Food & Drink

The Israeli cuisine is incredibly diverse due to the diversity of the young country's population. It consists of dishes from around the world which have been brought to the country by immigrants over its history. Israeli cuisine, is also, therefore based greatly around Jewish cuisine which has developed over millennia. Some foods, including falafel and hummus, have now become synonymous with Israeli cuisine.

Israeli-Mizrahi Cuisine

The Israeli-Mizrahi cuisine is based around Arab cuisine and is the more popular of the two streams of Israeli cuisine. The most common methods of the cooking these sorts of foods are grilling, cooking in the fluids, evaporation in the fat, baking and frying. There is a huge variety of dishes; the most common include:

• Baklava - a rich, sweet pastry made of layers of phyllo dough filled with chopped nuts (usually walnuts or pistachios) and sweetened with sugar or honey syrup.
• Bourekas - savoury pastries made of a thin flaky dough known as phyllo or yufka, and filled with salty cheese (often feta), minced meat, potatoes or other vegetables.
• Falafel - a fried ball or patty made from spiced fava beans and/or chickpeas.
• Halva - a candy of Turkish origins made using tahini paste. Other ingredients and flavourings such as pistachio nuts, cocoa powder, orange juice, vanilla, or chocolate are normally added to the basic tahini and sugar base.
• Jachnun - a traditional Yemenite dish, prepared from rolled dough, which is then baked on a very low heat for about ten hours. It is traditionally eaten with a crushed/grated tomato dip, hard boiled eggs and skhug.
• Kebab - small cubes of meat threaded on a skewer that are grilled or roasted.
• Kibbeh - minced lamb mixed with bulgur and spices, stuffed inside a bulgur pastry crust and grilled, boiled or fried.
• Malawach - a Jewish bread that resembles a crepe, and it is made up of hundreds of thin pancake layers. It is usually fried.
• Mujadara - a middle eastern dish that contains lentil with wheat, bulgur or rice and fried onions and usually served as part of a collection of many salads served at the beginning of the meal, or as addition to a meat dish.
• Pita has been called the national bread of Israel, popular due to its is soft and pleasant texture, and its ability to hold different dishes, such as the Schnitzel, or Steak in pita.
• Sabich - a sandwich made by adding peeled fried aubergine, hard-boiled eggs, hummus, tahini, tomato and cucumber, amba (a mango pickle), minced onion and chilli sauce to a pita wrap.
• Shakshouka - made of eggs, tomatoes, and onions or garlic and eaten with a pita.
• Shashlik - a form of kebab from the former Soviet Union. Meat for shashlik (as opposed to other forms of kebab) are usually marinated overnight in a high-acidity marinade like vinegar, dry wine or sour fruit/vegetable juice with the addition of herbs and spices.
• Shawarma - a Middle Eastern-style sandwich usually composed of shaved lamb, goat, chicken, turkey, beef or a mixture of meats.
• Spicy dips - Skhug, Harisa and Pilpelchuma are all different versions of the popular dip based on chilli peppers and garlic.

Traditional Israeli cuisine

These are dishes which have gained popularity outside of the bounds of their ethnicity.

The Ashkenazi ethnicity gave Israeli cuisine chicken soup, the schnitzel and the Purée as well as salads such as egg salad, mayonnaise salads and chopped liver. Other, now common dishes from this ethnicity include Gefilte fish (fish cutlets). The 'Jerusalem Kogel' which contains caramel, could be considered an original Israeli dish. The first Israeli patisseries belonged to Ashkenazi Jews which is why many of the most popular cakes in Israel originate from central Europe. These include the likes of the Sufganiyah (a ball-shaped doughnut that is first fried, pierced and injected with jam or custard, and then topped with powdered sugar) and the Hamantash (a three-cornered pastry traditionally filled with poppy seeds, but may also be filled with prunes, nuts, dates, apricots, fruit preserves, chocolate, or even caramel or cheese).

The North African ethnicity has given Israeli cuisine Couscous, which has gained great popularity in Israel. They also brought the Shakshouka (made of eggs, tomatoes, and onions or garlic and typically eaten with a pita) and salads such as the Matbucha (tomatoes, roasted peppers, oil and garlic cooked together) and the Tunisian carrot salad.

The Balkan ethnicity gave Israeli cuisine the Burek (known in Israel Bourekas - see section above), yoghurt and taramosalata. The cuisines of the Balkans ethnicity have been an important original influence to the Jerusalemite cuisine and the Tiberian cuisine which developed even before the First Aliyah.

The Iraqi ethnicity has given Israeli cuisine most notably the Amba (a spicy, brownish-yellow mango pickle), the Kibbeh (see section above), the Sambusac (a small fried pasty filled with combinations such as chickpeas (garbanzo beans), onions and peppers; minced meat and onions; or cheese - usually feta or halloumi), soured vegetables and Sabich (a type of sandwich - see section above).

Drinks

There is a good choice of local brandies and liqueurs such as Arak (anise), HardNut (walnut), and the exquisite Sabra (chocolate orange).