Israeli Mexican Food

Other than a couple of exciting meals, nothing much has happened to me over the last few days in the good ol' Holy Land. Today I ate lunch late in the afternoon by myself at Café Mada. I brought along "The Secret Life of Bees," a book I bought at a second-hand bookstore I found in Rehovot. I'd intended for my new novel to keep me company….boy was I in for a surprise. As soon as I got the tuna sandwich I'd ordered, I was surrounded on all sides by wild cats! Cats lurk in every corner of the Weizmann Institute waiting to pounce on their prey at the local restaurants. Although the Institute has a vaccination and spaying policy in tact, they nonetheless supply the little critters with cat food everyday…not a very clever way to maintain the feline population.

Lunch at Mada

Feline predators!

More Institute cats

Tonight Tanmay and I decided to venture out, and go to the only Mexican restaurant in Rehovot: Rapper's Mexican Food! Knowing how different Arizonan Mexican food is compared to what's being served up a couple states over in the land of TexMex, I was eager to discover what was happening with this cuisine all the way over in Israel. Despite the tortilla chips which were more like pillowy Doritos, my chile con carne was pretty much like Mexican food that you'd be served in any average restaurant in the southwest. Of course, part of success of my meal was my keen observation not to order the quesadilla which was being made with mozzarella cheese and lettuce. I also avoided all chicken, which was being rolled up in tortillas alongside pineapple and pico de gallo.

With nothing much left to say, I'll leave you with a few observations about Israel that I've made in the past few days:

1) Most appointments in Israel are given in military time. After nine weeks it finally hit me that this might be because every Israeli citizen has to go through military training in their teenage years!

2) At the gym yesterday I couldn't help but notice how all the sweaty and stinky devout Jews would touch the mezuzah (the little prayer box) hanging in the doorway and then kiss their hands. Does the common cold spread quicker among Jewish people in Israel? It's a good thing that you don't see mezuzah on bathroom stall doors.