Israeli cuisine

So it was time for us to move on to the second part of our trip; the party town of Tel Aviv.

But before we left Jerusalem, we had one more necessary visit to tick off our list, breakfast at the Sabich man! It’s pronounced Sabih, but with the Israeli h so you’ve got to get extra flemmy when pronouncing correctly (while trying to avoid spitting, it’s actually an art).

You may be thinking wow Sabich; a famous food that I’ve never heard of?! That may be because Sabich belongs to a food group that us Serbs and many others cultures consider far inferior; its vegetarian.

It was invented by a young Iraqi Jew (named Sabich), who made aliyah in the 1950s (gentle reminder: aliyah is what they call the immigration of Jews to the “motherland” Israel). Arab Jews who made aliyah were told to change their names to something more Jewish sounding. Sabich refused. He was a Jew, but an Arab Jew; and proud of it. Despite being teased at the time, he got the last laugh. That name, which he proudly held on to for many years is now a key part of modern Israeli cuisine.

The Sabich itself is a pitta sandwich stuffed with fried aubergine, brown boiled egg and a mixture of salads, parsley, and sauces – including tahini and hummus, and some amazing lemony mango sauce called amba. It’s a legit flavour explosion.

We were having one with Mr Yigal, the owner of a small hole in the wall which serves Sabich and Sabich only. Mr. Yigal is a true professional who comes highly recommended. He has been making Sabich for over 20 years, making him the best Sabich maker in all the land [disclaimer: opinion of Steffi and Maja. We haven’t tasted many to be fair but it was one of the best things we ate in Israel for sure.]

We had actually been chasing Mr. Yigal all week, as his sabich had been massively bigged up by locals. Problem is, his working hours were only until 4. One day we missed him completely, the next we came at 3.15 but he had ran out of sabich (the only thing on the menu), so when we finally caught him on this morning we were extremely excited. More excited than the strong majority of Mr. Yigal’s customers. Luckily, he didn’t dismiss us as a bunch of weirdos, but instead took a liking to us.

As we food-orgasmed on the side of the road over his sabich, he looked on proudly and even topped us up with extra aubergine mid-way through the pitta. In true Israeli style he pretty much pulled the pita out of my hands while it was half way in my mouth. To be fair, I was hungry and it tasted amazing, so it was probably very difficult to catch the moments when it wasn’t in my mouth. Another show of Israeli hospitality and more freebies for us 🙂

What made this sabich even more amazing is the fact that it only cost 22 shekels (about £5.50 or just above €6 by most exchange rates). This made it officially one of the cheapest things (by far) we ate on the whole trip. Bear in mind we had one each, but the pitta isn’t massive so a hungry man could very easily eat two.

You see, I know by blog 5 you’ve all totally fallen in love with the idea of visiting Israel (and rightly so), but before you start booking your flights you should know the one negative thing about Israel; it’s insanely expensive.

Everything is basically a little bit more expensive than London prices overall. Local transport is not too bad (half hour bus drive to Bethlehem is about £1.50, and one hour to Tel Aviv is £5), but if you want to have something to eat then you’re really stuffed.

We had a shitty street kebab once and it was £10 for a kebab. Not to mention the restaurants that can easily go over £100 for a normal meal for two (if you’re drinking wine and not being super careful). I’m talking normal restaurants, not even fancy ones. I mean, it’s totally worth it, but just be prepared to spend/budget well.

Ok so I’d like to say a little bit more about the food, but what I’m about to say is not suitable for readers of Israeli nationality. If you’re Israeli and value our friendship, please look away.

The thing is, other than Sabich, my Israeli culinary experience was good, but not as amazing as I expected it to be. I had literally dreamed about coming to Israel and eating 5kilos of hummus and falafel on a daily basis. Instead of floating in the Dead Sea I would be floating in hummus and grabbing little islands of falafel which drifted past.

Not to mention the shawarmas and the amazing salads. I mean, no offence to Christianity but my god is Ottolenghi. If you haven’t tried a recipe of his, then get your ass on Google.

However, despite eating a lot of nice stuff, I can’t say I was totally blown away. I guess maybe it was because my expectations were so high, but I actually much preferred the food in Lebanon. Now, I might be banned from ever coming to Israel again after this (I really hope not), but I think even the hummus is much better in Lebanon [queue dramatic music].

Hummus is a particularly touchy subject, as it’s been made all across the Levant for literally hundreds of years. And there is an ongoing battle where each country thinks their hummus is the best. I’ve been told by multiple Israelis that their hummus is by far the best in the region, and I think they all genuinely believe it.

I’ve even had friends who are considering emigrating and quote hummus and falafel as one of the main reasons why they don’t leave Israel. I mean they are obsessed with it. You get those two staple foods on pretty much every menu in the country. Not to mention that they have a plentiful supply of falafel fast food chains like Mac Donald’s of the falafel world.

And obviously we can’t forget Israel’s favourite breakfast dish; shakshuka. It’s technically from North Africa and it’s this delicious dish of poached eggs in a spiced tomato sauce. I haven’t done it justice and I can’t eat it any more coz of my egg allergy but it is really delicious and highly recommended.

So the Sabich visit was over and we felt we had now visited, eaten and drank the best of what Jerusalem and the West Bank has to offer. As we headed to Tel Aviv on that first relaxing day, our plan for the day was to settle in and rest before “the big meal.” I owed Steffi a birthday present from the prior month and so I’d organised a meal in one of Tel Aviv’s best restaurants.

Arriving in Tel Aviv was a very different experience. If Jerusalem is the ancient, holy, conservative, religious, traditional city of Israel, Tel Aviv is it’s modern, fun, liberal and tech-savvy younger brother. Its basically like a modern metropolis but with a relaxed, beach-going vibe.

In line with that vibe, I had booked a table in one of its coolest restaurants, so we got dressed up and headed to the restaurant. Now Tel Aviv is much hotter than Jerusalem so our 20 minute walk ended up being considerably sweatier than expected, so we rocked up at the restaurant looking a little hot and flustered, but sexy all the same.

The real embarrassment though was at desert time when I got up to go to the loo. Apparently the waitress decided that was the best time to sing happy birthday to Steffi so she came out with a slice of cake and a candle singing happy birthday to poor Steffi who was sitting down at the table looking like the world’s biggest loner who had come out for a birthday dinner on her own. She was not amused.

We drank and ate to our hearts content and then made our way slowly back home. The following day was an early start with a busy day touring the west coast of Israel.