Part of the fun of traveling is eating out, discovering new dishes and buying food in the markets. The first thing we noticed in Israel was how expensive eating out was, so we tended to go for cheaper eats where we could. This may be why our experience of Israeli food was dominated by hummus and falafel!
If you order ‘hummus’ on the menu it typically comes with pita bread and pickled vegetables and/or olives, sometimes with falafel and usually with small side salads. This was generally a cheap (for Israel standards) and filling lunch. We would share one hummus bowl and usually order a green or ‘Arab salad’ (tomato/ cucmber/ parsley) to go with it. At the Alayed restaurant near Damascus Gate in Jerusalem (where we ate a few times) I really liked the ‘Turkish salad’ which was a spicy tomatoey one and their tabouleh which was almost all parsley! The other cheap option was to get a hummus or falafel pita bread sandwich (or for a bit more, a shawarma sandwich).
There was some variation in the salads that accompany the order. We stopped for lunch in Mas’ada on our little trip around the Golan Heights and ordered hummus, felafel and a green salad. The photo above shows what that looks like. In the small dishes are olives, pickled cucumbers, 2 types of coleslaw, a corn salad, spicy turkish tomato salad and chillis. And of course a few pita breads. The hummus here was really strongly tahini tasting and not to my taste but the falafel was pretty good. It was not cheap but not bad for a lunch for two, 50 shekels (= $22 NZD).
In Tel Aviv we went to a place that was highly rated for its hummus. It wasn’t far from where we were staying in Jaffa. We asked the guy who welcomed us if we could see the menu- No, there was no menu. Ok, what can we get? Hummus. That’s all. Ok – we’ll take some! They had three types of hummus which they served in the one bowl: normal hummus (with olive oil and a few chickpeas on top), slightly spicy hummus and hummus with ful (beans) which I wasn’t fussed on. The regular and spicy hummus were very good though. The hummus came with pita bread, chilli and raw onions – we shared the hummus bowl between the two of us (22 shekel) and it was a surprisingly filling lunch. It was about the only time we did not get pickles or any kind of salad with the hummus.
To be honest I’m not sure how to tell the difference between all the different hummus and what constitutes a good one. They all tasted good to me (except the overloaded tahini one). The little place was humming, mostly with local guys and a few tourists (who like us had obviously read the rave reviews on Trip advisor!) It intrigued me that a restaurant could serve only hummus and do (by the looks of it) quite well.
While the hummus was all mostly the same to me, I could definately taste the difference in the pita bread. Pita that was still hot and just out of the oven was amazing! We had this in Ramallah, Palestine – it was perfect. In the markets you could also buy it right as they made it. Along with all sorts of other unpackaged bread, yay! We bought bread on just a couple of occasions -opting for a heavier, darker sourdough bread.
The most expensive meal we had in Israel was in a restaurant in a petrol station (!), not far from our accommodation in Tiberias. We would never have found it had it not been for Tripadvisor. Had we been a bit savvy it could have been a really reasonable meal out but never mind, sometimes it’s not about saving every shekel! Before we even ordered out came 21 salads (I counted them!) and fresh hot bread! This was complimentary when you order a main meat dish or 35 shekels if you don’t.
As there were no main vegetarian options I thought perhaps if I ordered an eggplant ‘starter’ I might waive the 35 fee for salads (I did not think this through!). There was no description just ‘roasted eggplant’ which I thought sounded good. Unfortunately it was not to my liking with LOTS of tahini sauce on a soft mushy eggplant and I could only stomach half of it. And as the bill showed in the end we had to pay for it (30 shekels I think) and the 35 for the salads. I was a bit annoyed with mysef for ordering something a bit pricey that I didn’t like and couldn’t finish (not good for my savvy spending and zero waste head!) Oh well!
At least the salads were delicious!! I would have eaten there again just for those. Lots of variety and all really good except the babaganush (mushy eggplant) – I am clearly a fussy eggplant eater! Once we’d finished the first fresh bread they promptly delivered another hot one and also asked if we needed any more salads. I was disappointed not to be able to fit more in!
Antony had had his fill of falafel and hummus so was pleased to see it was a meat/ fish restaurant. He splurged on some fish (with chips) to make his heart very happy! It was 82 shekels (and included all those salads)… plus a beer and a soda (in glass :-)) for me, then a tip meant it was 197 all up ($87 NZD) – far more than we normally spend on a meal traveling but overall not ridiculous (and actually on the cheaper end for Israeli Restaurants). The place was popular for large groups – what looked like a work function was just finishing up as we arrived and several large tables were decorated nicely with helium balloons including numbers for birthdays that were about to be celebrated.
Thankfully buying food in the markets and cooking at home was quite reasonable/ comparable to New Zealand prices. Keeping on with our zero waste attempts we took our own bags (made for me by timebankers Jenny and Mari – thank you!) and containers and filled them up with the staples we needed – brown rice, lentils, oats, coconut, popcorn, mung beans, seeds, nuts and dried fruits.
