Here’s to you 5A… The Inaugural Shawarma

I want to dedicate this post to my old roommates in New York, who as I understand it through a large “We Miss Yoel” dinner over the past holiday in my honor. Thanks guys. You are the best roommates a guy could ever ask for.

We arrived at Hashamen at around 6 pm after not having eaten since breakfast in the Dead Sea. It was so on. We ordered 6 Laffas and went to town.

For those of you who are not familiar with the Shawarma process here is a short tutorial:

1.       Salty mystery meat usually called “Turkey,” “Dark Meat Chicken” or “Lamb” rotates on long skewers as pieces of fat are melted over the meat from burners that surround the meat.

Cuttin the meat

2.       After you choose your meat, you must “choose” your bread. I put this choose in quotes because it is not really a choice – theoretically, you can choose a lafa, a soft delicious round piece of bread that encompasses all that is good in a Shawarma or a pita. Not to knock the official bread of the Middle East, but when you are sitting down for a kilo-calorie feast of fat covered meat, a pita just doesn’t cut it. Pitas are always cheaper because they hold less and are just not meant for Shawarma. Ordering Shawarma in a pita is like bringing a fork to a hot dog eating contest – it just doesn't belong. Now before I rant for too long about pita vs. lafa (again not a contest – its like a male figure skater vs an NFL linebacker – just different purposes), let me get on to step 3.

3.       Order the fixings. There are certain go-to things that are put in a Shawarma. You start with choosing hummus, then hot sauce, then chips (French/Freedom fries). I am not sure if it is like the Soup Nazi that you have to start that way, but I have never seen someone ask for chips, charif (hot suace) and hummus – the order always goes “Chummus, kitzat charif, v’chips” (hummus, a little hot sauce and fries) or in my case “b’liy chips” – without chips.

4.       We then move onto the salads. There is classic Israeli salad - cucumbers, tomatoes and onions, pickles, cabbage, onions and depending on the place a few others.

5.       Then sauces – everyone knows tehina and then there is its lesser known cousin – Amba, a spicy mango sauce that is mad good. If your falafel/Shawarma place does not have Amba, it is likely not legit.

Itay is not pointing at the Amba - its on the bottom left

6.       There is also the salad bar which had choices of other classic – mostly pickled – salads and toppings that you can either enjoy on the side or put on top of your Shawarma bite by bite. A good place like Hashamen will let you go to town on the salad bar, realizing that the cost of salad is marginal.

 

7.       Enjoy

The Residual Grease... Yummy

All in, we ordered 6 Shawarma Laffas and some drings for just over $70 bucks… it was a delicious bargain. We feasted. Here is to me not eating Shawarma every meal since I arrived, contrary to my supportive roommate’s predictions. After writing this, I am going to have to have another soon.

The Office - My Arrival At GSE

I started work at GSE on Sunday. I arrived at 8 am, not wanting to show up late. When I got there, the receptionist and partner that was speaking to her both knew who I was… the guy from Duff. The receptionist called my boss to be, Udi, and informed me that he’d be in in about an hour. In the mean time, per partner suggestion, she showed me around the office. We wend down the hall where I was shown my seat – a pseudo desk at the end of a real desk.

I'm on the left

Living the Dream

 I dropped my stuff and we continued the tour. It consisted of “here is where we get coffee, milk and eat lunch… and here is the mens room.” The tour finished with “let me know if you need anything.” That’s Israel nice and blunt.

 An hour later, Udi arrived and I spoke with him about what I did at Duff and what he does ad GSE. He has a very impressive background and I am sure I will learn a lot from him. When I got back to my seat – in the office directly across the hall from Udi’s, I realized immediately that my new boss can see me at all times from his seat with both out office doors open…  Udi is watching - joking.

The view when I swivel around... that's Udi's seat.

I got back to my seat and to met my office mate Uri… yes I sit next to Uri and report to Udi, as does Uri. Uri is the sweetest, nicest guy a newcomer to an office could ask to sit next to. In my three days here, he has already given me a ton of helpful insight and advice into the workplace and Israel as a whole. He is by no means a pushy guy, but he keeps telling me “In Israel if you want something you have to take it.” I have not been here long, but I can tell that its the truth. Uri just joined GSE a about two months ago, and was previously an accountant at BDO Seidman in Israel. He is also a really smart guy and in addition to working as an accountant, Uri has been teaching auditing at several universities for the past few years.

As the day progressed, people from the office came by to speak with Udi or Uri and I was introduced to a lot of people in the office. The most Israeli moment of the day came when I stood up to shake a guys hand and he said to me while sizing me up and down “wow, you are a lot taller than you looked sitting down. You must have odd proportions.” I was kind of shocked and didn't know what to say. I just looked at him for a minute, kind of laughed it off and said “haha maybe.”

I spent my first three days in the office working on projects and assignments that I had been working on in New York. So far, I described it to my old roommate, Michael Shiner, that it’s like I’m working in New York, only I get in very early, people don't respond to emails till the afternoon and I get emails all night long. Obviously there are many differences, but thankfully so far the work has transitioned well.