeping it [Music] alive David I told you to put the helium balloon down all right so we're at our last stop which is good because I think I'll explode if I go anywhere else well the really funny thing is I believe you were the one who was talking to Joel to plan all of this as is your want that Joel and you were initially talking about going to five places Joel offered five and I said four because stupidly I went out for lunch before we did this we've also done in the past other foodie tours where we've had a little taste but no no not with Joel with Joel we're getting full plates so we're on portion number four of actual full meals that other human beings have and then they finish do you remember that vegan food tour we did in t which is an old episode we went to three places and I think we had a three course meal in each we're up there with this because don't forget also we're having a lot of more Brey stuff in three of the places we've been it's bread related the other was rice related and vermicelli s or vermicelli vegan food doesn't count oh don't start that I'm having a vegan San here and it's great I wish we had gone to the fifth place because I think it would be awesome to see you explode that would be worth the price of admission for anybody it would ruin that very very lovely bright yellow shirt you're wearing oh that's fine that would be worth it that's why we do a podcast and not video so where have you brought us to now that led me to drink the helium we are at a restaurant that is actually technically outside of the shook although it did begin first they were small eery in the Shook and then moved out to a gria street right around the corner and it is called pepitos pepitos is a Latin American street food the one that you are having David is a Papito what Mark is having is called anpa the owners one is from Colombia one is from Venezuela who own the place and they're making Latin American street food so for those who don't know arpa is a cornmeal bun toasted and sliced open and inside the one that Mark that has beef s Beef and black beans and guacamole and all kinds of good stuff what else is in there mark cherito oh chizo right not not a I'm sorry CH and of course as I'm sure you know from listening uh you know that uh that David is a vegetarian and so he got a good vegetarian option here a Papito is basically a sandwich on bread he got his on a tortilla it can also be on a bread and then they do like a panini toast out of it really good and I just got a nice plain old rice and black beans really nice I'm thinking of moving one step to the right cuz David's about to spill his dinner on my leg a large portion of their clientele are Latin Americans and so we forget sometimes how many Latin Americans there are here in Israel and they're providing food that a lot of them are really feeling at home with but every so often you have Israelis that'll come in and they'll be like uh oh it's a Mexican and they're like no no this is not Mexican there's nothing Mexican about this and they need to be educated a little bit and that's nice we started in Africa we crossed the Mediterranean to Turkey then we hopped across the Bosphorus to Lebanon and now we have flown all the way to the Western Hemisphere to Latin America we've done like you say a world tour here and stayed within 400 MERS of Jerusalem I'm going to ask one of my soapbox questions I always ask and you mentioned it earlier the split between MIM saim ashkenazim and none of this food is necessarily well maybe the mufleta is is is from that background but the rest of it is International Food what we haven't really seen is tradition ashkanazi food where has all that gone I've written actually a blog post all about this on my blog which is at taste ofw.com so you can find that post the post was uh just a few months ago and it was basically called why can't I find a good bagel in Israel or something of that nature and I point out two things that I think contribute to that first of all is the fact that as I mentioned before in Israel ashkanazi are only 45% of the population we're a minority and in America ashkanam are about 95% of the Jews in England I believe it's a little bit lower but still I think above 85% okay which is massive and worldwide ashkanam are about 70% so to come to a place where you're minority is sometimes shocking for people I don't know if you've seen the um Netflix series The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem it's supposedly based in mudo and it follows Spanish and Portuguese safadi family and the people they're dealing with are ashkanazi but there were a lot of Kurds a lot of Iraqis the the the old jerusalemites you don't get the feel that it's completely ashkanazi where we're sitting right now is at the edge of the neighborhood called nakot the nlot is a plural word because there's a whole bunch of tiny micro neighborhoods among the 30 to 35 of them depending on who you're asking you have about six maybe that were majority ashkanazi all of the rest are different groups who were not ashkanazi you have Persians you have yemenites you have Kurds you have falim from Turkey you have General sadim you have everything here so I the numbers we can quib on it doesn't matter but certainly that so that's the one thing is that is that ashkanam are not the majority here that's why we don't have as much as you might expect but the other thing and I can't compare it to English ashkanazi food because I'm less familiar than you guys are with that but many Americans when they think of traditional ashkenazic food are not the foods that people ate in e Eastern Europe or Central Europe they are American ashkanazi Jewish iterations of those from before beyond that there was never a numerically significant Aliyah of American Jews to Israel why would the dominant food there ever become dominant here an example of an American Jew so the classic idea of the Jewish deli in America when you think about it in one restaurant you