In our first three weeks while housesitting in Israel we also got two deliveries of organic vegetables from a local kibbutz and we supplemented with other veges from the market.
Breakfasts for me are the same as at home – I make up a raw muesli (oats, linseed, sesame, sunflower & pumpkin seeds, coconut, raisins, almonds) and then soak with water about 3/4 cup of it in a bowl and leave overnight. Sometimes I add a bit of water if it’s too dry in the morning… and usually a sliced apple if I have one. Antony eats rolled oats with sugar and raisins and sometimes coconut – just raw and without any liquid added. How he can eat something so dry is beyond me but it works for him and is so easy to organise!
Lunches we often had out if we were exploring or leftovers if at home. Sometimes we made rice salads or quinoa salads and packed them to take with us on our day trips.
Dinners at home were soup, salads, rice, greens, corn, lentils, kumara/ pumpkin mash, that kind of thing. I like to sprout mung beans and lentils and here because of the heat they sprout quickly, so we throw those in salads and stirfrys too. While I remembered to photograph meals we ate out there have only been a few homecooked meals I remembered to take pictures of!
Once when we couldn’t be bothered having lentils (again!) we thought we’d check out Dominos which was not far from the apartment in Jerusalem. At home we get the value range ($5 NZD) plus mine costs a bit more for vegan cheese. Dominos at home is a real budget option – not so here. The cheapest pizza on the menu was 65 shekels ($29 NZD!) – so home we went to more lentils and rice! We did when in Jerusalem’s city centre get a pizza one day (65 shekels). It was enormous and probably enough for 4 people not 2! We were done with hummus and falafel and saw a family eating a pizza which looked so yum. So much for my dairy free/ gluten free way of eating! We found a considerably cheaper pizza in Tiberias (only 30 shekels) – it was good but the white cheese a bit salty.
Another Israeli dish we tried was Shakshuka. It is eggs poached in a spicy tomato sauce and something eaten for breakfast or lunch. The first time I had it was not amazing, it was like they put tomato paste in and too much, something was too intense in a bad way. I’m so pleased I ordered it again somewhere else as the second time I had it was heaven! It was real fresh tomatoes and spices the eggs were poached in and so delicious. Third time was more of a tomato pasta style sauce the eggs were cooked in but still really tasty.
My favourite food in Israel was probably Ethiopian. Israel is home to quite a large Ethiopian Jewish community. My friend Simon from NZ has lived in Ethiopia and so was quite familiar with the food. He told us about a restaurant he’d found in Jerusalem so we checked it out on his recommendation. It ticked all the boxes for me – vegetarian, dairy free, gluten free and oh so tasty!
The Ethiopian Restaurant was located just down the road from Jerusalem’s main market which we frequented several times. It didn’t look too interesting from the outside and the two people didn’t say much when we walked in. They were watching telly and it took us a minute to realise they were the staff. The one copy they had of the menu was ripped and written over – but we gave it a shot and ordered ‘the vegetarian’ to share and hoped for the best.
Out came a round metal dish with the holey injera covering it. Atop the injera (sourdough bread made with fermented teff flour) was some salad and four different spicy dishes. We didn’t get cutlery as you eat with your hands and use the injera to eat up the curries. Antony thought the meal was ok but I loved it!
We went back a second time with Simon and Nagisa and this time I had one whole injera to myself as Antony ordered one with meat on it. So full afterwards!! I tried to eat there a third time but it was closed :-(. With Antony off getting a jachnun (see pic below) and coming to meet me later at the Ethiopian restaurant, I had little choice but to opt for the neighbouring food place where I could keep an eye out for Antony . They served a crepe rolled up like an icecream cone with fruit, icecream and then creme brulee on top. A local lady had told us about these creme brulee things which were apparently a new craze in Israel. It was of course rather yum, but I was gutted the Ethiopian place was closed- I’d have that any day over creme brulee crepes!
Antony’s favourite lunch in Israel was in Tel Aviv. We had rented bikes and whizzed round the city for 2 hours (more on that in the Tel Aviv post) so were really hungry. We walked to a place we’d been recommended (Jasmina) only to discover on arrival that it served just meat (no felafel) and it was clearly very good as there were a lot of people waiting for their food. It would take too long for us and there was nothing I could have so we then walked to the nearest other thing we could find – a place called Moses. For some reason we thought we’d ordered burgers… but were both pleasantly surprised by what we got instead!
Antony had lamb kebab with a tahini sauce and wedges and I had what would have been chicken and vegetables with lime and peanut sauce but without the chicken.. so it was a HUGE portion of salad. It was seriously yum and a bit different to the typical tomato/ cucumber/ parsley salads we’d had so much… this had the Asian flavours I love (sesame, peanut, lime, mint etc). What was a bit funny (in addition to thinking we had ordered burgers) was that with your main you get a starter and drink and choose what type of side (fries/ wedges etc) you want… so for the starter we chose the ‘spicy salad’ and the beetroot feta salad and shared them. I mostly ate the spicy salad which turned out to be the same as my main! Good thing it was delicious as that was a lot of one dish!
