From Rompope to Eggnog to Sachlav

As I was sitting down with Liora last night relaxed and drinking a warm Sachlav it occurred to us that we have passed through several drinks similar to this depending on the country we are living. We asked to ourselves, how many people in the world you think know and have tried these three drinks? Very few…

They might all look the same, but they each have their distinguished taste to me.

Rompope: Mexican drink made with eggs, milk and vanilla, with Rum.Rompope to me has the taste of home, family, old friends, my roots, my founding base, my family values.

Eggnog: sweetened dairy-based beverage made with milk, cream, sugar, beaten eggs, and flavored with ground cinnamon and nutmeg. Popular throughout the US, Canada and Luxembourg (go figure). Eggnog to me has the taste of a honeymoon, new beginnings, community building, strong friendships, new family, educational and professional achievements, transition.

Sachlav: A sweet creamy milk, cinnamon, and rose water drink thickened with cornstarch. Warm. I would think it’s middle-eastern and not only Israeli. (ok, lets assume it’s Israeli). Sachlav to me has the taste of my land, my people, our mission, challenge, my children’s future, my spiritual growth. I’ll have the Sachlav thanks.

Now how many of you actually know and have tried the three of them? You should!

Shabbat Shalom.

Captive (and hungry) audience

I have been wanting to blog about this since Acharei Hachagim (after the holidays). It tries to bring in my marketing experience by analyzing something unique and maybe funny in Israel just like it was done with The Sabra Album Take 6 – Marketing Edition (which I highly recommend).

Captive Audience + Opportunistic Marketing = Consumer Need

“A captive audience is a person or a group of people who have gathered in a certain place for a purpose and are provided or exposed to information that are unrelated to their actual purpose of being there.” From Wikianswers® “with nowhere to go” that’s my addition.

“Opportunistic Marketing communication are the messages and other media used to communicate to consumers by taking immediate advantage of the circumstances” I just made up this definition.

Now let me explain. Every Shabbat and holiday a bunch of leaflets are available at the synagogue both in Hebrew and English from different organizations that talk about Parshat Hashavua (the weekly torah reading) or the holidays. For a couple of years I have enjoyed following and studying both on-line as well as hard copies of the TT (torah tidbits) by the OU (They do a great job every single week). The TT for Yom Kippur is one that you spend a lot of time looking at given the many hours you spend at the synagogue. Now here is the back cover to that Yom Kippur’s TT:

From Other

Now you know where I’m going with this…

The ad reads in Hebrew: “Brazilian grilling party at Papagio Jerusalem”

Are you kidding me? I haven’t eaten for 25 hours, I’m hungry as a wolf and I’m sitting at the synagogue with nowhere to go looking at the back cover of my TT. What a perfect recipe. If I were the OU I would charge triple for that back cover. So for now I have a new consumer need to go and eat at Papagaio.

So the equation:

Captive Audience + Opportunistic Marketing = Consumer Need

Can also be represented as:

Synagogue on Kippur + Food ad on Kippur = Go to Papagaio

Makes sense?

I most admit that I’ve had cravings for a churrascaria (Brazilian steakhouse) since I accompanied my co-workers at a Brazilian restaurant in Bentonville AR several years ago. I saw them enjoy one piece of meat after the other while I was munching on my crunchy lettuce (don’t get me wrong, it was a good salad). So now that I have it Kosher… well I haven’t tried it yet, but hopefully soon will.

Note: I did not receive any commission from Papagaio for this post, and I wouldn’t reject a free dinner for two either.

To be continued…. (I hope)

Mr. President and Me

Sorry for the sporadic activity on the blog, it has been busy around here.

Below a picture at a recent event I attended. I know it looks like a balagan (chaos) but if you look closely you can see me (the tall guy behind the lady in red) and you can see our President Mr. Shimon Peres (the only guy with a tie).

The last time I had such close encounter with an Israeli political personality it was with the back then prime minister Menachem Begin in 1981. You can read about my encounter with the prime minister Begin at a previous blog post here.

Continuing on Mashina

Continuing my investigation on the roots of Mashina’s song Night train to Cairo, I found the following rare footage believed to be the origin of the song:

I warned you that this song is addictive and gets stuck in your mind.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about read the previous blog post

A Night at the Party – Mashina Unplugged !

A Night at the Party – Mashina Unplugged !

Hi there. Sorry it has been a while since the last post. We have been busy lately.

This last week or two we had some interesting party experiences in Israel. You must think we are party animals, but you are wrong, we don’t go out that often but this time we did.

A Night at the Party

We were invited to an Israeli birthday party. OK, we thought to ourselves, we are going to chat a little, eat a little, maybe even have a schnapps (drink) and go home, right? Well, it was certainly a first and it took me back to my teenage years. The party in their small apartment had a DJ with two huge speakers, yes there was food and drinks, but it has been a while since I saw disco dancing at a birthday party, “DISCO, DISCO” as The Zohan said. It was fun and too bad we left 10:50 pm because we heard that because the party went on after 11pm the police came to shut them down :)

I never blogged about a beautiful wedding we attended of a couple that we met since they met in Pittsburgh. It was a great and beautiful wedding but it also had a lot of firsts. Without going into details I recommend you read at your own leisure one of my favorite blogs writing about An Idiot’s Guide to Israeli Weddings, it's a must read for first time foreign or recent immigrants wedding goers in Israel. It’s all true about the dress code, presents, music, etc.

