Israeli cuisine

Israeli cuisine (Template:Lang-he-n HaMitbakh HaYisraeli) is a diverse cuisine consisting of local dishes and dishes brought to Israel by Jewish immigrants from around the world. Since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, and particularly since the late 1970s, a nascent Israeli fusion cuisine has developed.

Israeli cuisine has adopted and continues to adapt elements of various Jewish styles of cuisine including Mizrahi, Sephardic, Yemeni Jewish and Ashkenazi.

It has also incorporated other Middle Eastern foods, and many foods traditionally eaten in the Middle East, such as falafel, shakshouka, couscous, Israeli salad, hummus and za'atar have become synonymous with Israeli cuisine.

There are new dishes based on agricultural products, such as oranges, avocados, dairy products and fish, introduced since 1948. Chefs educated abroad have also introduced elements of other international cuisines.

History

Origins

Main article: Jewish cuisine

Israel’s culinary traditions comprise foods and cooking methods that span three thousand years of history. Over that time, it has been shaped by influences from Asia, Africa and Europe, and religious and ethnic influences have resulted in a culinary melting pot. Biblical and archaeological records provide insight into the culinary life of the region as far back as 968 BCE, in the days of the kings of ancient Israel.

During the Second Temple period (516 BCE to 70 CE), Hellenistic and Roman culture heavily influenced manners and cuisine, particularly of the priests and aristocracy of Jerusalem. Elaborate meals were served, beginning with piquant dishes and an alcoholic drink as an entrée, followed by pickled fish and smoked meat, and fried eggs accompanied by pickled vegetables, olives, radishes, celery, lettuce or cucumbers and tart or sweet fruits.

The food of the common people was based on several products that still play important roles in modern Israeli cuisine. These were known as the seven species: olives, figs, dates, pomegranates, wheat, barley and grapes. The diet, based on locally grown produce, was enhanced by imported spices and herbs, readily available due to the country’s position at the crossroads of east-west trade routes.

After the destruction of the Second Temple and the exile of the majority of Jews from the land of Israel, Jewish cuisine continued to develop in the many countries where Jewish communities have existed since Late Antiquity, influenced by the economics, agriculture, and culinary traditions of those countries.

Before the establishment of the State of Israel, the cuisine of the old Jewish communities, especially of Jerusalem, included pies like sambousak, pastels and burekas, vegetable gratins and stuffed vegetables, and rice and bulgur pilafs. These are characteristic dishes of Sephardic cuisine, and are now considered to be Jerusalem classics.

Groups of Hasidic Jews from Eastern Europe began establishing communities in the Holy Land in the late 1700s, and brought with them their traditional Ashkenazi cuisine, developing, however, distinct local variations, notably a caramelized noodle pudding (kugel Yerushalmi), a sweet and spicy version of the traditional Askenazi lokshen kugel (sweet cheese and noodle pudding).

From the 1880s, Jews began migrating to Palestine from Eastern Europe in larger numbers, particularly from Poland and Russia. These Zionist pioneers, called halutzim, were motivated both ideologically and by the Mediterranean climate to reject the Ashkenazi cooking styles they had grown up with, and use local produce, especially vegetables such as zucchini, peppers, eggplant and artichokes, and the hummus and falafel made from the local chickpea. The bread, olives, cheese and raw vegetables they adopted became the basis for the kibbutz breakfast, which in more abundant forms is served in Israeli hotels today, and in various forms, in most Israeli homes.

Early years of the State of Israel

The State of Israel faced enormous military and economic challenges in its early years, and the period from 1948 to about 1958 was a time of food rationing and austerity, known as tzena. Substitutes, such as the wheat-based rice substitute, ptitim, were introduced, and vegetables, like eggplant, were used as alternatives to meat. Additional flavor and nutrition was provided from inexpensive canned tomato paste and puree, hummus, tahina, and mayonnaise in tubes. Meat was scarce, and it was not until the late 1950s that herds of beef cattle were introduced into the agricultural economy. A legacy of that time is a range of mock or simulated foods, such as chopped “liver” from eggplant, and turkey as a substitute for veal schnitzel or for lamb in kebabs and shwarma.

