Hummus
Much more filling than a bowl of cereal, a bowl of hummus is typically eaten for breakfast in Israel. The chickpea caviar starts with dried chickpeas soaked overnight that are then cooked and blended with lemon juice, garlic, and usually tahini. Rip apart pita; dunk.
Baba Ghanoush
Eggplants: they’ve been around for a long time in the Middle East. An old Arab adage goes something like, “if she doesn’t know how to cook eggplant 50 ways, don’t marry her!” The eggplant is revered in this part of the world. Beside the familiar elongated type, there are stubbier eggplants and tiny ones used for pickling.
Grilled, deep-fried, sautéed, roasted, marinated, or pickled—Israelis eat eggplant in many forms. A very common one: baba ghanoush.
And then the meal, New Year’s dinner: the only time in my childhood when my mother cooked fish, usually a delicate white fish, with the traditional herb rice (sabzi polo, basmati with cilantro, parsley, and dill), and often with a side of kuku, a Persian spinach and egg frittata. There was something so shockingly healthy about it, so light, so vibrant—I remember feeling like I was glowing as I ate. It was all so green—as if you were actually eating spring itself.
