Israeli breakfast

Israeli breakfast is one of the most abundant breakfasts we know. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, kibbutz workers usually started to work very early in the morning, so when they got back for a break, after several hours, they used to eat very rich food, to start to work again with the right energy. Mainly, they used to eat what the kibbutz had to offer on the day: milk, eggs, cheese, olives and fruit.

In accordance with Jewish laws of kashrut, meat and dairy products can’t be served together in a meal, and meats are prohibited. Fish is allowed, so it’s not very uncommon to find also some nice herrings on the table. If you’re on holiday in Israel, you mustn’t forget to enjoy one of the typical and delicious “Rugelach”, a kind of tiny croissants, but made with cream cheese in the dough, stuffed with dried fruit, chocolate or jam. Wonderful. The labaneh is another fresh cheese (made with fermented milk) also present in typical Israeli breakfast.

Another dish that it’s quite easy to find in an Israeli breakfast is the shakshuka. Shakshuka is a Tunisian dish, but it has become part of Israeli gastronomic culture. This dish consists of a couple of poached eggs cooked in a tomato sauce and spicy peppers, often accompanied by a couple of good slices of Challah bread, the traditional Jewish  “braided” bread, eaten during the Sabbath, a day of feast of the Jews.

(Video recipe here)

There are also many spreadable dip accompanying pitta bread: Baba Ghanouj for example, a dip made of roasted eggplant, or the most famous hummus, a delicious chickpea and tahini dip. As for drinks instead, one of the Israelian favorite coffee is the “affuch”coffee, that means “upside down coffee”, in between from a cappuccino and a latte, then teas of all kinds, fruit juices and fresh centrifuged and also the famous “turkish coffee”, prepared in the traditional ibrik, a small typical coffee pot. The special thing about this café is that sugar, if present, is put in the preparation during the process, not after, and they never add milk or cream. A curiosity: it is said that a lot of people destiny can be read right from a finished cup of coffee, from its sediment at the bottom of the cup. This practice is called “tasseography (or tasseomancy).

@Angelinaincucin