9/11 to 9/12 | Cooking

For me, one of the toughest parts of living away from home is eating properly.  The store down the street, called Mister Zol (zol means cheap), is convenient but not zol at all.  The shuk, on the other hand, is cheap but not very convenient to the Student Village.  Even after purchasing food, I still have no idea how to prepare it.  It was with great wisdom that my mom told me, weeks before I left for Israel, to practice cooking.  Of course that didn't happen, though, and now I am on my own.  Thankfully, my friend Rachel is more or less in the same position as me, so we teamed up on Monday to make ourselves one heck of a dinner, or aruchat boker in Hebrew.

It was in the break during ulpan that Rachel suggested we make this recipe her mom had sent to her.  A simple meal of chicken and potatoes, I viewed it as a sort of experiment.  If it failed, it would just prove what I already knew: I can't cook.  If it succeeded, though, I would finally have a non-pasta dish to make, which would open the door towards bigger and better meals!  Here are our adventures in cooking, from store to final product:

We began by making a stop at Mister Zol to get all of the items we needed: boneless chicken, canned potatoes, garlic powder, pepper, etc.  Along the way, I found this humorously named package of sardines.

Once we were back at my apartment, we started frying small pieces of boneless chicken.  We let the chicken cook for bit before adding the potatoes and spices.

The final product!  To the right of the picture, you can see the rice I tried to cook.  This did not turn out so well.  Quite burnt, actually.  Apparently, real rice is nothing like minute rice... oops!

I made a salad to make up for my failed attempt at rice.  Looks good, right?

Happy, well-fed Hebrew University students!

Can't forget the drink: Coca-Cola!

This meal could not have happened without two people: Esther and Severin.  Esther provided the can opener for the potatoes, while Severin was the only one who knew how to light the stove.

So, it turns out that we are not as bad as cooking as I would have thought!  While I give Rachel most of the credit for this meal, I like to think it wouldn't have been possible without me.  After all, without me, there would have been nobody to run to Esther's to grab the can opener!  It is with great satisfaction that I can describe our cooking endeavors as a success.  Definitely a step up from my dinner the night before at the McDonald's--מקדונלד'ס--on Ben Yehuda Street.

Look forward to two future posts from me: one about a twilight tour of the Old City of Jerusalem and another about a winery tour to Gush Etzion.  It's really busy here, so I may not be able to write as often as I would like.