Thứ Hai, 23 tháng 1, 2012

Slovakia -- in the Presov Synagogue, a musician deals with a cellphone interruption

Presov synagogue. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber


By Ruth Ellen Gruber

This is too good not to post..... at a concert last year in the magnificent synagogue in Presov, in eastern Slovakia, a young violinist (or violist), Lukas Kmit, deals with consummate class with a cellphone interruption..... there have been suggestions that this might be a viral ad for Nokia -- but it looks and sounds real to me! (You can hear the concert audience).


Thứ Năm, 19 tháng 1, 2012

Eight Lido Restauant & Cafe (Dine, Wine, Unwind) at Johor Bahru.

Eight Lido Restaurant and Cafe (N1.463042 E103.732175) is located along the coastal road - Jalan Skudai of Johor Bahru. Unique name isn't it? It's the lot number of the building, Number 8 along Lido Beach. :)

I was invited by Mr Euginn (Nov 2011) for the foods tasting at the restaurant that night together with others food reviewer and bloggers, it also a good opportunity for me to explore around this nice architecture bungalow house...

Too bad it was dark when I reached the restaurant, I miss the nice panorama view of the Johor Straits...let me show you some photos of the restaurant...

The outdoor drinking area...

The indoor area...

The dining area...

The romantic corner for couple...

Nice lighting...

The bar area...

The wine cellar...

Every corners were decorated nicely and beautiful! The rustic ambience display by the warm light makes the area feel comfort and relax...like the cozy feeling very much!

Once we introduced each others and invited by the Restaurant Manager to the upper lever for some Spanish Tapas.

Everyone were busy talking and chatting before the Tapas serve...

Once the bell rang...the food served!

Spanish Tapas

The lamb meatball...

I like the Yummy lamb ball! The shape of beancurd look alike which had a strong cheese taste was really special and nice! Too bad, I didn't get the name of each Tapas...
Well...as usual, everyone busy taking photo of the foods...

Food photos session...

The friendly Manager - Mr Prakash introduced the foods to the gentlemen...

Mr Prakash and the bloggers...

I finished the lonely prawn (below) without other notice! Ops!

One of the Tapas served...

Next...we were invited to the dining area for western food dinner...

I forgot to tweet...Ops again!

Before the dinner serve, another chit-chat session going on...

After a short speech from Mr Prakash...the dinner started...

First, Mushroom soup with garlic bread...

Mushroom soup with garlic bread...

Figure 'Eight' presented in the soup...

Satisfied! Creamy!

Second course...Twin serving - Smoke Salmon and NZ Lamb Rack.

Smoke Salmon and NZ Lamb Rack

The Salmon was good with the Citrus Mustard Sauce, but the Rack of Lamb was dry and it was not tender enough...maybe I was the unlucky one...

The dry Lamb Rack...

Third course - Lamb Shank and NZ Tenderloin Steak...

Lamb Shank (up) and NZ Tenderloin Steak (down)

Lamb shank was tender and Delicious! Everyone like it and we finished it within 5 minutes! The medium rare NZ Tenderloin was nice and flavourful...but I prefer medium...

Medium rare NZ Tenderloin Steak

I was totally Full after the third course! That made me activated my 'spare tank' for the dessert!

The Trio Dessert served right after the third course...

The Trio Dessert

 
The Bread and Butter pudding


The star-shaped Crème Brulee served with crunchy Caramelized top layer

Sangria fruit pudding

Among all, I like the Bread & Butter very much. The Crème Brulee was nice especially the crunchy Caramelized layer, but it was too sweet for me...I like the aroma of the Sangria fruit pudding, too bad cannot finish it due to my 'spare tank' also Full!

Overall, I like the foods tasting organized by Euginn and thank you very much to Mr Allen from Eight Lido. It was a good opportunity and my pleasure to know others bloggers at Johor Bahru.

Below are the guests photos of the night...




It's Nice environment for dinner and I will come back for other dishes from Eight Lido!

