Israel

🇮🇱Israel

Limonana

לימונענע

Lemon juice, mint and ice blended into a pale green slush, invented as an advertising stunt in the 1990s and now sold everywhere.

🇮🇱Israel

Malawach

מלואח

Yemenite flaky flatbread of dough folded repeatedly with fat, then fried in a pan until the layers separate and crisp.

🇮🇱Israel

Matbucha

מטבוחה

Slow-cooked salad of tomatoes and roasted peppers with garlic and chilli, reduced for hours until it is dark and jammy, served cold.

🇮🇱Israel

Matzo Ball Soup

קניידלך

Dumplings of matzo meal, egg and fat poached in clear chicken broth, served one or two to a bowl at Passover and through the winter.

🇮🇱Israel

Medjool Dates

תמר מג'הול

Medjool dates originated in Morocco’s Tafilalt oasis and are now cultivated in the Jordan Valley and around the Dead Sea, where large soft fruits ripen in autumn.

🇮🇱Israel

Mint Tea

תה נענע

A glass of black tea or hot water with a whole handful of fresh spearmint stems pushed into it, drunk after meals.

🇮🇱Israel

Msabacha

מסבחה

A warm Israeli hummus dish of whole chickpeas in tahini sauce, served with lemon, garlic and olive oil, a rustic cousin of hummus.

🇱🇧Lebanon

Muhallebi

Sakizli muhallebi

Muhallebi is the base Turkish milk pudding and the anchor of the muhallebici shop; it belongs in the catalog as the parent of the pudding family.

🇱🇧Lebanon

Mujaddara

مجدرة

Lentils and rice or bulgur cooked together and buried under deeply caramelised onions fried almost to black.

🇱🇧Lebanon

Mutabbal

متبل

Aubergine charred whole over a flame, peeled and mashed with tahini, lemon and garlic into a pale smoky purée.

🇮🇱Israel

Pilpelchuma

פילפלצ'ומה

Libyan Jewish paste of garlic, caraway, paprika and hot pepper cooked in oil until it turns brick red and sweet-hot.

🇮🇱Israel

Pita Bread

Πίτα

Greek flatbread, soft and round, used for souvlaki and gyros wraps, or dipped in meze. A daily bread, baked in a pan or griddle, a national staple, slightly puffed and chewy.

🇮🇱Israel

Pomelit

פומלית

Sweet grapefruit-pomelo cross bred in Israel in the 1980s, large, thick-pithed and much less bitter than a grapefruit.

🇮🇱Israel

Ptitim

פתיתים

Toasted wheat pellets developed in the 1950s as a rice substitute during austerity, cooked like pasta and now a fixed children's dinner.

🇮🇱Israel

Rugelach

רוגלך

Small rolled pastries of yeasted dough around chocolate or cinnamon filling, baked and soaked in sugar syrup while hot.

🇮🇱Israel

Sabich

סביח

Pita filled with fried aubergine, hard-boiled egg, potato, salad, tahini and amba — an Iraqi-Jewish Shabbat breakfast turned into a street sandwich.

🇮🇱Israel

Sabra Fruit

צבר

Prickly pear from the cactus hedges that mark old field boundaries, peeled with gloves and eaten cold in high summer.

🇾🇪Yemen

Sahawiq

Green chillies, coriander, garlic and tomato pounded in a stone mortar into a raw, fiery relish that goes on and into everything.

🇪🇬Egypt

Salep

Салеп

A warm, creamy winter drink made from the powdered tubers of wild orchids, mixed with hot milk, sugar, and topped with cinnamon. Salep has been consumed since Ottoman times and is sold by street vendors during the cold months. The same orchid root powder is a key ingredient in Turkish dondurma ice cream.

🇮🇱Israel

Sambusak

סמבוסק

Half-moon of short dough filled with chickpeas, meat or cheese, baked or fried, and sold from Iraqi and Syrian Jewish bakeries.

🇮🇱Israel

Shakshuka

שקשוקה

Eggs poached in a pan of tomatoes, peppers, garlic and cumin, brought to the table in the pan with bread to tear into it.

🇪🇬Egypt

Shawarma

שווארמה

Turkey or lamb stacked on a vertical spit with fat between the layers, shaved off and served in laffa with tahini, salad and amba.

🇮🇱Israel

Shipudim

שיפודים

Skewers of chicken, lamb, beef, liver or heart grilled over charcoal and served with laffa, tahini and a table full of small salads.

🇱🇧Lebanon

Strained Yoghurt

لبنة

Yoghurt hung in a cloth until the whey drains and it thickens to a soft, tart cheese, spread on a plate and flooded with olive oil.

🇮🇱Israel

Sufganiyot

סופגניות

Deep-fried yeast doughnuts injected with jam or custard and dusted with icing sugar, sold by the million in the run-up to Hanukkah.

🇱🇧Lebanon

Tabbouleh

تبولة

Parsley and bulgur salad with tomatoes, mint, lemon, dominant fresh parsley with fine bulgur and balanced lemon, a popular and refreshing Arabic salad in UAE, traditional and beloved, daily and healthy.

🇮🇱Israel

Table Olives

זיתים

Green and black olives cured in brine with lemon, garlic and chilli, put on the table unasked at any grill restaurant.

🇪🇭Western Sahara

Tagine

طاجين

Slow-cooked Moroccan food prepared in a shallow earthenware dish with a conical lid, from vegetables to meat.

🇮🇱Israel

Tahini

طحينة

A smooth paste of ground sesame seeds, the backbone of hummus, baba ghanoush, moutabal and many Lebanese dips and sauces.

🇱🇧Lebanon

Tahini Halva

حلاوة طحينية

A dense sesame confection made by working tahini with boiled sugar syrup until it sets into a crumbly, fibrous block.

🇮🇱Israel

Yemenite Soup

מרק תימני

Beef or chicken on the bone simmered with potato, tomato and hawaij spice into a clear golden broth, served with hilbeh and schug.

🇱🇧Lebanon

Za’atar

زعتر

A Levantine blend of dried thyme or oregano, sumac, toasted sesame and salt, used on flatbreads, with labneh and as a table seasoning.