Impact of immigration

Israel has incorporated elements of the cuisines of many immigrant populations. During the approximately fifty years before 1948, there were successive waves of Jewish immigration, known as aliyot, which brought with them a whole range of foods and cooking styles. Immigrants arriving from central Europe brought foods such as schnitzel and strudels, and coffee drinking accompanied by delicate pastries, while Russian Jews brought borsht and tea-drinking and other Ashkenazi favorites.

After 1948, the greatest impact came from the large migration of Jews from Turkey, Iraq, Kurdistan and Yemen, and Mizrahi Jews from North Africa, particularly Morocco. Typically, the staff of army, schools, hospitals, hotels and restaurant kitchens has been Mizrahi, Kurdish and Yemenite Jews, and Israeli Arabs, and this has had an influence on the cooking fashions and ingredients of the country.

Modern trends

As Israeli agriculture developed, new kinds of fruits and vegetables appeared in the local markets, and cooks and chefs began to use them. For example, from the late 1960s, the Israeli chef Uri Guttman developed a hot avocado soup, St. Peter's fish with mango and pomegranate, and crepes stuffed with pears, nuts, dates, and figs. Schooled in French cuisine, Guttman traveled around the world representing Israel in cooking competitions and adapted unusual recipes to what was available in the country. He also developed menus for army bases and restaurants, using local products.

Chefs also began using so-called "Biblical" ingredients such as honey, figs, and pomegranates; indigenous foods like prickly pears (tzabar) and chickpeas, and new Israeli produce such as avocado, citrus, mango and dairy products. Since the late 1970s there has been an increased interest in food, including international cuisine, cooking with wine and herbs, healthy eating and vegetarianism. Eating out in restaurants has become a popular recreation.

There has also been a revival of interest in ethnic heritages, both Sephardic and Ashkenazi, and an increased interest in “Mediterranean” styles. People still generally eat at home according to their ethnic background, but a wide variety of foods are available in street markets, supermarkets and restaurants, and people increasingly partake of foods from ethnic backgrounds other than their own at Sabbath dinners and celebrations such as weddings and bar mitzvahs.

Characteristics

Geography has a large influence on Israel cuisine, and foods common in the Mediterranean region, such as olives, wheat, chickpeas, dairy products, fish, and vegetables such as tomatoes, eggplants, and zucchini are prominent in Israeli cuisine. Fresh fruits and vegetables are plentiful in Israel and are cooked and served in many ways.

There are various climatic areas in Israel that allow a variety of products to be grown. Citrus trees such as orange, lemon and grapefruit thrive on the coastal plain. Figs, pomegranates and olives also grow in the cooler hill areas. The subtropical climate near the Sea of Galilee and in the Jordan River Valley is suitable for mangoes, kiwis and bananas, while the temperate climate of the mountains of the Galilee and the Golan is suitable for grapes, apples and cherries.

Israeli eating customs also conform to the wider Mediterranean region, with lunch, rather than dinner, being the focal meal of a regular workday. “Kibbutz foods” have been adopted by many Israelis for their light evening meals as well as breakfasts, and now typically consist of many types of cheeses, both soft and hard, yoghurt, leben and sour cream, olives, hard-boiled eggs or omelets, pickled and smoked herring, a variety of breads, and fresh orange juice and coffee.

In addition, Jewish holidays influence the cuisine, with the preparation of traditional foods at holiday times, such as various types of challah (Sabbath bread) for Sabbaths and Festivals, jelly doughnuts (sufganiyot) for Hanukah, the hamantaschen pastry (oznei haman) for Purim, charoset, a type of fruit paste, for Passover, and dairy foods for Shavuot. The Shabbat dinner, and to a lesser extent Shabbat lunch, is a significant meal in Israeli homes, together with holiday meals.

Although only a minority of Jews in Israel strictly observe the Jewish dietary laws (kashrut or “keeping kosher”), the tradition of kashrut strongly influences the availability of certain foods and their preparation in homes, public institutions and many restaurants, including the separation of milk and meat and avoiding the use of non-kosher foods, especially pork and shellfish. During Passover, bread and other leavened foods are proscribed and matza and leaven-free foods are substituted.

