Today is Shabbat, and it's the first Shabbat since Passover ended last Saturday night. One important tradition of observing Shabbat is eating challah. Challah is the special braided egg bread Jews eat on the Sabbath and Jewish holidays.To prepare for Shabbat, most Fridays I can be found in my kitchen baking challah. This bread is my specialty and my family prefers mine over any store-bought kind we've ever tasted.
In Israel, seeing as how it's a Jewish state, you would think that the winner of the "Best Bread in Israel" would be challah in some traditional Jewish bakery. However, that doesn't seem to be the case. Every travel website I've perused seems to agree that one specific Arab bakery takes the cake. Or, should I say takes the bread.
Here is one traveler's directions on how to get to the best bread in the world:
- Board plane for Tel Aviv
- Clear immigration and customs
- Ask taxi driver to take you to Abouelafia - you could tell him that it is in Jaffa - but he already knows.
Another travel writer notes:
Abouelafia's bakery is a few meters down from the "Clock Square" in old Jaffa. You don't need to ask anyone for directions: Just look around you for a big crowd, young and old, shouting and trying to get the sellers' attention to place their orders.
Just a few years ago, Hamis Abouelafia, the bakery's owner, made news by presenting a ceremonial loaf of bread to a group of Jewish people at an end-of-Passover celebration. Hamis has been committed for years to working towards fostering better business relations among Israeli Arabs and Jews. At the celebration he quoted the late Jewish poet, Natan Alterman, who said "peace will be made in the marketplace before it is made in the government".
I love the idea of "baking bread - not war". What a wonderful message of peace for Shabbat.
