Israel Food Guide

Shawarma

Marinated meat - usually turkey, chicken or lamb - sliced thin, stacked on a vertical spit and slow-roasted, then served in pita or laffa with tahini, Israeli salad, pickles and sometimes fries. The Jerusalem style works in cinnamon and allspice.

Jachnun

A Yemenite Jewish pastry made by rolling dough and baking it overnight at low heat, which leaves it sweet, brown and slightly sticky. It's usually eaten Shabbat morning with grated tomato, hard-boiled egg, and zhug hot sauce.

Israeli Couscous (Ptitim)

Invented during the food rationing of the 1950s, these small toasted pasta pearls became a household staple. Ptitim is cooked with vegetables, herbs and sometimes meat, soaking up whatever it's simmered in. It turns up as a side dish and as kids' food all over Israel.

Bourekas

Flaky pastries of Balkan origin filled with cheese, potato, mushroom or spinach. The shape usually marks the filling - triangular for cheese, rectangular for potato. They show up at breakfast, as snacks, and on the table at pretty much any Israeli gathering.

Knafeh

A Middle Eastern dessert of shredded phyllo or semolina soaked in sweet syrup and layered with cheese or cream. In Israel it's strongest in Arab towns like Nazareth, and it has been working its way into mainstream menus. It's served hot so the cheese inside stays molten.

Vegan Shawarma

A spin-off of Tel Aviv's vegan reputation, made from jackfruit, chickpeas, or lab-grown meat from companies like Aleph Farms and SuperMeat. It's marinated in the usual shawarma spices and served with tahini and Israeli salad. You'll find it at the city's more forward-looking restaurants.

Gourmet Hummus Bowls

Plain hummus dressed up with toppings like truffle oil, confit mushrooms, slow-cooked lamb, pine nuts or pomegranate seeds. It's part of the move to push street food upmarket, and you'll find it at the newer hummusiyas around Tel Aviv's Carmel Market and Jerusalem's Machane Yehuda.

Artisanal Sabich

An upmarket version of the Iraqi-Jewish classic, built on heirloom eggplant, organic eggs, and tahini laced with harissa or za'atar. It's another example of street food getting the chef treatment, served at the higher-end Tel Aviv spots reworking old recipes.

A dense, sweet block of tahini (sesame paste) and sugar, often run through with pistachios, chocolate or vanilla. The texture is the trick - crumbly and soft at the same time. It's a Middle Eastern sweet, and you'll find versions all over Israel that trace back to different communities.

Small crescent pastries of cream-cheese dough rolled around chocolate, cinnamon or fruit preserves. They come from Eastern European Jewish communities, and the Israeli version tends to be denser and less sweet than the American one. The Marzipan Bakery near Jerusalem's market is well known for its chocolate rugelach.

Round jelly doughnuts eaten at Hanukkah, a nod to the oil that burned for eight days. The traditional filling is strawberry jam, but bakeries now try to outdo each other with dulce de leche, chocolate, pistachio cream, and even savory ones.

Shredded phyllo or semolina soaked in sweet syrup and layered over cheese or cream. It's a staple in Arab towns like Nazareth and has spread onto mainstream menus as well. Always eaten hot, so the cheese underneath stays melted.

A silky milk pudding of Middle Eastern origin, made from milk, cornstarch and sugar and scented with rosewater or orange blossom water. It's finished with shredded coconut, crushed pistachios, and sometimes a red or pink syrup, then served chilled in cups or glasses. You'll find it at juice stands and cafes - light and fragrant, the kind of dessert that suits a hot day. Turkish and Arab in origin, tuned over time to Israeli tastes.

A semolina cake drenched in sweet syrup of sugar and lemon, sometimes with rosewater or orange blossom water. It's Middle Eastern, common across Israel and especially in Arab communities. The crumb is moist and dense with a slight grain from the semolina, usually studded with almonds before baking and cut into diamonds or squares. Bakeries and cafes sell it; the ingredients are plain but the result is rich. A standard sweet for celebrations and for welcoming guests.

An Israeli winter staple: a dome of soft marshmallow cream set on a round biscuit, usually vanilla or chocolate, and coated in a chocolate shell. It's around from October to February since it melts in the heat, and it comes in classic, mocha, coconut and banana. Strauss and Elite go head to head on it every year. Most Israelis grew up on it - not an old recipe, but thoroughly Israeli all the same. Sold individually wrapped at kiosks and supermarkets.

Filled cookies of buttery semolina or flour dough packed with dates, pistachios, walnuts or almonds. They're pressed in carved wooden molds that leave patterns on top, then dusted with powdered sugar. People eat them year-round but more so around the holidays - Easter for Christian Arabs, Purim and Passover for Jews, Eid al-Fitr for Muslims. Arab bakeries and specialty shops carry them. The texture is delicate and crumbly, the filling sweet, and the recipe goes back generations.