HOLON DESIGN MUSEUM

We have meant to go to the Holon Design Museum for some time since it opened earlier this year, but somehow it took us until now to get there. So... we hit the road over the weekend to take a look at the Ron Arad designed structure. The orange-toned building really stood out in the gloomy Holon landscape and is quite impressive from afar. Alas, the moment we looked closely it was obvious that the building was poorly crafted and we imagined an overwhelmed construction crew who could barely piece together the architectural details. The exhibitions though were quite impressive and it's nice to know that there is a local museum interested in displaying the likes of Issey Miyake (love!) in an exhibition entitled, Mechanical Fashion. Our final thoughts: there's a new design museum in town only 20 minutes away from Tel Aviv and afterwards we can always stop for hummus in Yaffo. We'll be back...

Today's treats

An oatmeal cookie @ Bakery (wheat free!) and a coffee @ Cafe Marsand.

Weekend #2

It was decided that we were to go away up North for the weekend, yet again (this is starting to become a pattern we can get used to). On Friday we spent some time in Akko. We wandered around the old city, saw the Khan El Umdan, entered the Templar Crusader Tunnel, visited the port and had an excellent seaside dinner at Uri Buri and bought his cookbook of course.

The clock tower above the Khan El Umdan.

Docked fishing boats at the port

Fishing

The top of St. John Church.

The next day we were joined by our dear friend N and traveled to Nazareth (we had such a great time the week before that we had to return). This time we came a little earlier on in the day so we could explore the market. There were all kinds of shops, many selling kitchen ware, but this perfume shop caught our eye.

Since a trip to Nazareth is never complete without indulging in some sweet oriental dessert we had to sample the divine knafeh at El Muchtar Sweets (we thought it was better than the knafeh at Mahroum Sweets that we tried last week). But to be fair, we don't think you can go wrong with knafeh anywhere in Nazareth, the capital of sweets.

We soaked in the landscapes...

... and drove around finally reaching Zichron Ya'akov. We decided to drop by the city cemetery and pay a visit N's grandfather, one of the founders of the city. Our weekend of northern indulgence culminated at dinner in El Babur and before we knew it we were on our way back to Tel Aviv.

El Muchtar Sweets
Toufik Ziad Road
tel 04 6556027
(there's another branch on Paulus the Sixth Street tel 04 646 1661/2)

Northern Churches

When up North, we made sure to see some churches and visited the Muhraq Monestary in Daliat el Carmel, with its great rooftop views, and the Church of Annunciation in Nazareth, a must for its spectacular interior.

A Weekend North

It was time to spend some time away from Tel Aviv and a weekend up north was just what we needed. We had a house all to ourselves in Zichron Ya'akov (thanks to our friends who had gone away and left it to us). We spent our time enjoying the late summer landscapes, wandering through Nazareth, visiting churches and candy stores (we bought some Syrian chocolate and black tehini), eating a lot of Galilee mezze (of course) and breaking for knafeh and other Ramadan treats as much as possible.

Summer in the North
Dinner in Ayn Hawd.

Mahroum Sweets, the best place in Nazareth to pick up some knafeh and other oriental treats.

Baklava!

Off the highway.

Fahoum Coffee Shop

Syrian Chocolate

Nahalal, the concentrically circled moshav by architect Richard Kauffman.

Morning Coffee #5

Today's coffee @ Bakery (the cafe/bakery next to Brasserie).

Bakery
70 Ibn Gvirol
Tel Aviv
tel 03 6967111

Morning Coffee #4

Today's morning coffee @ Hemda.

Hemda
חמדה עוגות
109 Ibn Gvirol
Tel Aviv
tel 074 7024664

Morning Coffee #3

Today's morning coffee @ Kaymak.

Kaymak
49 Lewinsky st.
Lewinsky Market (Shuk Levinsky)
Tel Aviv

Caravan Inn

Often when we visit Jerusalem we make our way to Abu Gosh for some simple no-nonsense local food. By local food we mean, hummus, pita and all the yummy stuff on the menu that comes in between like kubbeh (a fried croquette made from a bulgur shell stuffed with minced beef or lamb), and siniya (a tehihi and ground meat casserole). Every Israeli has their favorite place to go for hummus etc. and ours (in Jerusalem) is Carvan Inn. Tom's father has been eating there since the 1960's and it has become family custom to meet there for dinner whenever some of us are in the neighborhood. They have delicious kebabs and stuffed vegetables and Turkish coffee and baklava are on the house.

Kubbeh

Grilled Pita with Zatar

Hummus and Kubbeh

Siniya

Meat Kebabs and Majadera (rice and lentils)

Caravan Inn
27 Derech Hashalom
Abu Gosh
Jerusalem
tel 02 5342744

Things we make at home

We made some Summer Pea Soup. Check out what we're cooking on The Royal Kitchen.

Rothschild 12

We think the perfect time for a drink is late afternoon. There is something very luxurious about having a cocktail mid-day in the summer time (when we should be at work). Yesterday, we went out for drinks with D and had a lovely time at Rothschild 12, a bar/ night music hot spot by the owners of Brasserie-Coffee Bar fame. Next time we will try their food menu.

Rothschild 12
Rothschild 12
Tel Aviv
tel 03 5106430

Morning Coffee #1

Took our morning coffee at Taza D'oro, a favorite cafe from our former neighborhood, Neve Tzedek.

Tazza D'oro
6 Ahad Ha'am st.
Neve Tzedek, Tel Aviv
tel 03 5166329

We are beaching...

and building a castle.

Cafe Mersand

We met J for breakfast at Cafe Mersand, one of our favorite places to sit for coffee in Tel Aviv. Mersand has been around since the 1950's and has a loyal clientele who have been sitting here since then. They changed ownership a couple of years ago and we love their logo designed by Hatayas. This was not our first time writing them up as we have briefly reviewed them before. This time around we had a Turkish Breakfast which was delicious. A small bowl of couscous, hard boiled egg, hummus, green olives, labane cheese, whole wheat bread and shredded halva (super sweet and super good).

Mersand
Frishman 18 (the corner of Ben Yehuda)
Tel Aviv
tel 03 5234318

Textile Dept. Graduate Exhibition @ Shenkar

At the opening of the Shenkar College Graduate Exhibition 2010 we were fascinated by the variety of  works produced by Textile Design graduates. Each individual project completely differed from the next. The variety of fabrics and techniques was quite astounding. It's been a while since we saw textiles this beautiful. We wish some of this vibrancy would leak into the local Tel Aviv fashion scene, where print, color and texture are a rare find. Somehow everyone seems to love their black/grey/white cotton monotones season after season...

This piece by Meytal Tzabary really caught our eye. The incorporation of the pastel crochet into the fabric with all the loose threads was eye-catching.

This series of blue and white geometric prints by Tali Zelnik could easily be made into a dress.

These hanging silk fabrics had various other materials embedded into them like pressed dried flowers. More photos of this series here and here and here.

This series of woven silk/cotton had feathers woven within. More photos here.

We found this pattern of black line drawings infused with bright colors  by Lital Gold, striking. We love a good pattern for spring/summer. Another print from this series here.