HOLY LAND BOOK - Draft

If any group of people have raised stand-up
dining to an art form it is the Israelis. It is not so
much that people are in too much of a rush to
sit down as that it is that wherever one wanders,
a feast of Middle-Eastern treats are being
hawked from street-side stands, and moveable
carts. The two most popular foods for stand-up
dining are felafel and shawarma. Felafel, deepfried
balls of chickpeas and seasonings, may be
of dubious nutritional value but when well
made they are delicious and fun to eat.
Shawarma, which is made from small, thin
pieces of lamb (not all that different than
Turkish donner-kebab) , beef or turkey meat that
are built up on a skewer in cylindrical form to a
height of about two feet (50 centimeters) and
then cooked on vertically rotating grills, is no
less a pleasure.
The felafel or shawarma are then placed in a
pita bread (nearly everything considered edible
in Israel eventually makes its way into a pita)
and seasoned with tchina, humous, a variety of
salads and seasonings. One of the "tricks" to
master is managing to put as much as is
possible into the pita and then to avoid having
the contents of your sandwich drip on your
clothing. This sounds easy enough until one
realizes that the number of condiments
available includes such diverse treats as
sauerkraut, red cabbage, marinated sweet and
hot peppers, an assortment of olives, pickles
made out of cucumbers, onions, tomatoes and
carrots and at least five different preparations of
eggplant. Some purists will put only tchina and
one salad on their felafel or shawarma. (source
Daniel Rogov)
Is There an "Israeli Cuisine"?
Although several food writers have praised what
they call "Israeli cuisine", the truth is that the
country has not developed a unique cuisine.
What those visitors are praising are the varied
styles of Mediterranean cookery, many of which
have reached high points within Israel but none
of which have come together to form what one
might call a "true" cuisine.
The Holy Land - The Essential Guide to Living in Israel 27