We were both very satisfied with this lunch…but somehow still found room for icecream. Antony has such a sweet tooth and at first when he bought icecreams I could resist and not have any, but in the end I was also suckered in by the delicious flavours on offer. Lotus & almond, kinder and butterscotch were his favourites, almond caramel and chocolate was good too and I liked salted cashew, pistachio and lemon & mint. Shops in Tel Aviv called Jeff or Anita didn’t sound terribly interesting (no offence to any Jeffs or Anitas reading this) but my word did they have decadent icecream. With the hot weather every day hardly a day would go by when Antony didn’t talk about wanting icecream. I felt a bit of a need to reign in his desire for it though given a 3 scoop icecream was about 25 shekels ($11 NZD) and my own willpower by the end of the trip was fading so that meant 50 shekels spent per icecream shop visit!
Almost all the icecream shops we visited had separate sections for vegan/ dairy free icecream. These were both sorbets and other ‘normal’ looking icecream. Israel is pretty awesome for vegans and vegetarians actually. In other countries filled pastries, savouries or bread things might contain meat but here it’s highly unlikely as kosher places don’t serve meat and dairy together. It’s either or, so most bakeries have cheese filled things (and mushroom, olives, potato etc) not meat. Pizza places too were all vegetarian, although if you searched you could probably find non-kosher places that had meat on pizza.
On one of our first outings into Jerusalem we came across a bakery and pastry shop called Marzipan which thankfully had no marzipan in sight! The cinammon scrolls were soooo good as were the other freshly baked mini croissant type things. My avoidance of sugar has along with the dairy and gluten avoidance now been thrown out the window while we are traveling! These were just too good to not try. We visited Marzipan several times, once to get lunch things to take with us on a day trip. The savouries with spinach, cheese, tomato etc were really good but oh those cinammon scrolls… so yummy. I miss them!
There were a lot of other sweet things which looked really good but we tried a few and weren’t so fussed on them. Halva was available in the markets too but again not really our cup of tea.
Before closing this post off I’ll say that not all our meals were amazing. We had a day trip to Haifa and had eaten our leftover quinoa salad for lunch- but about mid afternoon I really felt like chips – as in the hot chips you could get at a fish and chip shop in NZ. Antony always feels like fries so we went on a mission to find some, asking in at pizza and falafel places until we found one that had fries on the menu. We ordered a tray of fries as opposed to a plate and drinks too. There was quite a long wait as they cooked the fries which was fine as we weren’t in a hurry. After maybe 15 or 20 minutes out came a small plate of chips (not a tray as we thought we’d ordered!) served with a few types of pickle. The chips weren’t terrible, but nor were they great. The pickled cauliflower was probably the highlight!
Then in Mitspe Ramon I had popcorn, bread and tomato for dinner and Antony had bread with olive oil! It was not the only night on this trip where I made popcorn for dinner. It is so cheap and easily available to fill your own bags so it’s my go-to zero waste snack. Not recommended for dinner but sometimes there’s nothing else!
The next day was shabbat and the only things open in Mitspe had really bad reviews and were expensive to boot. We thought we could hang on until we got to our next destination, Eilat. Thankfully things were open despite being Shabbat and we ate at a place not far from our accommodation. Antony had his first burger of the trip and I had what was called Pad Thai- but in reality was nicer than any pad thai I’ve had – there were some noodles with masses of veges, delicious sauce and a few peanuts on the top. This would have been my second favourite meal after Ethiopian I reckon!
In our 5 weeks in Israel we only needed to go to the supermarket twice. Yay! Those places are just filled with packaged everything and make me cringe. The markets were way more interesting and way more conducive to zero waste shopping – not that many others had cottoned on. The use of plastic bags for *everything* was disheartening.
Our first supermarket visit was in Jerusalem to get tuna for the cat, also olive oil and sugar. And the second visit on our second to last day in the country – after the above meal. We wanted to get something we could have that evening that was light (given we’d eaten lunch about 3.30pm), something we could take on a day trip the following day and then something we could make on our last night. I’m sad to say we got cuppa soup and a packet of pasta, along with a glass jar of pesto, loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter. It was the first time to buy any of these things in about a year since trying to reduce our waste. (I make my own bread, we get peanut butter from a refillery, we don’t eat pasta and we make soup from scratch). Sigh – zero waste failings aside it was nice to have a cuppa soup that evening and the bread with peanut butter the following day was great. I’ve since been enjoying peanut butter on apple as a snack. Also pasta and pesto with a tomato and bean sprouts was a pretty darn delicious dinner – and easy too.
And one final word about the markets in Israel – well at least Jerusalem. They come alive at night. Many of the shops are open quite late and the bars and food providers just get busier and busier. It is a pretty cool atmosphere. Wish we had markets like this at home!
