Tuesday, July 3, 2018 5:58 AM

The Meatless Market event at the mall is larger than I expected. Several long pop-up tables down the center of a wing carry a wide variety of foods, all of them, I guess, vegetarian. Some of them just have the same fruits and vegetables as the supermarket around the bend, though more are organic and most are overpriced. Some have warming trays of various gops and gloops that I can't identify, ready to be spooned out into to-go containers. My niece is hungry, and this looks better than the food court, so she gets a wrap. I get one too. The woman behind the counter, about my age and with a white head-scarf, warms a thin circle of bread on something like a convex crepe stone. She layers onto it a thin dairy sauce, tabbouleh, chickpeas, olive oil, a sliced egg, and spices. She speaks Hebrew to my niece but hears her speaking English to me. "Where is he visiting from?" My niece answers "He has moved here from the US." The woman beams. "Welcome!" She hands us our wraps. Walking away, I realize that she has given me back too little change, but I decide not to argue. The wrap is good. My niece teaches me the corresponding Hebrew slang: it is "in the place." Even at a few shekels over the right price, it's worth it.