I know what you did last Sunday

Almost 2 years ago as we were just getting assimilated into the Israeli culture I posted about You know you are Israeli when:

Now we are still slowly but surely getting there.

The photo below will be recognized by anyone that was in Israel on Sunday 1 week ago.

From Blogger Pictures

You know you are Israeli when: You put your 3D glasses on to see the opening of Hisardut (the Israeli version of Survivor) in 3D.

Now below a photo that more of you will be familiar with:

From Blogger Pictures

Oh yes, the World cup is here and we certainly watched the opening game where Mexico shamefully tied against South Africa. You would be surprised to know that in addition to being the self proclaimed Chairman of the Mexican Steelers Fan Club in Israel (COMSFCI) I have now named myself also the Chairman of the Mexican World Cup Team Fan in Modiin – Buchman branch (COMWCTFMBB).

Finally, a photo of what my family is starting to look like after the last couple of pictures (just without the pets and the baby):

Until the next time…

Israeli pasta in Italy?

I know it has been a while, but I'm back.

The last month I made a couple of trips to Milan Italy for work. Apart from the success of the event and meetings we had there it brought also some unique experiences.

First I wanted to share the picture below. Can you tell from this picture which one is the famous designer and which one is the world renowned blogger?

 

Milan is a nice city, I got a chance to visit just a little. Italians were friendly and I think a couple of weeks more there and I could speak Italian. And the food... well that exactly the point I wanted to write about.

Have you ever felt as if you are being tested in terms of your loyalty, faith or something similar?

For those that don't know, pasta is my favorite food by far. However being out in an unknown city might be challenging for someone that keeps kosher. I was able to see it, smell it, even hear its sizzling as it past around the table on a pan held by the waiter, however, I just chewed my raw veggies. Man...that home made paste looked sooooo goooood.

I fortunately was able to visit a couple of Kosher restaurants in Milan: Pizza E Carmel (Pizzeria Carmel) - eat an OK pizza slice, some delicious ricotta raviolis and some fettuccini too, yes it was all for me. On another opportunity our host in Italy was kind enough to take some of us in my honor to another kosher place called Denzel where we ate some juicy hamburgers, it felt weird to be eating out in Italy hamburgers but it also felt good to eat some meat for a change.

As I learned from my first trip to Europe, it's necessary to come prepared and bring some food just in case, so I took with me some food this time just in case. It was kind of funny to bring packets of dried instant Israeli pasta (Osem bags) into Italy, don't you think?

All in all...it's good to be back home.

Israel turns 62!

A couple of weeks ago we celebrated Yom Ha’atzmaut (Israel’s independence day). 62 years ago we established our own country and today we have a lot to celebrate. Yom Ha’atzmaut brings a great sense of pride among all, and for some of us it even has religious significance.

How did we celebrate? We started the night before first with prayers and singing at our bet hakneset (synagogue), after that we went out together with thousands of Modiinians to the celebrations by the park with fireworks a concert and other great performances.

Speaking about concerts and as my loyal readers know about my passion for music, I must comment on the one we attended at this Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration in Modiin.

About a year ago I was introduced by an Israeli friend to a new singer (well new for me and actually very old for the rest). Zvika Pick, was huge in the 70’s here in Israel with his pop music, and he has gained popularity again after being part of Kochav Nolad (like American Idol, let’s call it Israeli Idol :)

For the last couple of weeks I have been putting some of his music which sticks to your brain without being able to get rid of it, so Batya and I were very familiar with his songs during the concert. It’s interesting to mention that even though I only have a greatest hits CD from Zvika Pick, he did not include any song that the CD did not have. I’m not sure what that tells you about the rest of his songs. Enjoy the Zvikavideo below from a piece of my favorite Zvikasongs, the video is not that good was is great is hearing us sing in the background, it’s Batya, Liora and me.

 

If you are interested in reading more about concert experiences in Israel you can take a look at:

The historical Paul McCartney in Tel-Aviv concert

The Woodstock Revival in Jerusalem

A Night at the Party – Mashina Unplugged !

D’s Salve a la Reina en Mexico (even though it was not in Israel)

From Toyota to Alan Parsons Project 

(by the way, in addition to the Alan Parsons Project concert I was able to go to for free, another good thing that the Toyota recall brought was a nice gift certificate sent by the car dealership which to be consistent, I spent on a couple of CD’s)

The day after we celebrated by going to a military airbase were we saw the airplane exposition. We have gone a long way in 62 years.

See some pictures below:

Shabbat Shalom and sorry for the slow blogging but the computer was down for repair for a week and then I was out of the country for some days (some posts about that trip soon perhaps?)…

Ilan’s celebrations

Just wanted to share some photos of Ilan’s birthday celebration at gan as well as last month at home. But before that I want to share some great creativity from Liora over the years as she has made Ilan’s birthday cakes (lets see if you can catch the similarities :).

