We bought five of the seven species -- wheat (bread), grapes, fresh figs, olives, and fresh dates -- at the Carmel Market on Friday afternoon before Shabbat. (The grapes in the picture below are mixed together with cherries, and the bread is olive bread.)
We have seen the fifth species (pomegranates) growing on trees ...
... and we eat them in our yogurt.
We have also seen figs, olives, and grapes hanging from trees or growing on the vine here in Israel.
That leaves only the second species, barley. Not to worry: A. and I celebrated the Fourth of July with a few beers (made from malted barley) at a bar in Tel Aviv called the Dancing Camel. Our first two beers were on the house; the owner (an American expatriate) offered a free beer on the Fourth of July to anyone with an American driver's license. The Dancing Camel brews its own beer, which is very good, and the kosher hotdogs weren't bad either. A belated Happy Independence Day to all our peeps back in the States!
3 comments:
Wow, those look so yummy. I'm envious. But those aren't fresh dates, are they? Fresh dates are usually yellow, and they come in bunches on branches with leaves, I think. I had my first one in Paris a couple of years back and decided that I much prefer the dried brown ones. It was hard and crunchy and white inside and though it was sweet, it was fairly bland.
Try stuffing the figs with goat cheese, skewering with rosemary and putting on the grill. (My favorite summer treat).
PS I always thought halva was one of the species. If not, it's definitely one of the Israeli food groups (the others being falafel and hummus of course).
The last, forth, food group here surely albeit surprisingly to me is chicken schnitzel. And yes, we've had plenty of all!
Hmm, you must be right about the dates -- that would explain why the ones we see on trees look different.
Israel, a land flowing with חלבה ודבש?
:-)
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