Eight Lido Restaurant and Cafe
No. 8, Jalan Skudai, Straits View,
80200 Johor Bahru.
Tel: 607 – 2227 808, 2227 807  Fax: 607 – 2227 806


Location map of Eight Lido Restaurant and Cafe at Johor Bahru


Thứ Ba, 17 tháng 1, 2012

Czech Republic -- vandalism at Puklice Jewish cemetery

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Vandals have damaged or toppled about 10 gravestones in the centuries-old Jewish cemetery in Puklice, near Jihlava. The cemetery is listed as a national cultural monument and had recently undergone restoration. Police are investigating the vandalism, which was discovered in the first week of January.

The Puklice cemetery, which includes about 100 gravestones, is one of the oldest in the Czech Republic, probably founded in the 15th century. The oldest legible gravestone dates from 1699. The small Jewish quarter in the village itself is largely intact, with the remains of a mikvah and a former synagogue/school (now a residence).

Jaroslav Klenovsky, who oversees Jewish heritage in Moravia for the Federation of Jewish communities, told Czech media that the vandalism was likely not a specifically anti-semitic attack, but the work of "young offenders."

You can see a video of the damage HERE.

Thứ Sáu, 13 tháng 1, 2012

Made Cafe & Bagus Cafe at Jimbaran Bay, Bali.


After the disappointed sunset at Tanah Lot Temple, we proceed to Jimbaran Bay for dinner. This time we decided to try another cafe/restaurant other than LIA Cafe. The duration took us about 30-45 minutes from Tanah Lot Temple to Jimbaran Bay.

We chose the Made Cafe & Bagus Cafe (S8.78052 E115.16482) which was recommended by our drivers.

The staffs here were friendly, we took the packages for total of 7 adults and 1 child. It included 2 glass of Balinese Red Wine and the seafood....
The foods served on our table about 20 minutes, well...it was fast enough!

At first, the chili and the dark sauce were served on table...then following by the vegetables...

The chili and the sauce...

The vegetables

Then follow by all the seafoods...

Balinese baked prawns

Squids

Clams

Balinese baked lobsters

Balinese baked fish

Every dishes served double...
All dishes were Delicious!! I like the baked fish very much! The lobsters were a bit dry but still Nice! We like the Balinese taste and my daughter had a lot of the prawns...all of the dishes went well with the Bintang Beer!
This is one of the recommended Seafood Restaurant at Jimbaran Bay!

The Bintang beer

The Damage : around IDR800,000 (about MYR285) for 7 adults and 1 child included drinks. That was reasonable!

We took more than 2 hours to enjoy our meals together with the sea breeze...sometimes it's fun to watching the planes take off and landing at the Ngurah Rai International Airport at the other end...

If you visit Jimbaran Bay for seafood dinner, I will recommend you to try this cafe! You won't regret. :)

After the dinner, we said bye-bye to Bali on the next day...Bali, I'll see you again!

Made Cafe & Bagus Cafe at Jimbaran Bay, Bali

Related post :-
My Bali trip on June 2011
My Bali trip on June 2010

Location map of Made Cafe & Bagus Cafe at Jimbaran Bay, Bali


Ukraine -- Shtetl trippin'

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

The JTA's young correspondent Alex Weisler, who just finished a 6-month stint roving in Europe, has written a pair of stories about his whirlwind visit to his ancestral shtetl, Shatsk, in Ukraine, as well as on Jewish heritage travel in Ukraine in general -- from the perspective of a non-Jewish guide, Alex Dunai.

For me and my family, Shatsk has always seemed like an impossibly exotic travel destination. I found it hard to believe that, as the Ukrainian census informed me, about 6,000 people lived there. Or that it had a nightclub called Sinatra and several ATMs.

But somehow, you can drive to Shatsk -- and you don't even need a souped-up DeLorean. After just four hours on roads whose quality varied from poor to middling to dear-God-is-this-a-road, my mother, our guide and I had traded the comparatively cosmopolitan Lviv -- which was feverishly preparing for the 2012 European soccer championship -- for the dusty roads of Shatsk, which lay dormant in the absence of summer's rush of tourists. [...]

