food from israel

My Mom’s Sweet-and-Sour Baked Eggplant
My Mom's Sweet-and-Sour Baked Eggplant, Excerpted from Shuk by Einat Admony & Janna Gur (Artisan Books). Copyright © 2019. Photographs by Quentin Bacon. Used with permission from the publisher.

My Mom’s Sweet-and-Sour Baked Eggplant, Excerpted from Shuk by Einat Admony & Janna Gur (Artisan Books). Copyright © 2019. Photographs by Quentin Bacon. Used with permission from the publisher.

Salad for breakfast. Vegetables every which way. Earthy hummus and the primal delight of mopping it up with a torn pita. Soul-satisfying stews and soups. The light-as-a-cloud texture of real couscous. A profound love for chicken. Pilafs, shakshukas, grilled meats, and fish from the glittering sea. The vibrant, utterly delicious (and healthy!) pleasures of eating food alive with spice, bright with lemon and olive oil, and showered with fresh herbs.

These are just some of the reasons why Israeli food is so of the moment—because this is how we want to eat today. And all of it—from the simplest chopped salad to nutty, soft, crumbly Tahini Shortbread Cookies—is found in SHUK: From Market to Table, the Heart of Israeli Home Cooking.

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Yeasted Rugelach
Rugelach

Photography by Michael Persico

For their first major book since the trailblazing Zahav, Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook go straight to the food of the people—the great dishes that are the soul of Israeli cuisine. Usually served from tiny eateries, hole-in-the-wall restaurants, or market stalls, these specialties have passed from father to son or mother to daughter for generations. To find the best versions, the authors scoured bustling cities like Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Haifa, and sleepy towns on mountaintops. They visited bakeries, juice carts, beaches, even weddings. (more…)

Book Review: Israel Eats

I must begin with a confession. I adored/obsessed over this cookbook so much that I hesitated to write about it. You know that feeling when you encounter something or someone so great that you are left to fall silent? I felt a bit unworthy. Thankfully, I moved past my insecurities and decided that it was more important to introduce my readers to the brilliance of this book.

Equal parts revelatory memoir, insightful travel guide, expedient cookbook, and sumptuous coffee table book, Israel Eats is an eye-opening experience of Israel’s food culture today.

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