Singaporean mom living in Israel: Day 2 in Israel and review of GregCafe.

Israel time: 6.30am, 8 March 2016
Singapore time: 12.30pm, 8 March 2016

This day we woke up on a totally new bed, in a new room, new house, new country.
Was really relieved that Aedan did not experience jet lag and woke up at his usual time, 6am, in Israel time zone. He was observing his surroundings when he opened his eyes. Not sure whether he knew that we were at a totally new place.

Smiling so happily! 

It was our 2nd day in Haifa and the first place we visited was the Grand Canyon mall to shop for groceries and the essentials.

A photo before we headed out. 

This photo was taken around our neighbourhood. There are many sloppy paths in Haifa as it is a city built on hill.

The Grand Canyon mall is the largest mall in northern Israel. There were more than 200 stores with mostly their local brands and a few international brands which include H&M, Toys R' Us and Bodyshop. 

Their Body Shop looks very different from the one in Singapore. Their range of products are different too.


Our first dinning experience in Haifa is at a nice cafe called Greg Cafe which is a multi chain cafe that is commonly found in Israel. The one we tried is located inside the Grand Canyon mall at level 2.

In Israel, the Jewish population follows a strict Kosher diet (food that is allowed under the Jewish law) which prohibits the consumption of unclean animals such as pork, shell fish and insects. They also do not allow mixture of meat and milk in food. So for dishes such as pizza and pasta that have milk & cheese in it, you will not find meat.

Here are photos of the food & drink we had!

This is called 'limon nana' in Hebrew which is lemonade with mint leaves. It's a very refreshing drink and the mint helps to balance the sour taste. It costs 18 shekels (about S$6.30) for this big glass of thirst quenching juice.

Like I have mentioned, since the cafe is Kosher, you will not find meat in their pasta. We chose sweet potato ravioli made with sweet potato puree and rose sauce. This is a filling sweet delight full of carbo. They served their pasta with cheese and this dish costs 57 shekels (about S$19.95).

We ordered another Hambu-Greg burger. We ordered this with beef since there is no meat in the earlier dish. We changed their french fries to home fries. I'll highly recommend you to try their home fries. The fries is coated with their homemade sauce that has a sweet and sour taste. It's definitely tastier than normal french fries. Their burger tasted good with juicy beef patty and their secret sauce. This Hambu-Greg burger which comes with fries costs 52 shekels (about S$18.20 which I personally think is more worth it than the pasta).

In Israel, service fees are excluded from the bill and it's a norm to tip 10-15% of your total bills. 

I heard from an Israeli mommy that Israel is a breastfeeding friendly place so I let Aedan had his meal there too. ^^

We did not walk the whole mall as it's huge & Aedan was cranky that day. We called it a day after shopping for Aedan's stuff at their baby outlets and gotten our groceries at their local supermart.

That's it for this post. 

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To read more about our adventures at #SingaporeanmomlivinginIsrael

Bye bye ~~
Twentysixoctober