Shalom and welcome back Israel with Aline! And we are in Jerusalem, in front of McDonald's Kosher, and we are going to eat and talk to you guys about it. But I brought a super special guest, to be with us today, that is Monica, so let's go!
Because of the current situation, McDonald's is open only for take-away or for delivery but let's now go in and order some! Here we put on the gloves, Let's go! When we go in we have to take our temperature, and there is also alcohol gel available for those who want it.
We are going to order, [Monica] Let's go, I'll switch to English, there is always this option and let's go guys, now order some different things that they have here, what do they have at McDonald's here in Israel that they don't have in other countries? And look guys, they sell masks here too, they now have seasonal sandwiches that are Asian, they have the McTokyo, the McMumbai with curry, with mushroom, some different things. So, let's order this here, guys, we don't know what it is, with Tokyo sauce, which we also don't know what it is.
Let's order Phangan sauce. Another different thing is that you can ask for pineapple, so we are going to order a McRoyal, which is one of the traditional sandwiches, but with pineapple. And it's also something that they have here that they don't have in other countries, is that there is a vegan option, here Israel is a country with the highest number of vegans in the world, so we are going to order the Big Vegan, which is an option like a Big Mac but vegan, and there is also something different, like a corn nugget, which is a vegetarian nugget, it is not vegan.
What else do we want? Well, the drinks are traditional, and as you know I'm a fan of Coke Zero, so let's go with Coke Zero. They also sell Minions cups, but I'm not going to buy any, because even I have a limit.
But look how cool it is, here there is also the option of a gluten-free sandwich. I mean, Israel is very conscious about special foods, so there is gluten-free. vegetarian, vegan.
We are just going to test it and get the mini burger, the gluten free mini burger, just to see how it is. The less fun part now is the part we have to do, which is to pay; so we are going to pay in cash, put the bills here and they want to be ecological, so you put your phone number here, and they send you the receipt by phone, so they don't need to print it. Let me now show you the rest of the restaurant.
At the moment, as you know, we can't sit down to eat, the world is not so crazy, you sit down. And this part here is for sitting down to eat the meat part, so if you want to eat a hamburger, you eat here. And if you want to eat an ice cream, it is separated, everything that is derived from milk stays in this part here, they serve you here, the milk derivatives; ice cream, coffee.
And then there are these tables and these tables here on the side. We are now going to wait outside, and in a little while, we are going to go home and eat. And how do we know if McDonald's is kosher?
First, it is written Kosher cloth in English and in Hebrew. And also, the logo, is blue and yellow, instead of being red and yellow like in the rest of the world. Monica already has our order here, everything we bought from McDonald's kosher.
[Monica] It smells great! Great! And here you can see there's another McDonald's, but it's red and yellow as you can see, that is, a non-Kosher McDonald's, almost next to each other.
The big difference is that one is Kasher, and also that the non-Kosher McDonald's means that it is open on Shabbat! And for those who like fast food, people here also have Pizza Hut, there is something for everyone. This McDonald's also has a little more chic face, right?
We arrived home folks, with our bag full of McDonald's, are you ready to start? [Mônica] I am, I am starving! So let's start tasting some of the foods that are here, let's see what's in our first bag, this one is the gluten free hamburger, which I don't know if they have in Brazil and how you expected the gluten free hamburger to look like, it's really like this and let's share it, I brought a small knife here, for us to share.
So, bon appetite! [Monica] Let's go [Monica] It tastes like Pesach bread to me. That's right, exactly!
"Lehaim! I forgot to buy two Cokes, so I bought them here and I served them from my house for Monica too. Once a year we have Pesach, which is the holiday that is forbidden to eat a lot of food, among them is forbidden to eat bread.
So we eat bread made from potato flour, bread without it, bread without that. So this tastes exactly like Pesach bread, Jewish Passover bread, and it's not my favorite! [Mônica] I like it, I like the bread.
And Skoll also approved the gluten-free hamburger! They put it up, this one is the Big Vegan, this one I'm dying to try, vegan means no animal, no meat, no milk, no eggs, none of that. And because Israel has a large vegan population, this one has a much prettier face already.
[Monica] Yeah, it's much bigger! Look, it looks like meat! Now everybody, Mc Vegan!
[Monica] Beteavon! Beteavon - Enjoy it! It's much better!
I already know what my vegetarian husband's dinner is going to be, it's going to be the other half of this one. [Mônica] There's a sweet and sour sauce in this one too! Come on, are you ready for another one?
