WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE?

Haven't opened this blog in a few month! Now, as I was looking in the stats, I saw that there are few dozens of constant visitors, who are actually reading my blog.. I'm surprised. People who are you? I want to know you! :) Anyway, as the fall kicked in, I dream to be on the sandy beaches of Tel Aviv...Galushki was just 8 month and just  discovered the sand.. Enjoy!

The pianist

I hate riding subways in summer, it is terribly hot in there. I simply cannot sustain it. This was the reason I moved to the City two years ago, so I can walk. I usually run fast to get to my train and trying to be out of there as soon as possible. 

Three years ago, changing trains at Union Square,  I stumbled upon this boy. 12 years old Jason Cordero 

from Ecuador, was sitting there and playing Beethoven in a white synthetic suit. It was about 95 degrees outside and probably 100 inside, but all of a sudden I didn't care. I stopped. I was standing there for about 

half an hour listening to him with another 30 or so people. I wanted to cry, he was so good. His father was 

standing near for the safety.Back then I took a picture and posted it on Facebook saying that I have seen an

amazing boy.

I didn't forget him, but I haven't seen him anymore. I also stopped using subways shortly after.

Jason Cordero, Summer 2010

Tel Aviv, the tastes of.

It is very hard to be in Israel and not to eat good. It is simply impossible not to eat. Israeli culture swivels around eating and even if you land at an average restaurant, you will not be disappointed.  Though I had a long list of places I wanted to visit, I reached to only part of them. Below are my quick impressions. 

24/7 breakfasts at Benedikt from around the world. Rothschild blvd 29,+972 3 6868657

Galilee the Wine County

During this trip I have been reminded again and again that Israel is truly a beautiful and a magnificent country. It has it all. Beautiful nature, people, food, art, attraction of all sorts and mostly brain. Everybody here loves to say, that Israeli brain works all the time and will manage everywhere. So, it manages very well in the upper Galilee, creating one of the best wines in the world. Not many of you know, but Israel has a very substantial wine making market and Galilee is the heart and soul of it. Situated 1000 meters above the sea level, Galilee has a rich history of cultivating grapes and making wine as long as 2000 years ago. It has the climate, the soils, the slopes, the elevations and everything necessary to create the unique tastes and qualities that can easily compete with Napa or France. Dalton, Yarden, Gamla, Barkan etc., are the famous commercial  brands, that export millions of bottles every year world wide. Among them there are also medium size wineries and the boutique ones. You will need at least a month to visit all of them, we had only one day.
I was lucky to find a map of all Israeli wineries in the blog of somebody called Yossi. Comes out Yossi is a wine lover, who made an outstanding job of mapping all the wineries of Israel with their websites, addresses and phone numbers, on one simple Google map. "What a great man this Yossi"- I thought thanking him from the bottom of my heart for doing this. From now on I'm faithful Yossi's blog subscriber. Consequently, based on the map we started to head North to the Upper Galilee.

As expected the panorama was absolutely stunning. We couldn't help, but to stop every 20 minute to photograph again and again. Just breathing the air and enjoying this nature alone was already worth the trip. All I wanted was to pull out a blanket ,to lay down on the hill, to watch the sky and to get lost in it.

JerusalemILoveYou

It was erev Shavuot when we decided to go to a day trip to Jerusalem. The weather was beautiful, savta* didn't work and could babysit Galushki, visiting Kotel on erev hag* was a given. Everything seemed to work our way and what a great day for driving. 

One Day or Tel-AvivILoveYou#1

This weekend has started with a sunny shishi boker* at Kerem haTaimanim (vineyards of yemenites), in Tel-Aviv with my dear newly married friends Debbi and Yonnatan(whose few wedding pictures you can see here). We sat at a lovely hole in the wall eatery "Shimon Melech haMarakim"(Shimon the king of soups) and ate an authentic Yemenite zoharaim* with Lahoh, Hilbe and Yemenite chicken soup. 

Bubik takes Tel Aviv!

