Imagine My Surprise

After our thrilling win against Mexico, which secured the bronze medal for our team, we went to celebrate at a nearby restaurant. I ordered a chopped fillet hamburger, and asked for it to be cooked well done. So, imagine my surprise when I opened it to find that it was not only under-cooked, but also stuffed with carrots.

Actually, I wasn’t surprised that the meat was undercooked – that’s normal for Israel. It was the carrots that took me by surprise. I’ve never heard of stuffing a hamburger with cooked carrots.

The Sabra: In the Store

Most sabra consumers prefer to not deal with the thorns and roadsides and inconvenience, so they simply purchase their sabra at the local grocer or market. These do not have thorns and cost about $1.15 per pound.

The Sabra: Thorns

The Sabra is in season now, and it is common to see people stopped on the roadside gathering some of the fruit. There are a variety of ways to avoid the hair-like thorns, but none are guaranteed to be pain free.

The Sabra

In Israel, this prickly pear cactus is called a Sabra. That is also the word used for native-born Israelis, because, as the saying goes, once you get past the thorns on the outside, you find a sweet person inside.

Shabbat Shalom