Israeli foods

A typical Israeli schnitzel, served with pasta

Israel does not have a universally recognized national dish; however, many consider it to be falafel, deep fried balls of seasoned, ground chickpeas. Falafel is most commonly served in a pita, with pickles, tahina, hummus, cut vegetable salad and often, harif, a hot sauce, the type used depending on the origin of the falafel maker. Street vendors throughout Israel sell falafel and it is a favorite fast-food.

Turkey schnitzel is an adaptation of veal schnitzel, and is an example of the transformations common in Israeli cooking: Because of the shortage of veal before the 1960s, Jews from Central Europe adapted one of their native dishes to use turkey or chicken. Most cooks buy it breaded and serve it with hummus, tahina, and other salads for a quick main meal. Other immigrant groups have added variations from their own backgrounds; Yemenite Jews, for example, add garlic, cumin, turmeric, cardamom, and hawayij; Ashkenazim often use matza meal. A classic schnitzel is cooked in both butter and oil, but in Israel, only oil is used because of kashrut.In addition, vegetarian versions have become popular and the Israeli food company, Tiv′ol, was the first to produce a vegetarian schnitzel from a soya meat substitute.

Ptitim

A unique Israeli food is ptitim, which is often referred to as "Israeli couscous". Ptitim originated in the early days of the State of Israel when rice was scarce. Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, asked the Osem company to devise a wheat-based substitute. It was thus nicknamed "Ben-Gurion's rice".

Shkedei Marak, known as "soup nuts" in English, are an Israeli adaption of the traditional Ashkenazi soup pasta known as mandlen and are used commonly with chicken soup.

Wine

Main article: Israeli wine

With the immigration of Jews in the late 1800s, vineyards were planted at Rishon LeZion and Zichron Yaakov, and the Carmel Winery, established in 1882, was the foundation of the modern Israeli wine industry. Most of the wine produced was sweet, kosher wine.

The Golan Heights, captured from Syria in 1967, provided a better climate for grapes and the Golan Heights Winery, jointly owned by the nearby kibbutzim that supplied the grapes, introduced its first vintage in 1983, from grapes planted ten years earlier. The winery was also the first to focus on planting and making wines from Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, white Riesling and Gewürztraminer. These kosher wines have won silver and gold medals in international competitions and are exported world-wide.

Snacks and sweets

Two Israeli snack foods are Bamba and Bissli. Bamba is a soft, peanut-flavored snack food and Bissli is crunchy and comes in various flavors, including BBQ, pizza, falafel and onion.

Krembo (Hebrew: קרמבו) is a chocolate-coated marshmallow treat that is also very popular in Israel. It is sold only in the winter, and is very popular as an alternative to ice-cream. It comes wrapped in colorful aluminum foil, and consists of a round biscuit base covered with a dollop of marshmallow cream coated in chocolate.

Milky is a dairy pudding, usually chocolate or mocha flavored, with cream on top, and one of the most popular foods in Israel.

Arab food in Israeli cuisine

Several of the dishes Israeli cuisine consists of are Levantine dishes, but only a small minority of Israeli Jews within the Mizrahi Jewish community descend from the Levant. The vast majority of Mizrahi Jews came from North Africa, Yemen, Iraq, Iran, kurdish inhabited regions and Central Asia, which are regions with distinct cuisine than the Levant.

Joseph Massad, a Palestinian professor of Arab Politics at Columbia University, accuses Israelis of an act of unjustly "appropriating the fruit of the land that Palestine's peasants produced," and specifies the renaming of "Palestinian rural salad (now known in New York delis as Israeli salad)" as an example of Israeli "racism."

File:First aliyah BILU in kuffiyeh.jpg

Bilu Ashkenazi immigrants to Palestine during the Second Aliyah wearing Keffiyehs - traditional Arab headdress.

In a New York Times article, journalist Jodi Kantor, documents how Palestinians believe that Israel has stolen Arab food. A Palestinian-American professor says: "We always sort of look at each other and roll our eyeballs when we pass a restaurant that says 'Israeli falafel'" Another Palestinian-American got into a fight with owners of an Israeli restaurant, saying: "This is my mother's food," "This is my grandfather's food. What do you mean you're serving it as your food?"

