Rosh Hashanah - Gifts for the new Jewish year

Sit back, enjoy the best possible food you can cook, raise your glasses and let us all pray for a good and healthy new year.

Morphy Richards pots (photo credit: Courtesy)
Morphy Richards pots
(photo credit: Courtesy)
With or without friends, the New Year is always a good time to give friends and family gifts – from small chocolate boxes to a new scent or cooking utensils, as everything goes when it comes to Rosh Hashanah. So sit back, enjoy the best possible food you can cook, raise your glasses and let us all pray for a good and healthy new year.
All for the best
Abracadabra is a small Israeli fashion and design firm started by Vered Glicksman. The designer believes in the power of words and sentences to change reality and for the coming holidays she designed cloth face masks, as well as tablecloth runners with sentences that creates better reality. The design is cool and the sentences fun – whether you believe in the idea of thought and words transforming reality, or not. A wonderful idea for a gift. NIS 60 for mask, not including delivery cost. Available at www.etsy.com/il-en/shop/ABRACADABRAfashion?ref=seller-platform-mcnav or write to abracadabravbg@gmail.com
Fresh herbs year-round
Based on technology developed by NASA, the “Click and Grow” smart indoor planter allows anyone anywhere and in any season, to grow herbs, vegetables and flowers at home. The new smart planter needs water and an electric socket. That’s it. The light attached is programmed to work 16 hours and automatically switches off, letting the plants “sleep” for eight hours. This Smart Garden will allow you to eat better and worry less 365 days a year. The seeds come in capsules and there’s an app that will teach you all you need to know. Sold with everything, including three Basil capsules, and it looks very hi-techy. Love it. Available only at Betili stores and online at www.betili-shop.com. NIS 399 for a planter with three capsules, NIS 798 for a planter with 9 capsules.
Gluten-free New Year
Bli Kemach is a very successful patisserie that offers gluten-free baked goods to die for. Bakers Dan Davis and Oren Dagan-Kfir celebrate Rosh Hashanah offering hand-made cakes and cookies, including classic honey cakes, special honey and chocolate cakes with nuts, tarts with nuts and honey and much more. Delicious and looking great – we wanted to take the whole collection home. (03) 744-8666, 32 Habarzel Street, Tel Aviv. Open daily except Shabbat.
Fish for the holiday
Not everybody feels at ease when it comes to preparing fish. Some feel that they’ll never get it right, and fish are too expensive to throw away. The exclusive fish shop at Sarona, Fishop, came up with a great idea – a kit with everything you need to prepare a fantastic fish dish. The kits include one for making Moroccan Hreime – 4 fish fillets, sauce, chopped cilantro and fish stock (NIS 99), Salmon in wine, butter and garlic – Hungarian butter, lemon, garlic, fish stock and 2 fillets of salmon (NIS 79), whitefish with thyme sauce – 4 fish fillets, fresh thyme, seasonings and olive oil (NIS 109) and even a Fish & Chips kit, including Belgian-style chips, frying batter, fish cubes and more (NIS 160). Order online at mishlohim.fishoptlv.co.il.
Cooking time
Not sure how large your New Year dinners will be this year, but new pots are always a wonderful way to celebrate, especially for those who love to cook. Morphy Richards brand now offers dishes that are suited for special recipes, such as different size grilling pans, woks and crepe pan, in the Platinum line, that come with with oven-safe glass tops and full induction bottoms that save energy; and the Black Shave line, also offering many different sizes pots and pans with or without tops. In the Platinum line one can find special pans for making omelets, salmon, meat patties or rice, as well as a fantastic roaster with grilling bottom and glass cover, pancake pan and more. All the dishes are coated with PFOA free non-stick, and made from injected aluminum, making them more durable yet light. Excellent. NIS 219 to NIS 399 for pans, and NIS 329 to NIS 599 for pots. Available at Hamashbir stores as well as online at sarig.com/morphyrichards/
New face for the New Year
L’oreal Paris launched a new anti-aging cream and ampoules for a seven-day peeling and skin renewing treatment in their Revitalift Laser line. The cream, with SPF20, fights fine lines and helps get a smoother skin texture, while the ampoules, with 10% glicolic acid, remove old skin cells and reveal a more radiating face – ready for the New Year.
After only a few days of using the cream, the skin feels more nourished and firm, and after a longer time, lines are less noticeable and skin is smoother and more even. NIS 110 (now available for NIS 82).
The revitalift Laser Ampoules come in a seven-day pack to be used every night – producing younger-looking skin in only a week. NIS 110 (now available for NIS 82).
Who’s the boss?
The man of the hour, according to Hugo Boss perfumes, wears their new Boss Bottled Eau De Parfum. Under the slogan Be Your Own Man, the brand introduced a new and intensive scent – a composition of woody and piquant notes that opens with apples and bergamot, as well as invigorating black pepper, leading to a heart of chestnut oils, cardamom and cinnamon, and a modern base of vetiver and musk. Very masculine and very elegant. NIS 279.
It’s so good to be bad
The good girl returns and she is even more daring and rebellious than ever. Intensely seductive, Good Girl Eau de Parfum Suprême reinvents Carolina Herrera’s iconic Good Girl fragrance with a daring new formula – Top notes of juicy gourmand berries give way to the aphrodisiac personality of intense Egyptian jasmine, heart notes of creamy Tonka beans and sparkling Vetiver at the base that offers a modern twist to the final formula. The bottle is again the iconic Good Girl stiletto, a refined combination of haute couture aesthetics and technical expertise, is taken to glistening new heights with a glamorous black-to-glitter dégradé design. Wow! NIS 350 for 50 ml and NIS 500 for 80 ml.
Where magic blooms
Gucci Bloom Profumo Di Fiori, a new fragrance for women, joins the Gucci Bloom family. Inspired by the idea of absolute authenticity, the fragrance unfurls a thriving garden full of flowers characterized by a trio of Jasmine Bud extract, Tuberose, and Rangoon Creeper. Staying true to the ingredients of Gucci Bloom Eau de Parfum, the new fragrance heroes the fresh natural greenness, rich floral quality and creamy depth of Tuberose, unleashing the magnetism of Tuberose Essence, blended with Jasmine Sambac Closed Buds and Jasmine Sambac Absolute for a more immediate and direct expression. The accord of Bloom is enriched by the textured facets of Ylang Ylang and its warmth extended by a rich wave of Sandalwood and the smooth creaminess of Sun Drenched Woody notes. The flask is very elegant with lovely floral design. NIS 510 for 100 ml.
Inspired by Greek gods
Eros by Versace is not new, but it is still as fresh and relevant as the day it was first launched. Eros is the fragrance that interprets masculinity with an intense, vibrant and glowing freshness obtained from the combination of mint leaves, Italian lemon zest and green apple. An addictive sensuality delivered by Oriental, intriguing and enveloping notes like Tonka Beans, Amber, Geranium Flower and Vanilla. A racy virility symbolized by woods such as Cedar wood from Atlas and Virginia, Vetiver and Oak Moss, providing intensity and power. The flask’s beautiful blue color, with the golden-colored relief of the head of Medusa will look lovely in your bathroom. NIS 279 for 100 ml.
Floral and pretty
Almost all cosmetic firms offer special gift boxes for the holidays. Hlavin, a local firm, has pretty floral boxes that include perfumed body creams, deodorants and hand creams, that will make your host very happy. Special holiday price NIS 60. Available at Superpharm and Hamashbir stores.