This one, folks, is the McRoyal with pineapple. Although Israel doesn't give practically pineapple; I mean, Israel's pineapples are small. But they do make hamburgers with pineapple here, and the hamburgers are big; my hand is not small, but look at the size of the hamburger!
And bon appétit, Beteavon! [Mônica] Mmm, it's a meat! It's like pizza, there are people who love pizza with pineapple, Hawaiian pizza, and there are people who hate Hawaiian pizza.
And we asked for a lot of accompaniment, there is potato, there's breaded chicken, there's breaded corn, and there's also breaded onions. And guys, we bought a lot of sauces here, here in Israel you pay for sauces. I mean, you can get ketchup for free.
Look, it comes with a lot of napkins. You can order ketchup for free, but you have to pay for extra sauces. So, these sauces here, which we ordered several of them, and now we won't know which one is which, because they are not marked, but they are paid for.
So here it must be, this one looks like barbecue sauce, and here there is ketchup and more ketchup! And there's a sauce that leaked inside, a little bit, so let's go! Let me show you, it's corn on the inside, this here we call corn schnitzel, they sell it a lot here in Israel.
For vegetarians, yes, it is a good option. But I prefer the regular version. This one looks like that KFC, [Monica] Yeah, it does!
The Kentucky Fried Chicken. [Mônica] This is really good! The sauce is very good, I'll try the KFC here too, look here, it's really, really chicken!
I'll try it with this little sauce. Let's take advantage of Monica's being here, and also talk a little about her experience with Israeli food. How long have you been living in Israel and how was it to adapt to Israeli food, which is very different from Brazilian food?
[Mônica] Yes, Aline, it is very different. I've been here for more than ten years, slowly it was a little difficult, I even found it strange to digest, so how can I say, because the food here is very spicy, but it's also very fresh, very colorful, and little by little I liked it more and more! And it's one of the things I like the most these days, it is!
And what do you miss, what do you have in Brazil that you don't have here and you really say, "Oh, I miss. . .
? " Mônica]There are some ingredients that we still don't have here, we find a lot of things, we find beans, rice is easy to make, a lot of things. There is no farofa, I love farofa!
It also doesn't have catupiry, which is a cheese. [Aline] I didn't even remember that catupiry cheese existed! And to tell you the truth, I've never been a fan of farofa, so in the reality is not something that I miss, I always make beans and rice here at home, what I miss is cheese bread, guys, when you come to Israel don't forget to bring some packages of cheese bread here for Aline in Israel, because I miss it, I know you can even find powder and make it at home, but it's not that easy, you go to the bakery and get that warm cheese bread that exists in Brazil, this does not exist here.
[Mônica] Yeah, I also miss guava paste, guava paste with catupiry cheese. Really, I was going to say guava with cheese anyway. I don't know if there is in the rest of Brazil, but in Rio Grande do Sul we eat something called crepe suíço, we used to put cheese with guava and close it, and it was so good, so good, it was that beach, summer, childhood thing!
I have to go back to eating when I go to Brazil, there is a list of things I want to eat when I go to Brazil. [Mônica] Yes, me, as a good Carioca, I miss coconut water, the cold coconut on the beach! The things I miss most about the beach, like the mate lion with the biscoito globo, I miss the vendors on the beach and being able to buy things.
. . Here people, we go to the beach and there is nobody selling anything!
[Monica] Yes, you have to carry everything, and you have to carry a lot of things when you go to the beach, Yeah, so you go to the beach, or you sit in a restaurant and pay dearly because Israel is not a cheap country, even more on the beach, or you have to take many things, I think that this is the national sport in Israel, so people go to the beach, they take a chair, they take a parasol, they take a pot, they take this, they take that. . .
so people really picnic on the beach in family, but I don't do it that much because I live in Jerusalem, which has no beach. You live closer to the beach than me, [Monica] Yeah, I live closer to the beach, I live closer to Tel-Aviv so I am about 10 yards from the beach so we usually go there. And it is this thing of thinking about what to bring, getting ready, I really miss Brazil, because in Rio I used to go down from my building, I walked four blocks and I was already on the beach, you don't need anything, just a little money.
I used to buy my "Mate Leão" and my "biscoito Globo" drink my coconut water, and then do sports, so it was like. . .
Yes, it is a good business, being an entrepreneur in Israel, you can bring street vendors to Israel too! But let's try some more, what haven't we tried here yet? I haven't tasted yet the potato!
