When in Israel… eat as the Israelis do? « Food & Wine

When in Israel… eat as the Israelis do?

2012-02-10 by Lindsay Taub

One of the things I found most interesting about Israel was the food. Every hotel MUST have Kosher options. Every single one. I certainly don’t know of a place anywhere else in the world where this is the case, do you? Can you imagine if every hotel in a certain country had to provide Vegan food choices at all times?

Regardless, I found that some of the Kosher food was actually quite delicious, particularly the street food in Jerusalem. I was stunned to learn that even the street food in the Jewish quarter was Kosher. There was Kosher wine, Kosher nuts (seriously!), and Kosher everything.

The thing that I missed the most while eating Kosher most of the week was having a latte or cappuccino after dinner, as part of strict Kosher eating means that you can’t mix dairy with meat. This means that at dinner, when you eat meat, there’s no cream sauce, no cheese, and no butter. This means that my Orthodox Jewish travel companion had never eaten a Cheeseburger. Ever. No meat and cheese together. No cream in your coffee after dinner. It also means no breakfast sausage with your eggs or pancakes. And I missed that too. But — overall, I was impressed with the food in Israel, particularly the salads and the falaffel, which is certainly some of the best of anywhere in the world.

Interestingly, I learned that 95 percent of the restaurants in Tel Aviv are NOT Kosher. So, for the non-Kosher eaters out there, click here to see my list of the five best restaurants in Tel Aviv.