A food editor interviewed on the BBC program Cooking in the Danger Zone, when asked about the origins of "Israel salad", falafel and hummus, stated stated that "Of course it's Arabic. Humous is Arabic. Falafel, our national dish, our national Israeli dish, is completely Arabic and this salad that we call an Israeli Salad, actually it's an Arab salad, Palestinian salad. So, we sort of robbed them of everything"

Food critic Jana Gur wrote that the ethos of some early Jewish settlers in modern Israel "was rejection of everything that reeked of Diaspora and an eager, almost childish, embrace of the Levant. The infatuation with falafel and hummus, staples of Arabic cuisine, started there." The outcome, according to another commentator, was that "Shawarma, falafel and hummus soon became “sabra” foods," a common part of everyday meals in Israel.

Rutgers University scholar, Yael Zerubavel has said that Jewish immigrants used to adopt the traditional Arab headdress, the keffiyeh. Zerubavel said: "Politically, the Zionists ignored the Arabs, but culturally, they romanticized and tried to imitate them" "This imitation didn't seem like theft," "but localization, a process of putting roots in soil." Anther women described the takeover by the newly arrived Jewish immigrants as: "Their native food was inappropriate for the weather and the produce" "Not surprisingly, they were enchanted by the smoky eggplant dips, rustic breads and aromatic spice mixtures of Palestinian cuisine."

Ashkenazi Israeli writer Meir Shalev have written an article about humus called "Hummus is Ours" where he claims that Hummus is mentioned in the Book of Ruth and therefore belongs to Israel and Jews.

Legal action

It was reported in 2008 that the president of the Lebanese Industrialists Association had planned to file a law suit against Israel for copyright infringement. Dishes such as kibbeh, hummus, falafel, tabbouleh and fattoush was mentioned as lebanese trademarks that had been violated by Israel.

In popular culture

In You Don't Mess with the Zohan, hummus is mentioned, used and eaten several times by the Israeli lead character, his family and Israeli friend.

In 1958, an Israeli song called And We Have Falafel was released with lyrics such as: "It used to be when a Jew came to Israel he kissed the ground and gave thanks/Now as soon as he gets off the plane he has a falafel", "only we have falafel", "because this is the national food of Israel."

In Waltz with Bashir, a former Israeli soldier makes a reference to falafel.

Cuisines of the Jewish Diaspora

Many ethnic dishes have been incorporated in Israeli cuisine, brought to Israel by immigrants from those countries.

• East European dishes include chicken soup, schnitzel and chopped liver, Gefilte fish and Kugel. "Jerusalem Kugel" made with caramelized sugar and spiced with black pepper is a speciality of Ashkenazi Jews in Jerusalem. The first Israeli patisseries were opened by Ashkenazi Jews, who popularized cakes and pastries popular in central Europe, such as sabrina and strudel. Holiday pastries in Israel are the sufganiyah, eaten on Hanukkah, and the hamantashen, eaten on Purim.
• North African dishes popular in Israel include couscous, mafrum, shakshouka, matbucha, Moroccan cooked carrot salad and chraime (slices of fish cooked in a spicy tomato sauce).
• Balkan foods incorporated in Israeli cuisine are burekas, yoghurt and taramosalata.
• Yemenite foods include jachnun, malawach, skhug, saluf and kubane.
• Iraqi dishes popular in Israel include amba, various types of kubbeh, sambusac, sabich and pickled vegetables (hamutzim, Hebrew: חמוצים).

Hummus with pine nuts

Israeli-Mizrahi cuisine (the cuisine of Jews from Asia and North Africa) features grilled meats, puff pastries (sweet and savory), rice dishes, stuffed vegetables, pita breads and salads. There are many similarities to Arab cuisine.

