We had Thanksgiving/Shabbat dinner at the home of Nate and Amy in Efrat. Amy used to be a caterer, so dinners there are always an adventure of the most wonderful sort!

We began with the traditional Shabbat blessings and rituals, but Nate added one new (to me) one: We each blessed b’samim (spices) and passed and sniffed some lavendar branches to enhance the sabbath.

Soon enough it was time to get to some serious Thanksgiving dinner:

Potato Leek soup with fried leeks floating on the top was a great opener! Amy cooked a turkey that must have been at least 25 pounds, yet it was tender and juicy. Along with the turkey there was an Asian salad, stuffing, sweet potatoe souffle, cranberry chutney, Brussel Sprouts and gravy. The challahs were whole wheat and tasty.

The Brussel Sprouts were made with garlic so they were quite tasty. The chutney was a perfect side dish to add to the taste of the turkey. The stuffing was a subtle mix of flavors and textures, and hard to resist pigging out on it!

Amy’s daughter made a pareve chocolate cookie crunch ice cream that was the perfect end to the meal.

There were a lot of us at the table and we had a wonderful shabbat/Thanksgiving dinner. Had you been there, you would have loved it, too!

Thank you Nate and thank you Amy.

27 Emek Refaim. German Colony, Jerusalem
Tel: 02-563 0111
Kashrut: Rabbanut Yerushalayim, Shmita Lechumra

This Italian dairy restaurant is a masterful example of what happens when you do everything right! The decor, the service, the food- all add up to an amazing experience. We always eat there when we are in J Town, so this trip was no exception.

The menu is literally huge- you need two hands to hold it. Dishes are authentically Italian. Pastas are made in the kitchen of this fine establishment. Many dishes are available with Buffalo Mozzarella- the very best kind there is.

Three of us had dinner there. We all left stuffed to the proverbial gills, happy and quite sated.

Appetizers: One of us had an artichoke soup and the other minestrone. The minestrone was excellent. With a dash of cumin in it, it was almost a meal in and of itself. The third appetizer was eggplant rolletini. The eggplant is wrapped around cheese. MMMMMMMM !

Dinners: One of us had one of the famous house salads for which Luciana is justly famous. The other two dishes were pepperdella- one in a sauce with whole tomatoes and garlic bulbs. The other was artichoke, sweet potato and who remembers what else? All we can say is: it was super excellent. In fact, all three dishes were quite tasty.

One of us had a cup of hot cider, served with a cinnamon stick and apple pieces for a final nip before braving the streets of Jerusalem.

Service was quite good and very attentive. Our waitress appeared very knowledgeable about almost every part of the menu (given its size, that was no small feat!)

The restaurant is always very busy- we have never seen it not busy. The crowd appears to be heavily Anglo, but there are plenty of native born Israelis who eat there, too. The wait staff all speak competent English. Finally, as we said above, the food is fantastic. Put this restaurant on your places to go to eat when in Jerusalem. Make a reservation and go. Go for the dairy meal of your life!

Located on the Shatz Street pedestrian mall in Jerusalem, this is one of our favorite restaurants. The menu changes seasonally and eating there is always a great pleasure. One word of caution, however, make a reservation! Better still, log on to Eluna.com and print out a 10% coupon!

Three of us went for dinner.

On the table they serve fresh bread with a choice of dipping sauce or aoili. Marinated veggies are a true delight as a starter. Note that after the starter, all silverware is cleared and you get fresh silverware for the dinner.

Two of us had the soup of the day which was a Jerusalem Artichoke soup. An option with the soup was to have a piece of goose liver in the soup. The soup was a most pleasant mixture of tastes and textures- a true taste bud delight. The third appetizer was beef carpaccio. It was amazing! Marinated beef sliced razor thin on pieces of crisp bread toast, smothered with greens and a balsamic dressing. The taste was sublime!

Dinner: One of us had the filet mignon (Gotta love rear quarter meat!!!) served with a side of multi colored, multi layered vegetable “kugel.” One of us had the Denis fish- served sans bones. The fish was clearly very fresh. The third of us had Sirloin Steak, cooked medium well with sides of pea pods and mashed potatoes. The steak was soft and quite tasty. At 250 grams, it was just the right size.

