Israeli dinner, part II

what is israeli food? that's a hard question.
falafel? hummus? shawarma? --> egiptian, lebanese, turkish... take your pick.
i dont think there is such a concept, 'israeli food'. groing up, israeli food meant whatever my friends' grandmothers would cook for us. my best friend's grandma was from poland, so she would cook shnitzel and mashed potatoes (not nearly as good as my mom's current recipe!), chicken soup with noodles... my other friend was yamanite, and at her place i learned to eat jachnun with lots of tongue-burning schug. my iraki friends at the university brought their mothers' delicacies like maamul and kube with okra.
and of course, falafel, hummus, thina, finely chopped salad with lemon and olive oil, which is standard in any 'mizrachit' (=eastern) restaurant, followed by grilled meats from chicken liver through steaks.

and everything is stirred and cooked in the israeli melting pot. each ethnicity had perfected their cuisine to be the best of the best, as competition has always been a part of the israeli character. the statement 'my mama's food is better than your mama's food' had to be backed up by evidence.

i think the israeli food is the best in the world, because of that. as the hebrew saying goes, 'kinat sofrim tarbe chochma' - jealousy among scholars increases wisdom; it's not only 'jewith iraki food' or 'jewith eastern-european food' or 'jewith morocan food'. it evolved through years and years of trial and error and the dedication of everybody's grandmas to make the best tasting food, from sometimes the cheapest ingredients or the only available ingredients.

so for dinner, i decided to bring a little bit of this culinary world to the table.
as appetizers, some 'pizuchim', black and white (sunflower pumpkin seeds, respectively), stuffed vine leaves, good syrian olives, 'osem' canned pickles i found at the store, and a bag of bamba that was hiding at the far end of one of the cupboards.
the most israeli thing for me is the freshly chopped salad, with olive oil and lemon. hummus and tehini pastes go without saying. i'm making them from scratch, as it's impossible to find good salads like these at stores here.
a first for me (because i don't like eggplants), i'm making 'chatzilim be-thina', eggplant+tehini dip.
when i say 'i don't like eggplants' to an israeli, it's allways followed by an amazed expression, and 'what?> how can you not like eggplants? there are like 50 different things you can make from them, and these foods taste so different!'
that's true. eggplants are cheap (in israel) so our grandmas found all sorts of different ways to make tasty foods from them. there's even an eggplant salad that tastes like chopped liver, from the depression times when meat was scarce and portioned, and liver was only for a fortunate few.
i try to like eggplants, i really do. i keep tasting until it works.

for the main event, a big pot with 'memulaim' - stuffed vegetables. veggies are the main ingredient in the israeli kitchen, because vegetables are cheap.
i miss cheap vegetables!

the memulaim are found in all ethnicities, from poland to irak to marocco. i'm adding some iraki kubbe balls to the pot (i made them a couple of weeks ago and have a bunch frozen) and the whole thing is going to swim in thick tomato sauce. mmmmmmm.

a couple of salads and perssian rice with fresh herbs and pine nuts (inspired by my mom's signature rice, although she's not perssian) will complete the picture.

for dessert, one very israeli thing (that ben likes, but i don't really) is Krembo.
it's basically egg-white whipped cream, on top of a cookie, glazed with chocolate. it's sold everywhere in israel during the winter (instead of ice cream; cause of course you can't eat ice cream in the winter, or you will catch a cold!! but really because you don't want it to spoil in the hot non-conditioned israeli summer)
i made a home version of it (only the finest ingredients!!) and curious to see what the local gang thinks of it (and will they eat it from the top or from the bottom??)

admittedly, this menu is a bit more on the middle-eastern side rather than eastern-european side, but i guess i can always make chicken soup with kneidalach for passover :)

p.s.
i hope i inherited some of my grandmother's cooking genes. her memulaim are mouth watering just thinking of :) she always thinks of me and cooks things that make me happy, and i think of her a lot when i cook, especially when stuffing all sorts of things !! i can't believe how much patience she has, some of those foods i mentioned are a lot of work. i miss you safta!