Sunday, February 1, 2015

Happy Australia Day from Israel!

Last Tuesday was Australia Day so I decided to throw a little Aussie themed bash on Saturday to introduce my fellow Americans to all that Australia has to offer.  

As I was throwing the party, it revolved heavily around food.  I spent the entire week buying ingredients, baking and preparing for Saturday.  I decided on a fairly ambitious menu of all of my fav Australian treats (that I could make in Israel) including vegemite toast, mini meat pies, mini pavlovas, lamingtons (normal kind and in cupcake version) and fairy bread (normal kind and in sugar cookie version).  I should add that I was planning on making everything from scratch in a toaster oven which is basically a tiny normal oven which wasn't particularly easy.

All the effort paid off though because it was a massive success!  We spent the afternoon eating - I made signs so everyone knew exactly what they were eating - playing Australia trivia and watching a few funny Australian videos.  I also made everyone taste vegemite and some people even liked it!

The two biggest successes were the meat pies (thank God because they were so annoying to make with their two types of pastry and Worcestershire sauce which I had to source in Tel Aviv) and the mini pavlovas with lemon curd and strawberries (I personally thought they could have been better but they were made in a toaster oven so props to them even existing).

I had so much fun though.  One of the party guests even commented that I was so energized and pumped about Australia, I should be an ambassador.  Future career maybe!?  Haha, just kidding.  It must be seriously hard to get a job like that.


 









Until next Australia Day!

MM x

Friday, January 30, 2015

I went to the coolest kids party ever today!

My host sister had her 10th birthday last week and to celebrate, she had an amazing race themed party today.  It was possibly the coolest birthday party I have ever been to!  This is how it went:

The kids got into groups of 5 or 6 which each group having the relevant coloured hand band.  My host Mum had organised six different stations.  The stations were:

  1. balloon station: each group had 12 balloons that they needed to pop.  Inside each balloon was a piece of paper; 11 balloons had a sad face and one balloon had the riddle in it.
  2. puzzle station: the kids had to complete a puzzle which had the riddle on it.
  3. flour station: each group had a tray of flour which had 6 wrapped lollies in it.  They had to fish the lollies out of the flour without using their hands and then run them about 20m and drop them in a bowl.  Once they had all six candies, they got given the riddle.
  4. bird station: the kids were given a puzzle with pictures of birds on it and they had to match the bird to its name.  Once they completed the puzzle, they got the riddle.
  5. spoon station: the teams had to stand in a line and each kid was given a spoon.  They had to pass a small ball down the line with the spoons without using their hands.  Once they had got the ball to the end of the line, they could open the ball which had the riddle in it.
  6. gross food station:  The kids were each given a gross food and each member of the team had to eat it.  The options were chocolate with ketchup, marshmallows with mustard, crackers with eggplant dip and mayo (not gross in my opinion), olives and sugar, apple and tomato paste and soy sauce and sprinkles.  Once each member had at least tasted the gross food, they were given the riddle.

The riddle which once solved, told them where their coloured flag was located.  The team then ran to get the flag and handed it to us and we gave them the next station.

The party was awesome! My favourite stations were the flour and the gross food.  With the flour station I literally saw kids face dive into the flour to get the candy! There was a cloud of flour surrounding the table.  We also saw some pretty dramatic things with the gross food station.  Some kids actually threw up hahahaha.  The photos I got from today are hilarious:

The stations



















MM x

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

There's a little Italy in Tel Aviv!!

You heard me right - there is a Little Italy in Tel Aviv which is more exciting than you think because it possibly meant we could find some blasphemous pizza with meat and cheese! 



The area is called Sarona and apparently it has been around forever.  Way way way back in the day it was a German Templar colony and a lot of the old buildings have been preserved and painstakingly and beautifully restored.  My research tells me that a fair few of the buildings used to be located in a different area but were moved to make way for a highway.  Pretty cool stuff.

The area is remarkably beautiful.  Although it is located very close to the CBD of Tel Aviv, and right next to a bustling highway, the restoration team made sure to keep a lot of the open space and greenery and preserve the height of the area at a comfortable max of three storeys.  This means that area is very airy and spacious, something that is rare in Tel Aviv.

There are a lot of cute cafes, restaurants and boutiques and the municipality of Tel Aviv has gone to the effort of placing map stations with maps that contain various walking routes throughout the small area for example, fashion or food.






The area though does have a few rules to follow.  I guess it is to make sure the area stays as beautiful as it is but this is by far the most rules I've seen anywhere in Israel.



We started off at Anita which according to one of my housemates, is the best frozen yogurt in Tel Aviv.  Now, I am very much one for the hype, so after hearing this review, I obvs had to taste it for myself (and seeing as I hadn't had breakfast, then and there seemed to be the perfect time.  Anita has the same set up as most fro-yo places in Tel Aviv; pick your flavour and your topping and then the server will try to stuff as many of those toppings as they can in the cup. But Anita has one key difference - before they put your fro-yo in the cup, they ask if you want something at the bottom #GENIUS.  I got this almond chocolate nutella sauce they had at the bottom and OMG IT WAS AMAZING.  It's sort of a little prize when you are in the final scoops of the boring froyo at the bottom.






Hello breakfast
The best part of the whole area though was a place called Little Italy that does picnics 24 hours a day. As in they provide the basket, rug and cutlery and you then fill your basket with goodies you purchase at the store.  You then borrow the basket and take yourself on a picnic in a nearby park.  Absolutely brilliant idea!  

Due to the chilly weather, we opted to have our picnic in the enclosed area next to the cafe (they had tables with fake grass on the seats so we still felt like we were picnicing) and we ordered the most incredible Italian food including *drum roll please* the King of unKosher - PEPPERONI PIZZA!!!! ahhhhhhhh.  I'm not entirely sure that it was pork but oh my, it was incredible.  We also shared a creamed spinach pasta and a mozzarella cheese salad.  Defs 10/10.










We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around and ended at the Azrieli Mall where I spent some hard earned dollars on clothes from H&M and Forever 21 <3 <3.


The Azrieli Mall
Until next time pepperoni pizza! 

MM x