For 22 years, I had wondered what Shatsk meant for me. Was it a living, breathing place? Or just the graveyard of my family's past? Was it some hell my family had escaped from? Or the bucolic paradise they spent decades in America pining after?

I'm aware of the challenges that come with heritage tourism. I spent 36 hours in Shatsk. Who is to say I've learned anything substantive about a place to which I parachute in, hunt around for some information and snap a few photos? How can I be sure that my newfound connection to Ukraine and my long-lost relatives is something more than fetishizing the past and longing for an idealized Shatsk that may have never existed?

But if heritage tourism is an imperfect science, it's an important one. As a Jew in New York, it's easy to lose sight of history -- to view the past as a neat arc that started at Ellis Island, paused on a stoop in Brooklyn and triumphantly culminated in the green pastures of Westchester County or Long Island. If we consider the Old Country at all, it’s of a sanitized variety: Pop "Fiddler on the Roof" in the DVD player, rinse and repeat.

It  reminds me of the article I wrote for UPI many years ago when I first visited my own ancestral town on my father's side, Radauti. 


My first visit to Radauti, at the grave of my great-grandmother

And of the various other such stories I've written for other publications, including a JTA story on a more recent visit to Radauti. Here's the of the story I wrote for JTA about visiting Kalvarija, my ancestral town on my mother's side....

December 16, 1999
Ten Years After the Wall
Memories of lost family are conjured when walking in footsteps of the past

By Ruth E. Gruber


On a frosty November morning, I walked around the two massive, ruined synagogues that form a unique surviving Jewish complex in Kalvarija, a small, sleepy town in southern Lithuania near the border with Poland.

One of the synagogues was built in the early 18th century. Its roof had fallen in and its bottom windows were bricked up, but it was possible to see arches and other architectural detail and decoration.

The other, built in about 1803, was more or less intact, but crumbling. Between the two stood a red brick building, a former rabbi's house and a cheder, or Jewish school, with a big Star of David above the door.

As I have done in hundreds of other cities, towns and villages in more than a dozen countries, I took pictures of the synagogues from every angle.

With my eye focused through my camera, I didn't watch where I was walking. Suddenly, I tripped over a broken brick, half buried in the uneven yard, and went crashing to the ground.

Trying to save my cameras, I ended up twisting my ankle so that I could hardly walk.

The injury took weeks to heal fully, but everyone told me that my spill was beshert -- fated -- and maybe it was.

Kalvarija is the town from which my great-grandfather, Pesach Susnitsky, emigrated some 120 years ago, ending up in the small town of Brenham, Texas.

In Brenham, Pesach became Philip. He was the patriarch of a huge family of children, including my grandmother, who was born in Brenham, and a pious pillar of the Jewish community.

In Brenham, he helped found a Jewish congregation. The little wooden synagogue that was built in 1894 still stands.

When he left Kalvarija in about 1880, Jews made up more than 80 percent of the town's population. By 1939, it had dropped to about 25 percent, but still about 1,000 Jews lived in the town.

No Jews live there today, and I must say that given the depressing and bloody history of the town and region during World Wars I and II, and decades of later Soviet domination, I am enormously thankful that my great-grandfather had the courage to leave when he did.

Still, the buildings I was photographing were not just fascinating sites of Jewish heritage in general: they were the places where my ancestors worshiped and studied.

The streets of the town, with their small, mainly low wooden houses, and the central square dominated by a big, white church with two ornate towers, were the streets and square where my ancestors walked.

I had driven there with a friend after spending the night near the Polish town of Suwalki, about 20 miles to the south. Until a few years ago, such a day trip from Poland to Kalvarija would have been difficult if not impossible.

For one thing, American citizens today do not need a visa to enter Lithuania. While Kalvarija is the first town in Lithuania across the border from Poland, the border crossing-point was opened only four years ago.

I didn't have a real genealogical agenda for my visit -- I just wanted to see the town. But I had hoped to spend much of the day walking through the quiet streets, poking into corners and possibly talking to local people.

