Cafe Liz

The Levinsky Street market always makes me stop. I pass through nearly every day on my way to work, and regularly restock on coffee beans at David’s spice shop and spices at Pereg (no more than 80 grams at a time — that’s what fits into my jars). I get my olive oil from Oded, where they refill my glass bottle from a big metal tank and I leave with nothing more than freshly pressed oil. And if I’m hungry, [...]

Traveling through Thailand in 2008, we fell in love with the cuisine -- fresh vibrant vegetables prepared with an exotic array of spices. So exotic, in fact, that you couldn't find them all here. Determined, I asked a few random Thai women at the Carmel Market where they found fresh galangal, a key ingredient in curry pastes and soups, and they told me you simply couldn't find it here. So you can imagine how thrilled I was when I passed [...]

I don't usually feel like a stranger in my own city. I observe minute changes in the scenery as they occur, and I probably could get around with my eyes closed, that is, if I weren't afraid of walking into a tree or getting hit by a car. Yet there are neighborhoods I don't know very well, and even some where I've never been. Hatikva was one of them. The neighborhood happens to have a great market, and countless restaurants. [...]