Halvah Heaven

Slight twist in posts today. This is an unabashed plug! One of the Fulbright elves in Washington sent me an e-mail earlier this week. Elves are all those folks who work behind the scenes to make programs such as my Fulbright happen. Lamese said her uncle ran a halvah shop in the Old City. She knew it was in the muslim quarter, but didn't know where exactly it was. This afternoon, we took advantage of another 70 degree day and wandered over to the Old City. We climbed Mt. Zion, walked past King David's tomb, a Holocaust memorial, the church commemorating the spot where Mary died, the spot where the Last Supper took place, and finally reached the Zion Gate. Unlike the Jaffa and Damascus Gates, cars actually drive in THROUGH the Zion Gate (movie below). After walking our favorite route through the Cardo (both Pam and Noa have blogged on this,) we found ourselves at the start of the muslim quarter. Figuring the world had to be pretty small, we stopped at the first sweet shop we found. Pam asked the shopkeeper if he knew where the halvah shop Al-Amad was. Did he ever! Just seven shops further down the road, Suq Khan Ez-Zeit. Sure enough there was the halvah shop. We asked the gentleman if his neice was Lamese. He said they were related! We had accomplished a needle in a haystack task! We enjoyed terrific, three layer halvah this evening and have another treat awating us tomorrow. It is almond, sugar, coconut, sesame seeds. If you are ever in the old city, just around the corner from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, stop by Al-Amad for delicious halvah. Ribhi Amad will be happy to serve you. It is definitely worth a trip. Oh, and it is special holiday in the US....