Almond paste sculptures

It wasn’t on our original agenda for our trip but who can resist a visit to Israel’s very own Marzipan museum? Despite Ziva’s hatred for everything almond, we sure couldn’t, that’s for sure. I mean, I read that they had a life size Elvis made out of marzipan. No way was I going to miss out on that. We left Ramot on the Golan late Saturday afternoon and anxiously made our way for towards Kfar Tavor, a nice village next to the very biblical Mount Tavor. The Jezreel Valley apparently has the ideal climate to grow olives, grapes and almonds. Not suprisingly, Kfar Tavor produces olive oil, wine and marzipan. Upon purchasing our tickets we received a complimentary piece of marzipan and a small cup of almond juice. Ziv opted for lemonade, she HATES almonds. Have I mentioned that? We had a nice intro to how marzipan is made by a lovely young woman Nitzan and learned that while most of the world produces with an almond content of 30 percent, Kfar Tavor marzipan has between 45-65 percent! Can you believe it? The marzipan museum wasn’t a museum per se, but a gallery of marzipan art. Who knew there was a subculture of folks who mold marzipan? It’s definately bizarre. I kind of don’t get it. Anyway, I didn’t let that stop me from enjoying the museum.

The following two photos were my favorite sculptures. The first is of an Israeli family enjoying a nice bbq, the second is of one of my favorite places in the world, Jerusalem’s open air market, Mahane Yehuda.

Harry Potter sculpture

I thought the pita bread in this photo was impressive.

Impressive fruit and vegetables as well.

Defense Minister Amir Peretz. They also had Katsav, Bibi, Sharon and a myriad of other politicians.

The store selling marzipan, wine and olive oil was almost as big as the museum itself. I bought a bunch of flavored marzipan. Quick rundown of the flavors shown below. They include pina colada, walnut nougat, cranberry, chocolate orange, plum, cappucino, pineapple, honey pomegranate, cinnamon, apricot and apple liquor. The flavors I bought were carob, dates, ginger and Irish cream.

Israeli actor, singer and personality Yoram Gaon from the movie Kazablan, a musical that is sort of an amalgamation of West Side Story and Fiddler on the Roof.

The King. Ziva hates almonds.

Tags: kfar tavor, marzipan museum