The Big Felafel


The Big Felafel featured on Guy Kawasaki’s Alltop Israel page

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Alltop says you can think of their site as a digital magazine rack that collects stories from all the top sites on the web. They group the info “into individual Alltop sites based on topics such as environment, photography, science,” and now Israel! The Israel page features many of the big name bloggers in Israel, and also some new bloggers I hadn’t heard of that I’ll have to catch up on. You can read more about Guy Kawasaki, the man behind Alltop and how it got started on the about page. Thanks Guy for listing The Big Felafel!

The greatest part about Alltop is that Guy listens to his Twitter friends’ recommendations for who to list as the top blogs for each category. All 15,000 + friends. He’s even following The Big Felafel, if you can believe it. That’s why Twitter is so easy to love, it connects you to people you would’ve never been able to talk to otherwise.


When is – free online tool to find out the date of the next holiday

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Right before each Jewish holiday, I go to good ol’ Google and search for the dates and candle lighting times. This works ok, but I just found something way,way better. When-is.com lets you easily look up the dates of Jewish holidays, civil holidays, and other religions’ holidays – in case you were wondering what kind of day Kwanzaa comes out on this year.

Here’s one that I was curious about – when is Tisha B’av this year? Here’s a screenshot from when-is.com

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Unfortunately, When-is doesn’t give you candlelighting times, but it does help you fill in those lesser-known Jewish holidays to calendars that you (gasp) write in by hand. I still can’t give up the Staples monthly calendar. Even if I hardly use it, I feel like my life will fall apart the one year I decide not to get it. I have yet to find one monthly-layout calendar in Israel, so if you know where to get one, please let me know.


Attention Chocolate Lovers: How to find the best chocolate in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, the Galilee, and more

Dark, white, truffles, bars, bittersweet, milk, fondue – if any or all of these types of chocolate make your mouth water, get ready for Sandra Andrews-Strasko’s Guide to Chocolate in Jerusalem, Guide to Chocolate in Tel Aviv, Guide to Chocolate in the Golan and Galilee and Guide to Chocolate in Israel.

Sandra’s guides detail each chocolate spot with the location, website, telephone number, if it’s kosher, type of store (restaurant, retail, etc.), and an honest review and recommendation.The ratings “take into account the quality of the chocolate, service and overall atmosphere of the seller”.

The most detailed review is about little-known “Chocolat” at 8 Arlozorov St. in Jerusalem that carries a range of different chocolates from truffles and fondue to chocolates I never heard of or realized were available in this part of town. To top it off, Chocolat shares the name of the famous movie, Chocolat, and could easily turn its own story into the sequel.

Sandra, if you’re reading this, and ever decide to update your chocolate guides, I offer my exquisite taste-testing talents.


Where the Efi is Waldo?

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It took almost four years of living in Israel to realize that “Where’s Waldo” is called “Where’s Effi” (eyfo effi) in Hebrew. It sounds cute and has alliteration which almost makes up for the fact that they Hebraicized his name. I guess he is already covering his head with a hat and looks Jewish anyway.

However, a true cause for concern is that Efi/Waldo cannot be found during his stint in Hollywood. After searching for 15 minutes with a friend, we were stumped. Effi just wasn’t there. 10 points for you if you found him on this page (see below).

Pictures taken at Hebrew Book Week at the old train station in Jerusalem.

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More Phobservations:

Phobservation #1: Are Israeli mopeds made of legos? [photos]

Phobservation #2: Do cats really get stuck in trees? Would you call the fire dept?


Amusing Typo in Israel#3: Truly innovative diet technique

Typo in ad for diet in Israel

I get little scraps in my mailbox all the time for new trissim, plumbers, and now I got this, a new diet that includes “Personal Chocing”. The ad translates to the following:

Did they tell you that being skinny was going to be magic? Therefore, you need personal chocing. No magic, just results!

Hmm… maybe you eat, then they choke you, then you lose your appetite and get skinny?! Could be promising, but it does kind of sound magical…

My recommendation to all in charge of typos: Thanks for making me laugh, but to help your business, you might want to pay attention to those red squiggly lines in Word.

How awkward would it be if I had a typo in this post?! Better check it twice.

See Amusing Typo in Israel#1: The most unfortunate typo ever


Amusing Typo in Israel#2: 2tsp of Ground Farfic

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In the supermarket last week, I picked up what seemed to look like garlic powder and when I saw the label “ground farfic” I just assumed that such a spice existed, and not being such a savvy chef, I just haven’t encountered recipes with it yet.

My question is this, if you narrow in on typo logic, wouldn’t it be something like “ground farkic”? Maybe the keyboard was broken and this was as close as they could come.

Advice for fellow farfic shoppers – just open up the container and take a big whiff and you’ll know for sure if it’s garlic or not. And, while I’m at it, shouldn’t it be garlic powder and not ground garlic. Details.

See Amusing Typo #1: The Most Unfortunate Typo Ever