משינה אנפלאגד – Mashina Unplugged

Isn’t it funny how Unplugged looks and is written in Hebrew? I think that will be a topic for a Blog one day.

As it’s already a tradition and given the importance that rock/music concerts play in my life I’d like to write about a great concert and experience we had last Saturday night. For other major concert experiences in Israel I recommend to read my posts about:

The historical Paul McCartney in Tel-Aviv concert 

The Woodstock Revival in Jerusalem

I’m looking forward to A couple of good things coming up in 5770

Our good Mexican friends spontaneously asked us if we wanted to join them for a Mashina concert in Modiin. Thanks so much for the invite, it was a great night. The concept was of an unplugged concert which was cool, the group I did not know much about but I know they are Classic Israeli Rock. I bought myself a CD on Friday and listened to it the entire day to be prepared. The kids enjoyed dancing to the beat of ריקוד המכונה that Friday as I prepared myself for the concert.

It was a great night and a great concert, although I did feel a little bit like a fish out of the water when it was the audience’s turn to sing and had no clue about any of the lyrics. There’s a song that I did know it's jingle even before buying their CD which was their concert’s last song. Below is a link to the song from a 2003 concert, if you have heard Classic Israeli Rock then you will recognize it. WARNING: The song is highly addictive and you will be repeating it in your head for the next couple of days. If you don’t recognize it at first wait until minute 1:38 and sing with me …או... או … או... או

Now that’s good stuff, right?

Well, I like it a lot, however as I was writing this post I discovered the following video from an 80’s British group called “Madness” (you remember that 80’s song “Our House”?) that disappointed me a little in terms of Mashina’s originality, however, I still like them.

Until the next concert….

Parashat Bereshit 5770 – Genesis 2009

Continuing with the educative side of my blog, I have decided to post a quick movie on this week’s parsha (torah portion): Bereshit (Genesis).

Enjoy it:

Bereshit 5570 – Genesis 2009

Creative Director: Batya

Executive Producer: Daddy (that’s me)

Music: Genesis (get it?)

Flamingo on the Phone Productions

Copyright:  _VDCCLXX

Shabbat Shalom.

Sukkot 5770 Quiz Winner

I’m sure you are all eager to know who won the Sukkot 5770 Quiz.

Lets just say that many of you participated (I think) but only two of you actively, but only one actually followed the contest rules to post it on the comments section.

Well, I think I get it, my readers are just not interested on interacting, although I do thank you for all your comments when you do have something to say. I just thought a contest would be something fun to do….(not). It’s OK I learned a lot from the quiz.

Here are the answers to the Sukkot 5770 Quiz:

Question 1: “A Sukkah that is higher than twenty cubits (about 10m) is ….” ?

Answer 1: Psula (Invalid), (Mishna, Sukkah 1,1)

Question 2: “A Sukkah that is less than ten handbreadths (about 80cm) in height is….”?

Answer 2: Psula (Invalid), (Mishna, Sukkah 1,1)

Question 3: “A Sukkah on the deck of a ship is ….”?

Answer 3: Kshera (Valid), (Mishna, Sukkah 2,3), however…”A Sukkah on the deck of a ship: Rabban Gamliel declares it invalid and Rabbi Akiva declares it valid.” (Babylonian Talmud, Sukkah 23a)

Question 4: “If one hollows out a haystack to make a sukkah out of it, it is …..”?

Answer 4: Psula (Inalid), (Mishna, Sukkah 1,8)

Question 5: How about a two floor sukkah?

Answer 5: Tanna Kama: The upper is Kshera (Valid) and the lower Psula (Invalid), Rabbi Yehuda: If no one is in the upper sukkah the lower sukkah is Kshera (Mishna, Sukkah 1,2)

Question 6: And a sukkah in a treetop?

Answer 6: “Kshera (Valid) but it is forbidden to climb into it on a festive day” (Mishna, Sukkah 2,3)

Note: Consult your local Rabbi for halachic questions. :)

And the winner is…

Well, the prize will be divided into two.

1) My father in law who answered and wrote on the comments

2) My father who answered over the phone and since it was VOIP (computer phone) we will count it as answering on the computer/internet. (Contest rules 5, 7) :)

Your official “Weissers’ Journey to Israel” Blog T-shirts will make their way to you. Thanks for your participation.

Here are pictures of many other Sukkot for you to tell if they are Kasher or Psulot.

Enjoy the “Achrei Hachagim” (after the holidays) season.

By the way, I just realized that I somehow deleted the previous post (I still need to learn how to use Windows Live writer I guess), so here are again some pictures of our visit to Neot Kedumim during Sukkot. Enjoy.