Sabich Frishman is a tiny shop in Tel Aviv, but a stream of people queue up here even before lunchtime. So do I. Since the menu is in Hebrew, I just order a “regular”. And, then, the careful choreography of making the sabich (pronounced sah-beekh) begins. An Israeli street food, Sabich is based on an Iraqi-Jewish dish named after Sabich Tsvi Halabi, an Iraqi immigrant who founded the first sabich stand in Israel in the early 1960s. It’s a take on the traditional Iraqi breakfast of boiled eggs, fried aubergine, and salads, but served in pita bread. At Sabich Frishman, my sabich is being assembled. A fresh pita pocket is opened and in goes a spoonful of tahini sauce, followed by a bit of chilli sauce, a dash of mango chutney, and parsley. Then comes the pièce de resistance — succulent, fried aubergine slices and a boiled brown egg macerated into pita, topped with mixed salad and more sauces. Apart from pita, Israel boasts of an array of bread. On Friday, the day before Shabbat, bakeries make challah (pronounced halla). It’s a braided bread with a golden-brown glazed top, either plain or sprinkled with sesame seeds. Soft and mildly sweet, it’s not unlike a brioche. In Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda Market and then, in Tel Aviv’s Carmel Market, I’m struck by the sheer variety of breads. There are oblong, puffy Jerusalem bagels, topped with sesame and served with za’atar, pillowy focaccia, chewy naan brought in by migrating Bukharan Jews from Uzbekistan, lachoch (spongy, fermented flatbread), and more. At a tiny shop on the fringes of Mahane Yehuda Market, I try bureka, flaky filo pastry stuffed with spinach and cheese. A few doors down, at Marzipan Bakery, I gaze at rugelach, a crescent-shaped rolled pastry with a variety of fillings. Their gooey chocolate rugelach is a bestseller. A variety of dips is a standard accompaniment to bread.. There’s the creamy labneh, usually laced with za’atar and baba ghanouj or roasted aubergine dip. But it’s the hummus that’s the real star of the show. At an unnamed hummus shop in Jerusalem’s old town market (look for shop no. 49 off David Street in the Arab Shuk in the Christian Quarter), I had my fill. Here, the hummus is doused with olive oil and topped with smashed chickpeas, giving the dish a nice texture. I try an interesting variant of hummus called msabbaha in Tel Aviv at Abu Hassan, an eatery chain. Msabbaha is a deconstructed version of hummus where almost all chickpeas are left whole or lightly crushed and tossed with tahini sauce instead of being pureed into it. At Abu Hassan, they also add a dash of hot sauce. In Israel, you cannot miss sweet shops. There are assorted filo pastry based sweets like baklava and other desserts, but what catches my fancy is knafeh. This thin, noodle-like pastry is soaked with sugar syrup and layered with mildly salty cream cheese, making an interesting play of contrasting flavours and textures. Another popular dessert is the Middle Eastern specialty halvah, a slightly crumbly confection made with sesame tahini. The flavours in the markets include chocolate, coffee, pecan, pistachio, Nutella, and even whisky. My favourite dessert here is malabi, a custard pudding of sorts made with corn starch and flavoured with rose water; I polish it off at Joy Bistro in Jerusalem. This article appeared in the print edition with the headline 'Travelling Suitcase: Bread and Breakfast'
