Machaneh Yehudah

[magid]

One of my favorite places in Jerusalem is Machaneh Yehudah, the open-air market between Yafo and Agrippas Streets. My friends used to tease me, asking whether I'd made my daily trip yet. I'd go and end up schlepping back kilos and kilos of stuff, mostly veggies. It's just a fascinating place to shop.

There are two main streets running between Yafo and Agrippas, one covered, one not. The covered one has more produce stalls, while the open one has more bakeries, dry goods, and restaurants. The little alleys that link them and continue around are mostly covered as well.
(The only big difference in layout since the last time I was there was a new checkpoint at the end of the open street and Agrippas, which allowed in only foot traffic. It was a sad reminder of how many suicide bombers have come here.)

The view down the covered street, which is unusually uncrowded.



Here's a produce stand, strawberries (in March!) in front, with fresh almonds behind. I never bought fresh almonds; I didn't know what to do with them. They intrigue me in their fuzziness. Note: all prices are in NIS (New Israeli Shekels*) per kilo.
* The currency was devalued years ago, and even though it's been decades, the currency is officially NIS.

(I can hear the vendors hawking the strawberries: "Toot sadeh! Chamesh shekel kilo! Toooooot sadeh!" (or whatever the price was).)



I love how things like nuts and dried fruits are in big bags. In the background on the left you can see related things like jam for sale, and on the right there's a glimpse of the next stall selling fish.



I was astonished to find this stall selling nothing but halvah. It's at a corner, so there's more 'street-front' property.



This stall sells olives, dairy (in the case in the background), plus vinegars and oils. I like the black ones that aren't too salty best.



Spices are always fun. Well, tea, mostly, in front, but there's lots of spices inside.



This was the most unexpected sight, so many fresh mushrooms! When I lived there, one or two places had little prepackaged fresh mushrooms for tons of money; almost all mushrooms used were canned (ugh). It's not a cool, damp climate, after all. So I was astonished to see this stall. The things that looks like tubers in the front are fresh truffles, something I'd never seen before. The guy selling them was incredibly protective, brushing away the hands people stretched out to find out what these were. If he didn't want people touching them, he shouldn't've put them so close to the front! I lingered long enough to hear how much they were selling for (200 NIS/kilo, which sounded quite reasonable to me with the exchange rate being 4 NIS to the dollar).



Alas, I was in a rush that last day, so there wasn't nearly enough time to take as many pictures as I would have wanted. I don't have one of the huge artichokes (larger than grapefruit), or pitas coming out of the oven on a belt, or the rows of shiny pastries at a bakery, or piles of borekas, or the interesting assortment of dry goods available, or a butcher or a fishmonger (though it wouldn't be nearly so vivid without the smell). I wish I'd taken one of the hechsherim hanging in the stalls, too. I always want to return, so I suppose I should look at this as even more incentive, to take more photos.


Obviously, I finally managed to get the photos off the borrowed digital camera, thanks to South End Photo Lab. Hopefully another photo post or two will be forthcoming.

Comments

[fetteredwolf.livejournal.com]

I love Machne Yehuda. But the Melech haChalva? That wasn't there when I was there, and neither were the mushrooms.

[magid.livejournal.com]

When was the last time you were there? It had been so many years for me that I had no idea whether things were recent or long standing, but after I'd last been. For instance, there were lots of places selling cigariot and other little snacky things in addition to mutzrai chalav or whatever else. No clue if that's this year's thing, or a general shift.

[rethought.livejournal.com]

I am so hungry now! I will definitely put that on my list of places to go.


I'm especially craving halva now.
(On a side note, it takes me a minute to remember that ch=het. I always get transliterations with a dot below the h.)

[magid.livejournal.com]

The Kotel and Machaneh Yehudah are totally obligatory, especially Friday night (for the former, to see the yeshiva guys dance down to the Wall) and Friday midday (for the latter, which is manic and wonderful).

I used to hate halva (which, I'll note, I used just an h for :-), because we got stuff that had, as my mother put it, the texture of straw. I've had much nicer halva since then.

Is there anywhere you can get halva in Aberdeen?

When I was growing up, it was always ch for chet/chaf, except sometimes just plain h for Hanukah. The dot is perfect, except it's not on a standard keyboard. And for some reason the kh option always looks wrong to me, sort of Eastern European or Arabic or something (which makes no sense at all, but there you go.).