[Mônica] And I haven't tried the onion ring. I haven't tasted it either, this potato, they have normal fried potatoes but we decided to try things that are different, so we have here literally a seasoned cut potato, with the sauce, again, the secret sauce since we ordered the sauces without knowing what we were ordering, and since they don't come with a label, we don't know. It looks like it is spicy, this one.
I hope it's not, it's one of the things about Israeli food that always scared me in the beginning, is that the food here in Israel is very spicy and peppery! I'm from Rio Grande do Sul, so we don't eat a lot of pepper, so it's a picanha with little salt a little pepper and that's it, really. This one is spicy, did you taste the sauce?
[Monica] No, it's not very spicy So, now let's try! [Monica] Beteavon! [Monica] Do you think it's spicy?
No, it's not spicy but. . .
Oh, it's peppery! No, it's not for me. But here's an onion ring that Monica just ate too, and it's onions, breaded onions.
Comment down here if they also have this in McDonald's in Brazil, [Mônica] We are not sure. Yeah, we have been living for so long here in Israel, you have been living here for ten years, I have been living here for about the same time, I mean, we don't really know what they have at McDonald's in Brazil. As if by magic, the table has now been cleared up a little bit, because it was quite messy here and remember that we bought it at McDonald's Kosher, what does that mean?
That it follows the Jewish food laws, first is McDonald's without dairy products, I mean, all the hamburgers you've seen they don't have cheese inside, this one does, this doesn't look good, and if it has sauce, they are sauces, they are dairy free, when they sell dairy products for example like ice cream they sell it separately, I mean, there are two zones inside McDonald's as we have seen, so here in Israel first there is no cheese on the hamburgers, second there are no McBacon people, bacon is made of pork, you can't eat it in Judaism, also McShrimp, and other forbidden foods you can't have, and besides this McDonald's is closed on Shabbat, it is also a super important thing. And we recognize it by the blue and yellow logo as we saw, and there are only two places in the world that have kosher McDonald's, Israel and you know which other country? [Mônica] Yes, I learned today, Argentina!
Yeah guys, there is a Kosher McDonald's for those who can't come to Israel, maybe Argentina is closer, in Buenos Aires in the Once neighborhood, there is a Kosher McDonald's too. Don't make the mistake I did, we went there to eat to try McDonald's Kosher, when I was little, when I was a kid with my father, and we went there and we arrived and the McDonald's was closed, and we were super sad! [Mônica] Did you go on Saturday?
! We arrived on Saturday, we were on vacation and we didn't even realize it, my family is not religious but my father wanted to show me McDonald's, how is McDonald's Kosher, Also talking about that, now I'm seeing it on the screen, for those who saw people, I brought my little earring of hamburger in honor of McDonald's today for you, and one thing that is also nice about McDonald's here in Israel is that they give discounts to soldiers, not only McDonald's, it is very common here in the restaurants, so for soldiers. Just when we arrived today, I will magically put it for you later in the edition here, but when we arrived there, we saw a soldier also arriving, they get a discount.
I think it's ten or fifteen percent because the military service in Israel is mandatory, we didn't serve because when we arrived, we were too old for the army, when we came to live in Israel, but your son will enlist in a little while? [Monica] Yes, yes! And guys, Monica, she cheats, she cheats very well but her son is almost at army age, and here the military service is obligatory for both boys and girls, and the soldiers are young, they receive a low salary from the army, so it's not a people who normally have a lot of money so many businesses here give discounts, clothing businesses, food businesses give discounts to the soldiers also as a way to thank them for the services they are doing for the country.
And now the super important moment, our final verdict, of all things different and strange things we bought at McDonald's today, what was your favorite? [Monica] Mine was the chicken breaded, this different Chicken Mc nuggets. Mine too!
I thought, I thought it was great guys! I've never eaten at KFC, maybe we can go there and film it some other day if you like this video, but it tastes like chicken, it tastes like real food! The rest was nice, let's say, for those who are vegan, buying Mec Vegan is worth it, for those who are gluten-free, it's nice to have options for different populations, different needs.
but I'm still of the traditional really the traditional McDonald's Big Mac, the 'quarteirão" that has no cheese, Cheddar McMelt, which doesn't have here, but who wants to eat McDonald's with cheese in Israel can always go to a McDonald's that is not kosher, they don't put it but if you ask they do. So there is also an option for all tastes here in Israel. And I hope you enjoyed it!
Whoever wants folks, follow "minha alma viajante" on Instagram, Monica is also fantastic, she shows her life, her daily life here in Israel, good appetite for everyone! See you next time! [Mônica] Thank you, Aline, I loved it!
Thank you for coming, kiss!