After eating a huge bowl of pasta at midnight, I've got inspired to start writing. This post I would like to dedicate to Galushki, as all in all our trip is well concentrated around her and around her discovering Tel-Aviv. Tomorrow she is turning 9 month old and it comes out this is the first time that we are spending together as a family. Needless to say that Bubik seems to be in heaven to be with her both parents on vacation, and doing that in Tel Aviv just completes the picture. As I mentioned in the previous posts, she is all smiles. She seems to like it here a lot. But of course, how can it be any different if she is a center of attention everywhere she goes to, even on the street. Everybody loves Bubik. If we would count all the compliments she gets in a day, it would probably get even to1 in every 5 minutes. She sings in the stroller a-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti and waves to by-passers like she is a princesse of Wales. This is her first summer ever - 'sun is shining, the weather is sweet' in Tel-Aviv, which is a very bachelor and kid oriented place, at least as it seems to me ( aside of its narrow sidewalks that some of them do not allow to pass with a tractor stroller as ours). There are plenty of playgrounds, and jamborees, (where Galushki loves to make new friends) and they are free, unlike in New York. Another highlight of being in Israel is that Galushki goes crazy about the food! She loves pita bread, hummus, kuskus, falafel, 'ptitim'* and Bamba (thanks Eli & Carmela) along with variety of fruits and vegetables and yes, we are past the allergy warning- she eats everything! 

This is a very special time, when there are only us. I love to observe her,to learn about her and to bond with her. Seeing her as happy as she is right now, makes me wonder if this time could last forever and it also makes me think that we are a damn pretty happy family and this is all that matters tfu tfu tfu hamsa hamsa hamsa!

She is still our cutest little terrorist and when you get on her bad side she will scream your ears out, but I hope this is just a sign of a strong character and persistence. Below are the images from different days in different places, that I will elaborate on a little later. In a meanwhile enjoy Bubik in detail.

notice of renewal

So the computer is finally fixed and my leg is doing much better:) I can walk again and post again! Very exiting, as I haven't post once since our arrival because of the mentioned above. I genuinely hoped to write every day, but it seems like somebody has laughed at my plans and did it veeery aggressively :).

Now I'm facing a challenge of packing tons of pictures, stories and recommendations in a few posts. So get ready everything is coming.. and at once!

Debby And Yonnatan Mazal Tov!

May 9th, 2013 was a special day, as my dear friend Debby got married to a wonderful guy Yonnatan.
The wedding was a true simcha*, I have never seen my husband dancing so much and also pulling me after him to the dancing floor :). Everything was beautiful starting from the Hupa at the sundown to the venue itself, the food and the music, which was unexpectedly eclectic, but fun at the same time. People were dancing to yemenite music, 70s,80s,90s, tango, salsa, rock, disco, french, spanish and even to russian songs(in my honor :) even i didn't have one on my wedding ). It was everything the wedding should be and I think it says a lot about the couple. We have enjoyed a lot and I can not describe how happy I am, that they found each other and make such a beautiful union. I wish you guys the best of the best and and hope to see you soon in NYC.
Unfortunately our camera and phone died right before the wedding so I have only few poor shots. But it is still better then nothing!

Galushky's flight to Tel-Aviv

We are in Tel-Aviv! I'm seriously excited and finally feel home! The weather is great , the people are cool, and the food is wonderful as usual. And oh my! finally good coffee! I feel blessed! We are just over the jet lag and are planning our time.
Our accommodation turned out to be perfect, we rented a beautiful, renovated two bedroom apt near the Rothschild-Shenkin corner, so everything is near and convenient. I think we got really lucky. By the way this apartment is available for rent through out the year...

KIng George St, Tel Aviv

To all who were wondering and scared for us travelling with the baby :), our flight was painless :). Galushka slept all the time, ocasionally waking up with a smile on her face and going back to sleep. She literaly didn't make a sound! In general she has been a very happy baby since we left NY. She smiles at people, waves hi and gives hi-fives and of course cannot be unnoticed due to her chubby pulkes and cheeks!

Bye Bye NYC, Hello TLV

Our lovely family is going to be on the airplane to Tel-Aviv in half an hour! We are so exited, especially Bubik. She laughs with her 2 teeth every time I'm telling her "Bubik nosaat le Tel-Aviv!"*.Finally we are going to have some new scenery to get inspired from. As much as we love New York City, this is a place where we work and lately there was too much of it! Kind of draining. But oto-to**, we are going to be recharging and partying our heads off in one of the most welcoming cities in the world, while savta** is babysitting :) Those who never been to Tel-Aviv and are not familiar with this city, will be able to learn all about it in my further posts. 

