I feel like I’ve been giving a lot of previews to my articles lately … and this week is no different! All year, I’ve had a grand plan of writing a cholent review article of all of the fantastic places I’ve eaten cholent. However, after submitting a killer article to Michele, I found out that Israel has super-strict libel laws, and even though I only have positive things to say, I don’t see a reason to get sued over a seminary column. Therefore, I took out all the names of restaurants and just included the associated stories. If you happen to be a cholent connoisseur, I have full faith that based on the amount of identifying details I have provided over the year, you can get my number and ask for the list. Good luck 🙂
Let me set the scene. It’s a sunny Jerusalem Wednesday, not a cloud in the sky. At first glance, the day seems as ordinary as ordinary gets. Packed trains run to Tel Aviv and high-tech workers hurry around their offices, hoping to catch up on work missed, or, possibly, merely neglected.
Now, you may think that this slight workload increase is only a coincidence, but when you realize the day you are focusing on is Shushan Purim, it all makes sense. Two workdays were missed, and the Israeli world is as busy as it gets. Well, that is, except for Jerusalem.
If you would zoom in a little more, you would notice singing and dancing down cobblestone streets and hear the words of Megillat Esther emanating from Jerusalem stone.
Aaaaand, if you would look a little bit closer, you would see one seminary girl sitting in the Churva shul dressed as cholent meat.
Now for the context.
It was the first week of seminary, and I was feeling a little bit homesick. Now, when most people feel homesick, they typically call a friend or look at pictures, but, as you probably gauged by now, Talmidah Y is not exactly typical. Instead, there was a different craving: cholent.
When most people have an embarrassing wish, they usually suppress it and don’t advertise it to all of the strangers that they want to become friends with, but, alas, I did no suppressing, and instead started my favorite tradition of my seminary year: Thursday Night Cholent.
Over the course of the year, my friends and I have had the opportunity to taste myriads of cholents all across Israel, and I hereby present to you the highlights from our favorite experiences (It should be noted that it was soooo hard to keep some of these stories from you, but I’ve known all year that I wanted to write a cholent article, so I held out.)
Cholent X
On the fourth week of cholent hunting, we were faced with what I like to describe as “Fairytale Cholent.” Although the cholent here was delicious (I specifically recommend the sweet flavor), the storybook nature of the experience was actually totally unrelated to the food; it happened two doors down.
When I think back to that night, the only way I can describe it is by imagining my friends and me as Flynn Rider (Rapunzel’s prince) and the random girl who threw 100 shekel out the window for us to purchase cholent for her as Rapunzel. No joke. But let me backtrack.
It was still the early weeks of our cholent family. We had yet to introduce outside-of-MMYers to our little tradition, but we had no idea that we were about to get a new friend.
We heard her voice before we saw her. “Are you seminary girls? Can you help me?”
Given that we are, indeed, seminary girls, and are very well-trained to offer help when needed, we all immediately looked up and noticed an American Bais Yaakov girl sticking her head out the window. After more inquiry, we discovered that she was none other than an American seminary girl with an earlier curfew than ours and a massive cholent craving. What happened next renamed this girl “Rapunzel” in my head, forevermore. She motioned for us to wait a second, quickly ran into her room, and pulled out 100 shekel, which she subsequently threw out the window. B’H we were able to do the chesed of purchasing a container of cholent for her, thus getting schar and an amazing story.
Cholent Y
It was the height of our cholent career. On the Thursday night we visited Cholent Y, we managed to attract around ten girls to our cholent expedition. To you, that may not seem like so many, but when you take into account the fact that participation in the cholent festivities means having absolutely no time for productivity during dinner time, it’s actually a lot of girls.
While that detail may seem a bit irrelevant, it’s actually quite necessary for my parents to not freak out from this story.
After picking up cholent and poppers (so yummy, by the way), all ten of us happily plopped down on a random street corner in Meah Shearim. Probably not our best call. We got a few confused looks from passersby, but no one said anything until a young woman appeared.
At first, it seemed that she came to discipline us; after all, we were crowding her street corner. However, it quickly became clear that her mention of our bizarre seating arrangement was less rebuke and more of an invitation into her home.
After a bit of back-and-forth among the group (I, for one, was not so keen to the idea), we decided that since our group was so big, it was pretty safe to visit just about anywhere in Meah Shearim. So, visit we did, and as we licked off our bowls, we were full of cholent, laughter, and a little bit of Chassidishe Torah. I call that a win.
Cholent Z
Recently, my friends and I have gotten a little too lazy to choose new, cool cholent places every week. Instead, we’ve gotten pretty comfortable with a delicious shoebox of a store directly across from the Mir Yeshiva (I promise that’s not why we go). This store was recommended in an article that my friend Talmidah L discovered back in September, but, for some reason, it took us until mid-February to go. However, once we went, we couldn’t stop. Until we needed to.
The week after Pesach, we had been warned to double-check that any restaurant we wanted to go to had sold their chametz before Pesach. Needless to say, asking a yeshivish American cholent worker in Meah Shearim for his shtar mechirat chametz is quite embarrassing. And, apparently, he thought so too, because, that night, we were told by a few MMY girls who visited Cholent Z a few minutes after us that the owner of the restaurant had found us quite amusing … and in his amusement, he told all of the Mir boys who visited that night about the crazy MMY girls who had the audacity to ask for his shtar. Unsurprisingly, we’re too embarrassed to go back. Way. Too. Awkward.
In the original version of the article, I included a list of all of the cholent places I ate at this year, but, again, because I don’t want to be sued over this, I will instead await the text of whichever one of you has figured out who I am by now. I guarantee you, the list is worth it.