CITY Issue 58

CITY LIFE / THE AMUSED BOUCHE BY EVA HABERG EATING (IN) STYLE Finagling for falafel in Jerusalem I ’m in the rab quarter of the Jerusalem ma ket with my f iend David. We’ve been walking fo about minutes, ﬁ st to t y to get into the Dome of the Rock (built on the spot whe e Muhammad was supposed to have ascended into heaven) and then to ﬁ nd this hummus place that’s supposed to be the best in all of Is ael. David stops eve y few stalls and asks the owne s fo the name of the place, saying what sounds to me like, “ bu Suga y?” They point down a long, cobblestone path, lined on each side with shops displaying eve ything f om ﬂoo -length jackets to a py amid const ucted enti ely out of zata . Eve y few stalls, we ask: “ bu Suga y?” nd eve y few stalls me chants point with an open palm: that way. We keep walking th ough the laby inth, and ﬁ nally this last “ bu Suga y?” p ompts someone to point back in the di ection we came f om. We had missed the ent ance, but now we’ e the e. bu Suga y. We sit down at a table in the back. We o de hummus – no fowl, but pine nuts, falafel, and tomato salad. This place hits eve ything on my list — hole in the wall, slightly di ty, known only to locals — and I’m out of my mind with excitement. The hummus comes. It is amazing, of cou se. C eamy, but not in that c eepy supe ma ket way; c unchy with pine nuts, but not too c unchy. The falafel, too, is c isp-f ied and pa sley-pe fect. This feels no mal to me, sitting in this th owntogethe ma ket stall of a estau ant, but as I’m ﬁgu ing out how to ﬁnagle the ﬁnal falafel f om David, I emembe the ﬁ st time I visited Is ael, fou yea s ago, and how I despe ately t ied to ﬁ nagle my way out of a t ip to Je usalem’s othe “best” falafel place. I was convinced I didn’t like falafel. I hadn’t eve t ied it, but I hated the wo d — so full of f’s, and d y WE ARE WHAT WE EAT. BUT WE ARE ALSO HOW WE EAT. 44 CITY TY ///// / / / / / / / / / / sounding — and didn’t know what was in it, and didn’t want to. But I t ied one out of politeness to my hosts, and immediately o de ed seven. It’s d illed into us again and again — f om childhood into these pe ilous times today — that we a e what we eat. But we a e also ho we eat. The e a e little moments in my life that explain eve ything about my pe sonality th ough what, and how, I eat. I c ave the authentic, the t ue, the eal. I love expensive estau ants just as much as oadside stands, and I’m always sea ching fo the sec et — that ke nel of new identity that I can, by eating, take in and add to my po ous self. In the same way that I’m bulldozingly nosy about eve yone’s pe sonal business because I’m sea ching fo some so t of answe o code — and okay, I’m just nosy — I’m like a bloodhound fo a estau ant’s best dish: undaunted, excited, p obably a bit ove enthusiastic. e yea s of c ippling shyness that p evented me f om o de ing with any eal conﬁdence — I c inge at all the bo ing chicken dishes I o de ed out of panic — I’m compensating now, eminding myself to dive in, to ﬁ nd the best. I eat as a way of becoming who I want to be. nd the pe son I want to be is open to new expe iences, willing to t y new things, unaf aid of change. If fo a moment I pause befo e jumping into the wa m, gooey, out-of-this-wo ld veal-head te ine f om Momofuku Ssäm Ba , all it takes is emembe ing that gi l who didn’t want to t y falafel, even the best in the count y, simply because she hadn’t eve t ied it befo e. nd I’m doing it to communicate something. “Look,” I’m saying as I smea the gelatinous head fat on my b ead, “I am the kind of pe son who is not af aid.” It’s about d essing myself in a suit o a d ess I can unde stand, about having an identity I can always tu n to. Most of the time I’m p etty evenkeeled. But when I’m not, I know I can count on myself to take at least one bite of a sweetb ead, o taste some ma ket stall hummus, and I know that I won’t lose myself. ILLUSTRATION BY MATT ROTA

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CITY Issue 58

CITY Issue 58 Contents Have You Heard Our Friends Action Wanted City Moment The Amused Bouche Fast Food Temporary Contemporary In Rogue Diary Nicola Vassell Everard Findlay Milan Vukmirovic Lucas Ossendrijver When Fashion Met Architecture People: Person Behind Every Man... Eyeing the Room Mates Vagrant Saints Amplify Where to Buy It Icon

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