A culinary festival starring the women next door

The Toshavim Mevashlim Festival gives amateur chefs a chance to shine.

By BUZZY GORDON
The food at the festival helped forge friendships between Jewish, Druse and Arab women (photo credit: BUZZY GORDON)
The food at the festival helped forge friendships between Jewish, Druse and Arab women
(photo credit: BUZZY GORDON)
The unprepossessing Haifa suburb of Kiryat Yam seems an unlikely venue for the national debut of an ambitious food festival, but the week of Purim turned out to be auspicious: The weather was ideal, the enthusiasm palpable and the food delicious.
By all accounts – from participants, visitors, organizers and city officials – the concept and execution of the Toshavim Mevashlim (Residents Cook) Festival were a resounding success.
The gathering, organized by Top Communications in cooperation with the Kiryat Yam Municipality and World ORT, was the largest food festival in the country this year, attracting some 500 local amateur chefs eager to showcase their wares. Some were there to test the waters in preparation for possibly converting their passion for cooking into a quasi-profession. With television’s The Food Channel helping spread the word, cooks from all over the Galilee registered for booths, bringing dishes from cuisines as diverse as Iraqi, Georgian, Moroccan, Druse, Arab, Indian and even Japanese.
“Participants paid NIS 200 per day to rent a booth and charged NIS 10 for each serving,” says Ofer Ohayon, the producer in charge of the event. “With just under 9,000 attendees over the five days of the festival, popular booths netted up to NIS 7,000 for the week – income that was certainly helpful for some families.”
Not without emotion, he adds that “what gave me the best feeling was watching the children feast with their eyes on the abundance and variety of food, and getting the chance to taste delicacies. In this neighborhood, there are kids who live on bread and margarine; here, parents can afford to treat them to fish and meat, which they may not have eaten for years. The looks on their faces have made this whole effort worthwhile.”
Another social aspect of the festival was no less heartwarming: the friendships that formed among Druse, Jewish and Arab women who were “neighbors” for several days of intense but enjoyable work.
Nava Malka, an effervescent Sephardi woman married to an Ashkenazi man, straddles two gastronomic worlds – and showed them both off during the festival. Her Iraqi kubbeh was a big hit, selling out every day, and shared pride of place in her booth with Romanian stuffed cabbage.
“I am grateful to the mayor for bringing this festival to Kiryat Yam,” she says. “It means a lot to me, since business is down at my store in Haifa while our street is under construction.”
During a lull between customers, Malka, who hosts the Facebook cooking page Banot Mevashlot (Girls Cook), showed photos on her smartphone to Assia, a woman from the Beduin village of Bir al-Maksur (near Shfaram). They were joined by Susu from the Druse village of Daliat al-Carmel, and posed for a photo to commemorate the convivial atmosphere that had brought them together.
The festival was an opportunity for Malka to see what would sell at her stand at Hutzot Hamifratz, Haifa’s weekly market for Shabbat takeaway. More established businesses – specializing in everything from pizza to burekas, and from desserts to falafel – were also there to gain exposure. One of the more creative was Mamtakei Ma’ayan. Based in the Druse village of Usfiya, it sells mouthwatering knafeh, baklava and other Middle Eastern sweets – which are strictly kosher.
Adjacent to the main hall housing the cooks’ booths was an arena for workshops conducted by leading chefs such as Eyal Shani, Avi Biton and Aviv Moshe. There was also a farmers’ market selling exotica: roasted Mongolian chestnuts; a new brand of alcoholic apple cider from the Golan; and a large selection of spices, sauces and marinades from around the world. A small amusement park for children operated on the premises outdoors, while evening entertainment featured a different theatrical or musical performance each night.
Having tasted success, Kiryat Yam officials plan on making Toshavim Mevashlim an annual event. Like the proliferating yearly “Adloyada” Purim parades, the food festival starring your neighbors may well become a trend-setter for other communities to follow.


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