My injured ankle cramped my capabilities, though -- and here's where beshert comes in.

An old woman told us where the Jewish cemetery was located, on the other side of the little Sheshupa River that winds through the town, and my friend and I decided to drive straight there.

Pesach Susnitsky died in Texas in 1939 at the age of 83. Several years ago, I visited his grave in the Jewish cemetery in Brenham.

I had little hope of finding any Susnitsky graves in Kalvarija, but I was eager to visit the cemetery just to see it.

We found a small, fenced-in, triangular plot of ground right in front of a huge electric grid, which contained several dozen simple tombstones, some of them toppled.

Hobbling, I starting photographing the site. Just then an old man came by, wheeling a bicycle.

"I know everything, everything," he smiled. All his teeth were capped in gold. "I remember everything how it was."

He propped up his bike and began to talk. He described how the cemetery used to extend much, much further, stone after stone, all the way down to the river, but the Germans destroyed it, and most remaining stones were stolen.

Now on top of the area, there are ugly, poor barracks where people live -- with no indoor plumbing, they have to walk 50 yards or so to toilets. Pigs and dogs frolic around. A man passed by leading a cow.

Of the remaining graves, the only mausoleum, he said, was that of a certain Menashe who was a "millionaire."

I asked the old man if he remembered the Susnitsky family -- and he did.

"Of course! There were a lot of Susnitskys here, a lot." Particularly, he said, before the war, there were two Susnitsky brothers in town, Alter and Yankel, who must have been nephews or great-nephews of Pesach. "Alter was a big, tall man," he said. "Yankel was small, curved over and had a hunch back." He demonstrated, scooping out his own body.

The brothers lived together in a big house on a hill, he said -- and then he led us there to see it. Indeed, it was one of the most imposing wooden houses in the village. Undergoing some renovation, it even sported a satellite dish.

Both brothers were killed when the Germans deported the Jews to nearby Mariampole during World War II, he told us.

The old man said all the houses on this street were occupied by Jews, and that Jews lived all over the town. "So many, so many!" He gestured forlornly.

He was clearly nostalgic for past times -- and the disappearance of the Jewish community represented for him a change for the worse. Nonetheless, in describing the Jews in town, he used the Polish term Zydek or "little Jew" -- a term Jews regard as pejorative.

The Jews in Kalvarija were "good people," and "wealthy," the man said, they took care of each other and everyone got on with everyone.

"They were called Yankele, Alterke, Menashe, Meyshke," he recalled. "They would say, 'Oy vey, oy vey.'"

Thứ Ba, 10 tháng 1, 2012

Sunset of the Tanah Lot Temple, Bali

Visited the Tanah Lot Temple (S8.62073 E115.08705) again in our 2011 Bali's Trip. This is one of my Favorite places in Bali Island. The purpose of this visit was purely for photography, yeah...I'm trying to catch the spectacular sunset of Tanah Lot Temple...
You can view my last blog post about Tanah Lot Temple here.

But that seems like not a good weather for sunset, it was Cloudy...

Cloudy at Tanah Lot Temple, Bali

Let me share some of the photos of Tanah Lot Temple...

Tourists are queuing for the Temple Holy Water...

Pura Tanah Lot, Bali

The wave...

This time I tried to explore more...went to another cape...Scenic view! Breathtaking!

The path to another cape at Tanah Lot Temple area

Nice view but too bad it was cloudy...

This was the dangerous area! No railing at both side till the end of the path! Beware! But it was the Beautiful area for photography...


After I spend about 2 hours enjoying the breathtaking view, a deep breath and end my photography session...
There were still crowded during I walked back...

Many tourists still around...

The different view of Pura Tanah Lot, Bali

Well, I couldn't snap a nice sunset photo of Tanah Lot Temple this time, guess I still need to come back again! :)

Sunset of Tanah Lot Temple

Related post :-
My Bali trip on June 2011
My Bali trip on June 2010

Location map of Tanah Lot Temple at Bali.


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