Waking up early in Israel was never a problem for me. There was always a bountiful breakfast spread waiting, and it’s the best feast of the day. Fresh vegetable salads, salty white cheese*, hummus, baba ghanoush, pickled fish, olives (in various colors and shades of green to black), shakshouka (served in its cast-iron pan), cottage cheese (definitely not the diet kind—it was like eating cottage cheese for the first time), flakey bourekas, still-warm breads, butter, and preserves.
The big breakfast tradition began with kibbutz workers who’d work in the fields before dawn and were ravenous by the time 7 a.m. rolled around. Gathering around the communal table for a hearty breakfast, they’d eat whatever was grown and produced at the kibbutz. Vegetables, fresh cheeses, juices, and milk. Israelis all over adopted this kibbutz breakfast model, and still start their days with a mezze-style spread of salads, hummus, and other dishes the rest of the world might wait until lunchtime to start eating.
