Where the Money's Going

I don't know if we've mentioned this yet, but Justin and I are poor. Lucky for us, then, that our program didn't cost any money, our rent is roughly $25 a month, and we don't pay any utilities. In other words, we're really only spending money on two things: Travel and food. We've been keeping you fairly up to date with the former (expect another post soon on yesterday's Jerusalem expedition), but not as much with the latter.

Justin and I are also in the unique position of being not-quite tourists and not-quite residents. As a result, we're often trying to balance the two often-contradictory lifestyles. For instance, every time we see a restaurant or bar or store or whatever, we want to go in and buy whatever they're selling. At the same time, we're going to be here for as long as six months, we're living on a budget, so we have act (to an extent) with constraint. Still, we want to enjoy ourselves and experience as much as possible. If we're constantly stressing over every shekel we spend, then we might end up skipping out on something that would have been worthwhile. It's a little confusing.

So, how do we tackle the issue of food? For one, we've actually been cooking quite a bit. To keep things interesting, we do our best to keep our shopping interesting. Our kitchen is usually stocked with fresh fruits and veggies from local produce stands. We buy pita and other fresh breads from a specialty bread bakery, zatar and other spices from a spice shop, pastries from yet another bakery, and we buy cheese, meat, eggs, and cereal from the supermarket. We also get hummus by the the tub:

Look, here are some of the meals we've made:

Some chicken, hummus, onions, peppers, spinach, and cheese in a hollowed out pita.

Justin fried up some chicken, making the breading out of cereal and spices.

A house favorite: Potato soup with onions, chicken flavor, Tabasco, other spices, two types of cheese, and some bread for dipping.

But then again, I usually just say "screw it" and buy whatever looks good, money be damned! Judging from some of our pictures, I think Justin does the same thing. Here are some of our best eats:

Justin enjoying a Burgers Bar lamb burger.

We went to Marzipan in Jerusalem, home of the best rugelach in the world.

Justin enjoying some chicken schnitzel in Jerusalem.

At the market in Tel Aviv, about to eat what I nervously dubbed the "salmonella special." After throwing raw chicken on the grill, the guy wiped his hands on his greasy apron and immediately proceeded to hollow out the pita with his fingers. Man did it taste good, though.

K byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.