We shared a bottle of San Pelligrino water and one of us had a glass of wine. The service was attentive without being obvious. Water glasses were refilled in a timely manner. We were there for just over two hours enjoying our meal. The bill came to NIS 505. With a coupon from Eluna, the bill was NIS 454.50 or about $120. We don’t even want to think what that meal would have cost in NYC!!

We always go back to this restaurant with its great service, subdued lighting and great food. By all means, check it out!

Flying Business Class on El Al is great for the kosher consumer. While other airlines do upgrade the kosher fare they offer when you fly Business, El Al is a kosher airline, so the upgraded food is well worth it.

But, let’s go back to JFK airport and the El Al lounge. The lounge is small and comfortable. There are plenty of outlets for the free wireless service. And let’’s face it, what Jew travels without a lap top these days???

Food in the lounge is fresh and tasty. They offer an incredible array of ice cold beverages as well as flavored and regular coffees and many types of teas. The tuna is typical Israeli style dark tuna- not for this Jew! There are crackers and breads and a number of spreads, including hummus and techina. The cold couscous salad is incredible and well worth the carbs! The other salad offerings are all fresh and tasty, too. All too soon it is time to leave the lounge and fight for some remaining shred of dignity as you go through security.

We bought an airport safe belt (ie, no metal). Yup, it looks really dorky, but it keeps the pants up as one goes through the security gate. We got through and then the genius manning the gate stopped me and said that we had to remove the belt. The obvious question was, “Why? After all, the security gate did not beep, so it must be ok.” He was dumbfounded- that really threw him for a loop. He called a boss who looked at the dorky belt (It uses velcrow) and said, “let hm go.” Wow- gotta love the high level of security at our airports!

Once on board El Al, the fun began in earnest. While the plane was loading, we had choices of juices, water, sparkling water, wine, beer and soda. Niiiiiiice! Dinner, served on a table cloth covered table and with full size silverware, was quite an affair. The first course was seviche of salmon (ie, thin lox with spices), green salad with a Balsamic dressing, olive tampanade, and hummus. They offered four choices for dinner: steak, fish, chicken or veggie. We had the steak. It was meat of some unknown cut served in a thick gravy. The meat was tasty, but quite peppery. It came with mashed potatoes. As we said, it was tasty, but we have no clue what the meat was. Dessert was fruit and a choice of pastries along with coffee a/o tea. We had a very good Merlot with dinner. All though the meal, they pour cold drinks of all kinds. Many people ordered an after dinner drink, but we were quite full and ready to hunker down, make the seat into a bed and turn on the on-demand entertainment system.

Breakfast was an herb omlette, lox, salad, fresh fruit slices, yogurt, cream cheese, bagels, rolls, jellies and butter, coffe a/o tea, fruit juice, cold water (or any other beverage) and breakfast pastries.

We did not have the pastry, but we did note that they smelled intoxicating!

All in all, it was worth the points we spent on the upgrade!

FROM AOL:

Planning on serving pumpkin pie next week for Thanksgiving? You might want to find a back up — maybe pecan pie, or some spicy gingerbread. What’s wrong with pumpkin pie? Nothing — except that there aren’t any pumpkins available this year.

Rainy conditions in the midwest this fall have washed out the pumpkin crop, leaving retailers at a loss for canned pie filling. This week, the LA Times reported that Nestlé, which controls 85% of the pumpkin crop for canning, was all out of pumpkins. The company issued a surprise apology, saying that the rain had destroyed the remains of an already-small crop. Nestlé plans to stop shipping canned pumpkin after Thanksgiving, and the company says that once this season’s supply is gone, there won’t be any more pumpkins available for canning until August 2010.

That’s a long time to wait for a slice of pumpkin pie.

If you’re quick, you can find pumpkins for thanksgiving dinner. Some stores still have canned pumpkin on the shelf, and are anticipating being able to meet consumer demand through Thanksgiving.

The pumpkin shortage isn’t new news — it was covered back in October, — but things have gotten more dire since then. And really, who doesn’t look forward to a big slice of pumpkin pie after a delicious turkey dinner?

Then again, this could be the year that mincemeat makes a comeback.