In a meanwhile lets talk a little more about NYC. There are two places I have recently visited that I would like to share. The best sushi in NYC, period, is Sushi of Gari.  402 E 78th St, NYC (212) 517-5340 (the original location). 

This place well deserves its Michelin star together with a wide recognition from many of Manhattanites. Chef's sushi 

omakase is probably the best choice you can make to get your overall impression.This will consist of 12 pieces of 

sushi out of this world.Though it wasn't our first time we still like to order omakase and to be surprised. No soy sause 

is used at this place, as one of the rules of the chef, and you will have no regrets.

Israeli Rock does exists!

Who knows me well enough, is aware that I have never really liked Israeli Rock. I can not exactly explain why, but I just didn't want to accept its existence. I would always rather listen to Eyal Golan and Shlomi Shabat or any other mizrachi performer. This is my inner frecha in me is speaking. I grew up in Bat-Yam. Deal with it. :) 

Well, things changed few days ago when we went to Yom Azmaut party to see Mashina and Dag Nahash. And what can I say, probably not enough... 

First of all, comes out I know all Mashina songs by heart! YooHoo! I didn't expect that from myself! When you listen to them life with another hundreds of Israelis around you, it is "ashkara"* gets to you. All of a sudden I felt at home, the way I didn't feel for a long time. Especially when people around me were trying to squeeze in closer to the stage and push in all directions "be si hahuzpa"*(of course I pushed back in order to protect my space "be si hahuzpa"). Then somebody screamed from behind "boena! eize simla yaffa esh la zoti! kusit haval al hazman!" pointing on a singer Yael Dekelbaum, who  was performing, while I was exactly thinking "what an ugly dress she is wearing". Then the lovely president of America-Israel came on stage to present Mashina and asked from Israelis not to be Israelis and to book their tickets for the next performance on May 30th, by Mush Ben Ari ASAP. Israeli flags were being waved in the crowd. It felt good. 

Mashina performed the best of their songs, and though Yuval Banai looked very weird when he was dancing( not sure if he imagined himself a bird, a dolphin, or just being in the 80s), he gave the audience his 100%. The vibe was amazing and reached its peak when him and Yael Dekelbaum (who pretty much annoyed me in the beginning) gave the performance of their lives with a blues song "kulam omrim li tizaer"*. Terrific performance! I was reluctantly looking at the watch, realizing that we need to leave soon to let our babysitter go, and I was just hoping that the time would freeze and we would stay more.

We didn't see almost anything from "HaDag Nahash" and we totally missed Matisiahu, but we still left happy and satisfied :)

I'm glad to admit - Israeli Rock exists! See some pictures and videos inside.

    Terminal 5 before the performance

Morimoto

One of the best spent evenings of last January was our 3rd anniversary dinner at Morimoto restaurant in meatpacking district.Since our beautiful Galia came out into this world, this type of nights became rare and therefore much more appreciated. The restaurant is run by the famous Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto and Stephen Starr and designed by not less famous architect Tadao Ando. So eating deliciously in style was a given.

We have ordered an Omakase, "i'll leave it to you" from Japanese, with a tasting of Sake and of course some rose champagne, that for some reason wasn't rose at all.

The dishes were arriving one by one, and even that I didn't bring my D90 in order not to look touristy and bloggish, I couldn't help myself, but snap pictures with iPhone. Overall impression: highly recommended ,but don't order rolls, surprise yourself...

Enjoy the reportage below:

                      Rose which didn't look like Rose...

A Tribute to Galushki!

   Our little Bubik turned 5 month last Friday! This is quite incomprehensible to me as I still remember with horror the night she was born, like yesterday! go to hell Lenox Hill and Dr. G! Still convinced I didn't need this c-section. We became a real family and I have never imagined how much joy and happiness she will bring to us! At first I was quite overwhelmed, as somehow nobody ever disclosed to me what it really means to have a newborn. My pregnancy went so smooth that I was sort of in denial of fore coming reality.I didn't read any books and didn't ask any questions. I was sure that during my 3 months of maternity leave I will pretty much pass all my 7 exams to be a licensed Architect in NYC. Yes, very funny!  The hardest thing was a package of sleep deprivation, recovering from c- section, and coming in terms with my new life [that will never be the same again]. I did feel at times like I'm still at school working my ass off on a project with no deadline, cause there is none. However this phase lasted about a month, then things became easier. Now I can confidently say that Galushki turned out to be by far the best and the most amazing project I've ever done! I really don't know how I was living without her all my life. In a way I didn't, cause I feel like my life just began [again]...