would have food so corn beef is primarily from alsas pastrami is Romanian kishes are polish bour is Russian nobody in Europe ate all of those things they ate the things from their area but when all of the ashkanazi Jews came to America and are living together then they meet and join together as one cuisine in a Jewish deli what's the takeaway from the last 2 three hours that we spent with you it's not all takeaway you can sit down as well I could be Jewish and respond to your question with the questions what which is what do you take away from it but for me what I hope you take away from this is the diversity of the Jewish people in general and specifically the diversity of the Jewish people in the land of Israel we are the most globalized Nation on Earth we have literally spread everywhere in the world I may have said that at the beginning I don't recall but now that we're all here we've brought our food with us and we have just eaten four different things each dish completely different from the others from four different not just four different countries four different continents and that's just a tiny fraction of the foods that are available here and the reason they're available here is because we are all here and I think that's a beautiful thing there's a term that I'm sure you're familiar with I don't know how many of the readers are probably most are kibuts galuyot the in gathering of the Exiles the greatest miracle that the Jewish people have ever witnessed we are all a part of the three of us and many of your listeners are a part of Jews from everywhere have returned to the land of Israel and what you're seeing here is the edible representation of kib gyot Joel thank you so much for filling our faces showing us certainly for me a different side of Mak Yuda I did a a food tour with work six months ago didn't see any of these places it's just great to see the variety again and come at it from a different angle if people want to go on a food tour with you how do they get hold of you how do they book a tour first of all I have three different websites one of them is my tourism website FJ israel.com uh that's all about me as a tour guide so if you're interested in seeing guiding you can find me there and the affili ated email address is Joel J lfj israel.com my food history website is called The Taste of Jewish culture so that's taste ofw.com and I also recently connected with the book uh launched a website all about Shabbat students from around the world called trillent book.com my food related email is Jewish foodbook gmail.com I would love to hear from all of you Joel habber thank you so much for your time for bringing to life this part of the town and Mark has to have the final word I know the FJ stands for fun Joel Joel it has been fun you are a really fun guy wow he's a font of knowledge isn't he font Joe not fun Jo what a good guy it was a lot of fun I'm stuffed but you know it's it's kind of weird when I was a kid if my mom and dad said to me we're going to the market shopping I would try to lock myself in my bedroom Dr and say I'm busy I would even pretend I had homework to do you still lock yourself in the bedroom a lot but it's isn't it amazing we basically only walked as you said I think during the Pod maybe a 100 yards I grew up in London and in East London there was a market called Romford market and it was row after row after row after row of produce food there were no restaurants no bars it was just produce and that that was my concept of the market it was you go you get your your fruit and veg yeah and and that would be it maybe a pair of shoes no not even that Gob Stoppers that that was my favorite thing Gob Stoppers Berry Market where I live there was a little bit more variety but still it as a kid it's dull it's boring but when you meet somebody like Joel and you come to a place like Maan Huda you see something totally different and if you're wondering why David's being nice Joel is still sat with us drinking beer well I could say the terrible things as well I suppose no we told you switch the microphone off and you say the terrible things behind people's backs no really it's been a wonderful time we should say apart from the thank you if you want to know more about Joel's tours and you didn't get his mail address you can always of course mail us with any questions and so on about this any of our other podcast things that you would like to here in future and the address is Mark Mark davidp pod gmail.com our social media handles everywhere are at Mark davidp pod And subscribe yes you can find us on Apple podcast Google podcast Spotify spreer anywhere really and now it's time for you to show is your knowledge Mark after all that food my memory is slightly going so I have to remember the question the question was the main indoor Street of the market was called ET Kim but what does ET Kim mean are you asking me well I'm asking the audience but you can represent the audience the Tree of Life correct was that it yes and all the little offshoots of are named after fruits so you've got Strawberry Street and APR Street like a branches of a tree correct that's really oh he's off again we shouldn't do this in front of Jo it's Joel we are not going to say thank you again Joel I just wanted to say do you know why it's called it Street and if so you can answer that I do know there's a Yesa down the road called a Kim which is currently suspended on stilts while they rebuild a hotel around it that is correct that that is the original building this year they have subsequently moved years ago to a different area but yes that was the aimim ISA and they were the ones who built the first stores of the shul along aim Street got rent off of the stores and that funded the construction of their new building two questions for the price of one that's value for money with the Jerusalem Post podcast travel Edition send checks payable to Mark and David folks see you the next time bye-bye farewell [Music]