Jaffa's mine Oye-ster

When I was looking for apartments in Israel, a friend told me to avoid the southern neighborhoods of Tel-Aviv. I almost took his advice, but, at the last minute, found a great apartment in Jaffa, Tel-Aviv. The craigslist-ing advertised a rooftop deck, a five-minute walk to the best hummus place in Israel, and a ten-minute walk to the beach. I couldn’t resist. And so I began a great three-week stay in Jaffa.

In these three weeks, every time I told someone I lived in Jaffa, they gave me a funny look. “Isn’t it dangerous,” many would ask. “Don’t leave your house at night,” others would warn. And while there may be parts of the city that are more prone to violence, my area was pretty amazing. So I’m dedicating this blog to all the great things about Jaffa.

Abu Hassan Hummus

I know, I know. I'm getting two blog posts out of the hummus place, but I couldn't resist. The first time I went to this place, I asked for an English menu. The waiter looked at me weird and then laughed. He said, “Hummus.” You know the place has to be good when they have one menu item. You know the place has to be amazing, when they the one menu item is hummus. I never really knew the power of hummus until I visited Abu Hassan and saw the flocks of people waiting in line to get hummus. A must try if you are in Israel.

Hummus, Egg, and Pita

Chips and Hummus...rival to Chips and Cheese? Comment below.

Capitolina

My boss thinks this place is the best ice cream shop in Israel. I’d agree except I actually haven’t had any other ice cream (Hebrew: glida. I’m learning Hebrew!) shops. But with homemade flavors, like lemon mint; grapefruit and Campari; pears and port; yogurt, dates, and banana; caramelized bananas and almond dacquoise; Indian kulfi, and coconut and lemongrass--its kind of hard to convince yourself to enter a ice cream shop where the craziest flavor is “mint chocolate chip.”

Capitolina (My best guess at a transliteration)

 Some of my favorite flavors

 Lemon Mint Sorbet

Grapefruit and Campari Sorbet

Caramelized Bananas and Almond Dacquoise (whatever that even means)

 Indian Kulfi

Coffee Shops Galore

There is a whole section of Old Jaffa City that is going through a gentrification process. New coffee shops and restaurants are refurbishing the crumbling buildings of the old city, leaving a nice mixture of the old and the new. During the day, there are cute coffee shops with retro furniture and iced coffee. At night, the place comes alive with strings of lights and lives bands. 

 View down the street from one of the many coffee shops in Jaffa

Across the street

 From what I can tell, their version of a Caramel Macchiato

 At night

                            

Felt like I was on a movie set

And then these guys showed up and I started looking around for the film crew.

Boardwalk

My evening run. 

 Start of my run

 To my left

More to my left

 On my way back.

                            

 Old Jaffa City

Go Go Gadget Zoom

Beach

Let's go to the beach, each; Let's go get away. 

                            

 Tel Aviv in the distance. Stork!

Sunset

Sunny Days: 35

Rainy Days: 0