Israël

Hummus

Chickpea purée served warm in a bowl with a well of oil, eaten as a whole meal.

Falafel

Chickpea fritters stuffed into pita with salad, tahini and as much amba as you like.

Sabich

Fried aubergine, hard egg and potato in pita, an Iraqi-Jewish Saturday breakfast gone street.

Shakshuka

Eggs poached in spiced tomato and pepper, brought to the table in the pan.

Meorav Yerushalmi

Chicken hearts, liver and thigh griddled with onion and spices, served in pita.

Bourekas

Puff pastry filled with cheese, potato or spinach, sold with a hard-boiled egg.

Malawach

Yemenite laminated flatbread fried in a pan, eaten with grated tomato and zhug.

Jachnun

Rolled dough baked overnight until dark and sweet, a Yemenite Shabbat morning dish.

Chraime

Fish poached in a hot North African tomato and paprika sauce, eaten with bread.

Kubbeh

Semolina dumplings filled with meat, floated in a beetroot or lemon soup.

Israeli salad

Cucumber and tomato diced very fine with lemon and oil, eaten at breakfast.

Challah

Braided egg bread blessed and torn at the start of the Shabbat meal.

Gefilte fish

Poached fish quenelles served cold with carrot and horseradish at festival meals.

Latkes

Potato pancakes fried in oil for Hanukkah, eaten with apple sauce or sour cream.

Sufganiyot

Jam doughnuts fried by the tray for the eight nights of Hanukkah.

Halva

Sesame paste set with sugar into a crumbling block, cut from a slab at the market.

Labneh

Strained yoghurt rolled into balls in oil or spread flat and dusted with za'atar.

Za'atar

Hyssop, sesame and sumac mixed with oil and spread on flatbread before baking.

Amba

Pickled mango sauce with fenugreek, brought from Iraq and now poured on everything.

Arak

Aniseed spirit turned cloudy with water, poured through a long mezze lunch.