Many beautiful pictures of 5 months Bubik's photo-shoot inside. Photography by me.

Happy New Year!

Dear All!

The 2013 is here and I hope all of you have celebrated as much as you possibly could!
We had it in two parts:
first one was a very cute and cosy celebration with friends (where Galushki proved herself as a rare party animal, compared to a 18 month old boy who happened to be at the party as well and peacefully  fell asleep at 9 pm).
second one at home while watching TV with a small "tazik of Olivie salad" (the Russians among you will get my nostalgic note), a wonderful bottle of Brut Rose Champagne, a fireplace, chocolate and of course my grandmothers crystal flutes.
Both were wonderful and I thank our beautiful friends for making this evening so special! and of course Galushki who was an amazing girl the whole night!

BF 2012

Was going through latest photos in our camera and founds these from our BF stroll in the city. To those who don't live in US, Black Friday is an official beginning of winter holidays in US! Everybody shops and everybody sells. Stores around the country start their winter sales. All of a sudden parks and public squares get filled up with pretty stalls of hand made jewelry, clothes, furniture, chocolates, teas etc. These are the perfect markets to buy gifts and stuff. This year, due to having our little Bubik with us, we decided to spend our Black Friday in central park away from the crowds - but only after grabbing 2 hot chocolates at a Briant park stall where all the crowds are...:) 

Press below to look at some pretty photos we made.

Ice skating at Briant Park has already started.

open house

So there was another open house today- a crooked tiny wreck in Park Slope, with horrible basement and dancing walls. 16x30 yard in the back for close to 1 mill. The only good thing about it was, that it is actually still livable, but in desperate need of demolition...Lot is 16x70 with FAR of 2, meaning there are 2240 build-able .. and this is legal 2 families- what a rip off.. But people a so hot and crazy about Park Slope that they would readily give more then the asking price for this sort of property. It doesn't make any sense!!
I mean, how can you pay so much money, just to demolish and start building from scratch?! Moreover, they bring suitcases w/cash and close the deal on the spot.
Is it me being blond or the whole world goes KAPUT?
Anyway I'm off to make my favorite family meal-goulash with mashed potatoes. Yammi!

I WANT

so It is 2am saturday night, I'm sitting in front of the computer and trying to do my portfolio which had to be done like about 3 years ago?  Hmm.. my mind though, goes full gas on neutral. I can not stop thinking, and all these thoughts about life and its meaning are driving me nuts! Even my physiotherapist asked me this week "Kamilla, what are you thinking so loudly about?". Honestly, about everything. I feel like I'm having a second Yom Kipur here, where I'm constantly doing "hesbon nefesh". I'm thinking about who I'm and where I'm in life, where I'm heading to and where do I want to see myself in a few years. What do I want? starting from finally reading Tolstoy's "War & Peace" I owe it to my Russian heritage, and finishing with eventually getting my license to be a lawful architect in NY State. otherwise why did I literally sacrificed my 20-s for all of these sleepless nights?  I'm 30 years old, I have a wonderful family: a terrific husband and a superski cute and chubby 4 month old baby. I love my in-laws and I live in NYC. I have a job as an Architectural/Interior designer in a boutique, little firm which does superb high-end residencies, but unfortunately doesn't pay my bills that much.. And here I'm running after my big and little dreams, without looking forward to see where I'm actually going :) This is so much me. At least let me write it down and clear some mess...

Recipe for a perfect breakfast.

So here are the benefits of living in the city- you can take a short car/subway ride to Houston st. straight to Russ & Daughters deli! This is what my hubby did this morning and consequently surprised me with this amazing breakfast! By the time me and Bubik were waking up, wondering where our Aba has disappeared, Aba was stubbornly waiting in line, making a list of delicacies to buy, which was getting bigger and bigger the longer he was waiting...:)

So what do you need for perfect breakfast? Element of surprise of course.. and..

 

2 bagels & 3 bialys

Is your husband Asian?

This question comes up at every store I go to. Hmm.. Is it really so obvious? LOL .What do u think?