• Salads - A wide variety of salads, or meze, is often set out on the table before the main course. Hummus adopted from Arab cuisine, tahini (known in Israel as t'hina), matbucha red pepper salad, Moroccan carrot salad, Israeli salad which is a finely diced tomato and cucumber salad and adopted from Arab cuisine, coleslaw and various eggplant salads are common. A liver-flavored eggplant salad invented during the Austerity period is still a popular dish.
• Spicy dips - Skhug brought to Israel by Yemenite Jews, Harissa brought by Tunisian and North African Jews, and Pilpelchuma brought by Libyan Jews, are different hot sauces made from chili peppers and garlic.
• Amba - Indian and Iraqi Jews introduced amba, a pickled mango sauce that is spooned over shwarma and felafel.
• Labneh - adopted from Arab cuisine, A soft white cheese with a slightly sour taste derived from the Arab kitchen.
• Pita - adopted from Arab cuisine, pita is a soft, round bread that can be halved and stuffed with felafel, salads or various meats. Bits of pita can be torn off and used to scoop up creamy spreads like hummus or eggplant salad. Schnitzel or steak in pita are said to be an Israeli invention. Lafa (an Arabic word, means roll) is a flat pita that is rolled up with a felafel or shwarma filling.
• Shakshouka - A spicy egg and tomato dish.
• Fried snacks such as felafel, kibbeh, Moroccan cigars and pastelim (spicy fried pastries) hail from various Middle Eastern countries.
• Soups - Bean soup and lentil soup are Mizrahi favorites.
• Pastries - Bourekas brought to Israel by Jews from Turkey and the Balkans are very popular. Malawach and the Jachnun were introduced by the Yemenite Jews.
• Sandwiches - Sabich is an Iraqi pita sandwich stuffed with eggplant, hard boiled eggs and tahini. Fricassee is a fried roll stuffed with tuna, cooked potatoes and matbucha brought from Tunisia.
• Grilled meat - Kebab and shashlik are popular, as is the Jerusalem mixed grill.
• Shwarma Originally from Turkey. Traditionally it was made from lamb.
• Fish - Fried, grilled and baked fish is often served whole, with the head intact. Hraime (חריימה), fish cooked in hot pepper sauce, is served in many Mizrahi households in honor of Shabbat.
• Hummus, chips and salad - The most common accompaniments to food served in a pita. The addition of french fries seems to be exclusive to Israel.
• Mujadara - A popular rice and lentil dish adopted from Arab cuisine, (known in Israel as "mejadra")
• Desserts - Baklava is a sweet Turkish pastry often served as dessert, along with small cups of Turkish coffee, in Middle Eastern restaurants.
• Halva - This Turkish sweet, made from techina and sugar, is popular in Israel and used to make original desserts like halva parfait.
• Black coffee - Sometimes served with hel (cardamom).

Additionally, a few dishes with Ashkenazic (Central and Eastern European) roots have made their way into Israeli cuisine.

Main article: Cholent

Hamin (also called cholent) is a traditional Sabbath dish prepared by Jews all over the world in countless variations. The basic ingredients are meat and beans or rice simmered overnight on a hotplate or placed in a slow oven before lighting the candles on Friday night.

• Cholent - East European Shabbat stew usually containing chunks of meat, potatoes, barley, and beans.
• Skhina (or s′hina) - hamin of the Moroccan Jews.
• Tebit - hamin of chicken and rice of the Iraqi Jews.

Holiday cuisine

Passover

The laws of the holiday of Passover add further dietary restrictions. Restaurants in Israel have come up with creative alternatives using potato starch and other non-standard ingredients to create pasta, hamburger buns, pizza, and other fast foods in kosher-for-Passover versions. After Passover, the celebration of Mimouna takes place, a tradition brought to Israel from the Jewish communities of North Africa, during which the Mofletta is eaten.

See also

• Jewish cuisine
• Cuisine of the Sephardic Jews
• Cuisine of the Mizrahi Jews

References

• Ansky, Sherry, and Sheffer, Nelli, The Food of Israel: Authentic Recipes from the Land of Milk and Honey, Hong Kong, Periplus Editions (2000) ISBN 9625932682
• Gur, Jana, The Book of New Israeli Food: A Culinary Journey, Schocken (2008) ISBN 0805212248
• Marks, Gil, The World of Jewish Cooking: More than 500 Traditional Recipes from Alsace to Yemen, New York, Simon & Schuster (1996) ISBN 0684835592
• Nathan, Joan, The Foods of Israel Today, Knopf (2001) ISBN 0679451072
• Roden, Claudia, The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York, New York, Knopf (1997) ISBN 0394532589