Israel

For me there are two good reasons to come here.

First of all, my sister has been living in Israel for quite a while now. For some reason she looks way more local than she looks German. Maybe that is why she assimilated so fast. Rebekka, who recently finished her PhD in history, loves this country. And yes! – there is a lot of history on these streets. It is a very big playground for historians indeed.
But why did she fall in love with this country? Moved here? Even with all its „dangers“ and conflicts?
I don’t want to answer this question for her, but for me personally – once you enter Israel and Palestine you immediately start to understand.  There is just something about it.
Maybe it is its geological position in the heart of Europe, Afrika and Asia? A place where tribes and peoples gathered, traded and developed for thousands of years. Where empires shifted and religions clashed. A key point in human history?
Who knows? But there’s something about it that makes you feel like being in a very special place – that might take you years to explore and to really understand it.

And of course, there is another very good reason to visit this country – its food!

As we all know, Yotam Ottolenghi – the Jamie Oliver 2.0 of my life – has turned into a symbol of our modern food culture. Fresh, easy, healthy, diverse and with lots of good ingredients and flavours while served in the nicest and most simple ways.
And yet he wasn’t reinventing the wheel (is that an English saying as well?) – he was using recipes and techniques from his home and sometimes spinning that wheel a little more.

This was my second time in Israel, and it somehow felt like I’ve never been here before. So, time to get lost in the old town of Jerusalem, the Machane Yehuda market, the vast of the Negev desert or the street food of Tel Aviv. Again.