Groceries

Despite the disclaimer in the first post, I am still surprised by the amount of writing that will revolve around food.

Among the most exhilarating experiences to be had in a country where you can't read the alphabet is shopping for groceries. Familiar food packaging is reassuring (who doesn't like seeing the deconstructed Kellogg's Cornflakes rooster or the montessori-styled JIF jar in the morning?) and when you're in another culture, they have their own cues. An example:

Q: What is in this cup?



A: it is Tahini, which is a staple over here. It's about as big as Ranch dressing is in Kentucky. There is no way to know this information without first buying the cup and testing at home. Then you can memorize the script and find it again at the store.

Q: What is in this package?



A: As advertised, it is cheese. This purveyor was kind enough to put a large and enticing picture on the packaging, and that automatically gives him my business.

(This will be redundant to those who know already, but script in Hebrew is read right to left. This is an extremely weird concept to English readers, and produces the effect of seeing the alphabet from the "other side" as though in a mirror. Try it with the above pictures and you'll see what I mean.)

At orientation this week, we did a lot of sight-seeing, most of which I'll write about in future posts, but I wanted to share a few more grocery experiences. There is a store not far from the school that is called Tiv Taam. It is owned and operated by Russians, and apparently is the only store in the area that "Does Christmas" as we know stores to do in the US in December, and apparently does it so thoroughly as to make up for all the other stores that don't Do Christmas. It looks like this:


Tiv Taam is totally deluxe. It is the Israeli equivalent of Whole Foods or Larry's Market. They have an extensive meats department (with free samples!) and all manner of frozen fish and cereals, but the really noteable feature is their spice selection, and how the spices are displayed. Until our scientists develop Scratch-n-Sniff computer screens, you'll have to use your olfactory imagination on the following photos:





And, for those of you who grew up in the '80s, There is no escape:


Afterward, we went to a small bakery not far from the Tiv Taam. In this bakery, there were whole loaves of bread and pastries with knives and tubs of butter, all of which were to be sampled. It looks like this:


Psychologically, the samples are not free. One feels compelled to buy something after tasting under the eye of the weary baker. I bought a magnificent cheese danish loaf, which afforded me a feeling of entitlement to go on sampling for a few more minutes.