Remembering Meatland - A Raanana Icon

Marking the day sweet Arielle and I arrived at work wearing the exact, same dress

"Where can I get chutney now that Meatland has closed?"

"I used to get brisket at Meatland… does anyone know who else sells it?"

"Did Meatland open up somewhere else?"

You only truly appreciate what you have when it's no longer there.

And, judging by the flurry of Facebook posts about the late, great Meatland, it's clear that the store is deeply missed by so many craving a taste of "home."

It's missed, too, by those of us lucky enough to have worked there. Nearly 18 months after Meatland closed its doors, we still chat and reminisce in our staff WhatsApp group.

I'll never forget the first time my parents visited me at work. The shock on their faces made me laugh out loud.

Based on Meatland's international fame —they'd even heard of what we grandly referred to as "Meatland Superstore" back in South Africa—they'd expected a sleek supermarket with gleaming banks of refrigerators and freezers, high-end fittings, and uniformed staff at sophisticated tills.

Instead they found a Mom-and-Pop corner store that looked more like a family-run makolet than anything else.

You're forgiven if you thought the same.

But what Meatland lacked in size, it made up for in personality, as its loyal shoppers could attest.

Remember the beloved 80s sitcom Cheers with its famous tagline, "Where everybody knows your name"?

Meatland was much the same.

In fact, when considering a name change from the somewhat misleading Meatland— which was better suited to a butchery—it was suggested we rebrand as Meetland, reflecting its role as a meeting place for Anglos from all over Israel.

Friends reunited unexpectedly in the crowded aisles, and when I hosted my weekly Tasters Thursdays recipe-sharing event, it gave me such pleasure to see shoppers connect.

Meatland also lived up to its name as a place to meet your future spouse as several staff members found love while working at the store and later married!

But back to my Meatland Memoirs which I'm currently writing and plan to share exclusively with past staff members who became friends.

What happened behind the scenes at Meatland... stays at Meatland. But nearly every day brought memoir-worthy encounters.

Take customer complaints, for example, which could only happen here.

I remember one busy Friday morning when an irate woman stormed in, announced she had a complaint, and slammed a raw, defrosted tongue onto the kuppa. "This tongue is missing the back!" she shouted, as the vegetarian cashier tried not to gag.

Or the customer who swore she found a live worm in her chicken soup. When we explained that the soup was cooked and then frozen, making that impossible, she suggested that maybe it wasn't actually dead and "came back to life" when she reheated the soup.

And who can forget the shopper who insisted that changing the shape of the carrots in the chicken soup had altered the flavor?

Some customers wrote outrageous letters of complaint. I suspect that, living in Israel, they rarely had the opportunity to complain in English and were determined to make the most of it. I pinned the funniest letters to my office noticeboard. One especially aggrieved customer even mailed us her Meatland Loyalty Card in protest and declared she no longer needed it.

Details of these letters will be featured in my memoirs along with an entire chapter dedicated to shoplifters.

Think polite Anglos wouldn't dream of filling their granny-style shopping carts with pilfered cookies and disguising them with a scarf?

Think again.

And not a week went by that we didn't find empty chocolate wrappers stuffed into corners—souvenirs from "hungry" customers helping themselves to free samples.

But the award for Most Notorious Thief goes to the famous Cheese Bandit.

For several weeks, a well-dressed English gentleman would poke his head through the door and ask, "Do you have any Heinz Baked Beans?" We'd patiently reply that we didn't—Heinz Beans were always in short supply— to which he'd shrug and say he'd have a look around anyway.

He'd wander the aisles for a while and then leave without buying anything.

This routine continued until one of the tellers grew suspicious. We checked the security footage, and were shocked to discover that this urbane Englishman waited until the cashier was busy with a customer, and he'd then quickly stuff blocks of cheddar cheese into his jacket pockets.

We didn't have to wait long for his return, and this time, we were prepared.

We watched on the security cameras as he took his usual stroll before heading to the back fridge to secure his weekly cheese supply. The moment he stepped outside, our diminutive manager bolted after him, and so began a Hollywood-worthy chase. She filmed the culprit as he sprinted through the streets of sleepy Raanana, ducking behind cars and hiding in apartment parking lots, all the while hurling abuse over his shoulder.

"I ain't stolen nothing!" he shouted—along with a few choice expletives.

Rounding a corner, he suddenly stopped and stood his ground.

"See? I ain't got nothing!" he declared, throwing open his jacket.

A passerby, watching open-mouthed, pointed wordlessly to a nearby wall.

"Did he throw something over there?" our manager demanded.

The witness nodded and pointed to the exact spot where, sure enough, the blocks of cheddar cheese lay amidst the bushes.

Game over.

We never pressed charges against sticky-fingered shoppers, but they were banned from Meatland for life.

Perhaps that was an even worse punishment.

Channa was chief fish ball fryer, latke queen and the Meatland staff’s best-loved Safta

I could fill many more pages with Meatland musings, but I'll sign off here.

When Meatland closed, I followed my passion, reopening my cooking school and exploring boutique event catering. I'm deeply grateful for the opportunity to turn my hobby into a career.
Still, whenever I pass what was once Meatland—and is now just a boring bank—I reflect on the many happy memories the building holds.

Meatland owner Mervyn Isaacson joked that we should tell past customers they can go into our old premises and exchange their Meatland Loyalty Card for a Discount!

Thank you, Maish, for inviting me to be part of the Meatland family.

And thank you to the Raanana community for welcoming me so warmly.

Past staff members agree that we'll never have another job that compares and for these, and so many more vibrant memories, I am forever grateful.