From Blogger Pictures

From Ilan 3rd b'day

From Ilan Bday

And now some of Ilan’s pictures from this year’s celebrations.

Stay tuned as I will soon write about our wonderful Yom Haatzmaut (Israeli independence day).

Chag Haatzmaut Sameach!

Sabra Album – Danger! No Passage!

If you have been following the blog you are familiar with my Sabra Album. For all the rest, my Sabra Album is a delightful collection of pictures that talk about how Israel is such a special and interesting place. These pictures are so unique to Israel that I’m calling them “Sabra Album” (Click here for definition of Sabra). (You can also visit Sabra Album Take 1 , Take 2 , Take 3, Take 4, Take 5 and Machane Yehuda Edition if you missed them).

This time I just want to share one image I took from our last visit to Ein Guedi. The sign below reads “DANGER! NO PASSAGE!”

A picture is worth a thousand words…

From Sabra Album

What do you mean Danger? A real Sabra does not fear anything nor does he follow any rules he does not believe in. A real Sabra has gone through so much danger before that he is not going to be told what is dangerous and what is not.

Are you a real Sabra?

Happy 110th blog post!

You might ask yourself, why is 110 so significant? Why not 100, or maybe 120? The truth is that I completely missed the 100th so lets celebrate the 110.

Thanks for your following, I have enjoyed sharing with you our experiences here in Israel. Please keep on posting comments at least I know someone is at the other side of the screen.

Some numbers to celebrate:

7,264 Visits

10,888 Page visits

2,347 Visitors from 67 countries

Thank you.

Now with the post…

During my last post I talked about misspells on packaging. It’s funny but the day after at work we had some urgent packaging/care instructions translation needed from English to Spanish, so there I was thinking of my blog post and now I need to make sure it all makes sense and there are no misspells, I read it several times to make sure it was 100% :)

We had a wonderful Pesach, we were 18 (9 adults and 9 kids) at the Seder night with 2 other Mexican families which all contributed with food. We finished all at 12:30am by which most of the children were still awake, participating and singing. It was a very joyous holiday.

We did many things during the holiday, here are some pictures of all that we did the week of Pesach including: Visit park Canada (forest 15 away from home), Ein Gedi and the Dead Sea, the new Modiin Park, seeing the Harley Davidson ROI (Raiders of Israel), a day at the pool with our friends, and a visit to Mrs. Greenberg.

Why is this packaging different from all other packedging?

I hope you all had a wonderful Pesach, for my readers outside of Israel, I guess you are still doing the matzah thing? I ate a delicious Shwarma on a big warm laffa today. :)
Pesach apart from being one of my favorite holidays because of the family interaction, food and all the different symbols it has, it brings with it a great opportunity to get to know new products. When all the big brands are eaten and get all the market share during the year it’s time for those little ones that have their Kasher for Pesach, Lelo chashash kydniot niche (a topic I would not dare to explain or discuss). And Pesach is exactly their time to shine.
Here are some pictures to expose some great Packaging examples from these great quality niche products:
1. ChocoNit
The #1 instant chocolate milk powder brand in Israel is called ChocoLit (by Strauss-Elite), this Kasher Le Pesach knock off is called ChocoNit. Read closely the product description and you will find what makes this product worth of a mention on this blog.

From Sabra Album

Instent Cocoa Drink?
But still it was enjoyebl :)

From Sabra Album

2. Matzah meal
One of our home’s favorite dish (after pasta) is Matzah Balls. And this time Liora made them from scratch by using some real Matzah meal (grinded Matzah), eggs and carbonated water (which we happen to have unlimited supply). I really hope I don’t have too many misspells/typos on my blog but at least I know that the word Ibgredients will be automatically detected by any spell-check on any language (unless you write it in all Caps). See below.

From Sabra Album

By the way the matzah balls came out better than the prepared powder they sell
3. Mimrach Tmarim (Dates spread)
One of the greatest discoveries I had this Pesach was how good Matzah tastes with a good Mimrach Tmarim, it even competes against Matzah with avocado and salt. I need to give credit to this product since it tasted sooooo good, but it’s just funny how they explain some of its uses in the back.

From Sabra Album

English is complicated, if it sounds like “Y” why do you have to write “IE”, but then again a simple spell check would have discovered Cooky, but wait, all caps once more. Conclusion, either get someone to read through your packaging translations or do not write in all caps. :)
(*Note: After posting this I received a comment -see comments- that "Cooky" is actually a legitimate spelling, and I checked, she is right. Why is English so complicated?, thanks "mother in Israel")
But you should not judge a book by its cover, below a front shot of the product, I really recommend it.

From Sabra Album

If you are about to make Aliyah and are reading this blog, here is a great job opportunity: Check for this relatively small companies and offer your English proofreading consulting work, they really need your help, especially for text in all caps :)
If you enjoyed this pseudo-marketing blog post make sure you read:
Sabra Album Take 6 – Marketing Edition
Captive (and hungry) audience