Hey Izy: A more serious review? What do I look like a restaurant critic to you? I have pretty much only three standards when it comes to restaurants:

1. Was the food good?
2. Was the service/ambience good?
3. Were the prices reasonable?

Ichikidana scored a Yes on all three. Do you want me to go into intimate detail about all the food I ate? Dude it was 30 shekels for a full meal. Go there and try it out! And then if you want to, tell us about it. As for me I don’t know my Massala from Mississippi, so I’ll just stick with what I do know. Yum or not yum and in this case? Yum.

And yes, you could eat them all the time. Whether or not you should is up for debate.

Gila

But please don’t try to teach somebody with info taken from Wiki. Nowhere. Ever.

JM, there are various kinds of halvah; Middle Eastern one often consists of Sesame paste.
BTW, too many almonds can be unhealthy for kids.

Almond extract is very good in coffee.

to be precise, here’s some History:
Although it is believed to have originated in Persia (present-day Iran) and to have been introduced to Europe through the Turks, there is some dispute between Hungary and Italy over its origin. Marzipan became a specialty of the Baltic Sea region of Germany. In particular, the city of Lübeck has a proud tradition of marzipan manufacture (Lübecker Marzipan). The city’s manufacturers like Niederegger still guarantee their Marzipan to contain two thirds almonds by weight, which results in a juicy, bright yellow product.

Another possible geographic origin is Toledo, Spain (850-900, though more probably 1150 during the reign of Alfonso VII, then known as Postre Regio instead of Mazapán) and Sicily (1193, known as panis martius or marzapane, i.e. March Bread)[1]. In both cases, there is a reason to believe that there is a clear Arabic influence for historical reasons[2] (both regions were under Muslim control) and there are also mentions in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights of an almond paste eaten during Ramadan and as an aphrodisiac[3]. Other sources establish the origin of marzipan in China, from where the recipe moved on to the Middle East and then to Europe through Al-Andalus[4]. In Toledo, Mazapán is also one of the city’s products. Almonds have to be at least 50% of the total weight, following the directives of Mazapan de Toledo regulator counseil[5].

…I was brought up on the 1001 Nights
[Eleph Layla VeLayla, as most Israelis remember] & marzipan was reputed to origin in the East. even when what we could get was Oppenheimer. All the Yekkes were waxing nostalgic about the great marzipan of Germany was…
That was some 50-60 years ago.

Now we look for the “Original”?!?

Not I. Not here. Not now.

Are there bars that play Mizrahit around Mahene Yehuda? We’ll have to check them out on our next trip in 2008. Hopefully in a well-lit neighborhood!

These days the overwhelming variety of everything sweet, for instance, seem to encourage over-consumption (and overeating), rather than the development of finer taste… or so it looks like around here.

For a poor person, WHICH [kind of marzipan] is not an issue.
Only jaded people specialize in fine-shmeckerie – which is never the Ikar, but rather the Tafel anyway.

That new Indian restaurant deserves a more “serious” review, IMHO.

The gentrification of Nah’laot & the adjoining mahane-Yehuda market is quite obvious & make the whole area look better & feel safer [indeed!] than it has been in years.

It’s also cleaner.

I never knew Rogalach had anything to do with marzipan anyway…

Cheers!
Cheers!