I missed a turn last night on my way to dinner and had to take a detour through a market district in southern Tel Aviv, where I finally found the hidden presence I knew had to exist: Chinese people! There are some tens of thousands of Asian immigrants in Israel, mostly Filipinos and Thais working in domestic service or agriculture, respectively. I'd seen the odd Filipina maid in the mall near my hotel, but up until now I have not seen anything recognizably Chinese.
The market district, which I'm told is known as Little Asia, is mostly a collection of stalls that serves Asian customers. There are a collection of stalls which sell to cheap Chinese crap, but the most frequented stores were those which sold the Asian foods and ingredients which are probably unlikely to be found elsewhere, such as... Pork!
The Chinese translation reads something along the lines of "Only place selling fresh pork. We have pork intestines." Interestingly, the staff inside did not appear to be asian.
2 comments:
did you find any indians?
Actually yes -- there are about 10,000 Indians living in Israel -- all jews, mostly. I've only met one, an old waiter in a so-so Indian joint in Tel Aviv. His name was Elijah. You see a couple around -- they all wear kippahs. I'll get you one when you come so you fit in.
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