[rethought.livejournal.com]

I agree, the kh combination is very much Arabic in my mind. :)

I hadn't seen any halva in Aberdeen, but then I went to look for something to serve a friend (the one who was meant to introduce me to the rabbi and who I know comes from a very obervant family) who happened to be over to eat during Pesach.

I went to a lot of trouble not to put him out...then he tells me that 'not only do I not keep kosher, I don't observe Passover either'. *headdesk*

But, hey...I got halva out of it. It was one with three flavours in: one was with chocolate, one with honey, and the other mixed with pistachios. The chocolate was not nice. The others were good though.

[zahzeh.livejournal.com]

Nice photos!
:-)

[magid.livejournal.com]

I went to a lot of trouble not to put him out...then he tells me that 'not only do I not keep kosher, I don't observe Passover either'.
My first clue would've been that he was willing to eat at your house during Pesach at all; a lot of people just don't go out except to friends' with known kosher status (or at resorts, but that's another beast entirely). But it would've been nice of him to tell you in advance!

I've never had chocolate-flavored halva that actually tasted chocolate. The ones that have chocolate around them, on the other hand, can be quite nice.

I wonder if I can bring halva through customs if it's only in a plastic bag, not official wrappers. If I can, I could have a halva tasting next time! (Of course, there's that whole fitting it into luggage issue...)

[magid.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm so glad some of them came out, because I took some horribly bad photos of the place back in 1992 (I think), and now I finally have the kind of photos I wanted back then.

[rethought.livejournal.com]

See, I'm really confused on the whole issue. I don't spend a lot of time worrying about it, but I do think about it from time to time. I've had friends who keep kosher in the past have no problem eating with me, regardless of when, because they know that I'll try my absolute best to have something there for them.

But, then I find out things like kashering, which I know I haven't done. So, confused. But, fine with being confused. :)

[magid.livejournal.com]

Everyone's got different customs. Which makes it less easy for hosts in one way ("but $KosherPerson ate $ParticularFood..."), but easier in others (in that the next person may be easier for you to accommodate).

My general assumption as a guest is that if I'm going to someone who doesn't keep kosher, I'll talk with them about it beforehand. I might end up self-catering, or there might be things I'll eat there; either is fine with me as long as I know which food universe I'm in.

[(Anonymous)]

What wonderful photos and descriptions!

(Of course, this fuels my feelings of envy and longing. Sigh.)

I like how colorful the photos are.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Thank you! It would be difficult to get monochromatic photos with all those lovely veggies :-)

Hopefully you will be able to go soon.

[(Anonymous)]

Ah, but even the more neutral colors seem quite bright and differentiated.

Kein yehi ratzon.

[(Anonymous)]

For me, the kh seems fairly standard for some words, like halakhah, that I long ago became accustomed to writing that way, and for some words doesn't seem standard but not out of place either, a valid alternative.

But for some other words, the kh seems totally wrong to me, either because I'm very used to a more traditional spelling or because it simply looks weird (Khanukah, Pesakh) or flat-out ridiculous (Minkhah).

[cellio]

Nice pictures! Looks yummy!

(Hungry now. :-) )

[magid.livejournal.com]

Most of the time, kh seems like it's an alternative but not the usual (except perhaps in linguists' circles?), while, as you say there are some places that are just too strange. For me, Khanukah is infinitely worse than Minkhah, though I'd have to read the latter longer to figure it out. (A minkhah sounds like some kind of odd Russian accessory made of fur, not davening.)


When I kept a paper journal only, this wasn't an issue, 'cause I'd just write the Hebrew word. I've been too lazy to figure out posting Hebrew-in-Hebrew online, though a couple of people offered helpful links.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Glad you like them!
Did you get to stop here on your trip?

(Luckily it's almost Shabbat!)

[osewalrus.livejournal.com]

Waaaaa!!!!! I wanna go baaaaaack!!!!!!!

[magid.livejournal.com]

Me too!

[cellio]

We made a very fast run through a produce market in the old city on a Friday mid-day. It might have been this one; I'm not sure. Unfortunately, I was with a group that really wasn't stopping and looking, and I was expending non-trivial visual effort on not losing the group.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Machaneh Yehudah is in the new city, not the old, so it must have been a different market, probably in the Arab Quarter. That's unfortunate that you didn't have the time to enjoy it as much, with having to keep up with people who didn't slow.

Next trip :-)