Pancakes, a Proverbial Candy Store and lots of Detergent

Since I don't have class till about 4pm on Tuesdays, and Nachalat Benyamin is open that day Tuesday has become my go explore Tel Aviv in the morning day. This week I went to Benedict, a 24/7 modest breakfast restaurant. It's at the intersection of two main streets in the downtown area, Allenby and Rothschild Blvd, and right across the street from the little Japanika 'restaurant' (its the size of a newsstand). I wanted something sweet and light so I got the chocolate pancakes and a cold coffee which is just milk, ice and then a splash of coffee, I'm not sure there was any caffeine in it. The pancakes were a bit bigger than the silver dollar variety but about 2-3 times the height. It was an unsettling although tasty experience. I sat at the bar so I had a perfect view of the window into the kitchen and took my time eating, just watching the kitchen work and craving to be back working in one. Although a lot of the time I didn't love my job frying chicken, sometimes it was a lot of fun to work in a fast moving kitchen. I still can't believe they let someone who never tasted the chicken cook all of it...

After breakfast I did some wandering for an hour or two. Really had to go to the bathroom after walking for a while, ended up back by the shuk and got a perfect chance to use my smartphone to google for bathrooms in tel aviv. Luckily there was one just down a flight of stairs at the entrance of the market. But, I found something even better than a bathroom a little later. A really cool store on Allenby, Leopard Fun Shop, full of nifty kitchen gadgets. I felt like I found my proverbial personal candy store. I've been looking for a little pan or baking sheet for the little toaster oven but I haven't found anything small enough yet. They had some small springform pans, so I may cave in and buy one or two next time. I also made sure on the bus ride back to keep an eye open for any cool looking stores or places to eat and found a few, will have to revisit them!

Also, because my life wouldn't be complete without a visit from Murphy (and his oh so delightful law, not a theory, a law.) I was doing laundry on Tuesday and I heard you could just buy detergent there, I thought there was just a little machine that would give you a packet of detergent. So I put my clothes in the washing machine, put 2 shekel into the this metal wall-mounted box expecting a little packet of detergent to come out. Nothing happens immediately so I look at the base of the machine and notice a little plastic tube with some pink liquid around it. Then I realized in a split second that it's about to start squirting out detergent and I have nothing to catch it with. Two seconds later it starts flowing and I am helpless, there is nothing I can do to stop it and nothing to catch it with. So, for the 8 seconds the detergent is flowing all over the table I, along with two other people doing their laundry are just staring as all this pink liquid is just pouring all over. A few awkward still seconds later I realize it's just soap and I soak it up with some socks, throw them back in the machine and problem solved.