Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
large, flaky-pastry pancakes,
stuffed with a variety of fillings.
Aside from Israeli fare,
you can also find restaurants
serving more international
food, including French and
Italian (which tend to be very
expensive), and Chinese, Thai
and Korean. There are also the
usual fast-food chains. Such a
selection of restaurants is far
more limited if travelling in
Jordan or Sinai, however, as
most are found in the hotels.
Café culture in Israel is huge,
and if you are after something
cheaper and less substantial,
then cafés offer salads, pizzas,
club sandwiches and simple
pasta dishes that will provide
a tasty light meal. Cafés are
also great places to sit and
soak up the local atmosphere,
and join in with Israeli life.
cleansed of all traces of
blood before cooking.
Furthermore, during
Passover a kosher
restaurant cannot even
serve any leavened food,
such as bread or pastries.
The major complications
of these laws revolve
around the fact that meat
and dairy produce can
never be eaten together in
the same meal. Dishes are
consequently based on
either one or the other,
with many of the resulting
problems deftly overcome
through the use of a range
of dairy substitutes.
VEGETARIAN FOOD
As a vegetarian visiting
the Holy Land, your
dining options are
surprisingly varied. Kosher
restaurants serve all types
of dairy-only food, such
as creamy pasta and yogurt-
based dishes, as well as many
potato dishes and salads.
Secular restaurants also have
a large number of vegetarian
options. Much of the cuisine
is based around pulses, which
are found in anything from
houmous to hearty bean stews.
Roasted and stuffed vegetables
also feature widely, along with
a variety of savoury pastries.
For a quick vegetarian snack,
the
falafel
is hard to beat.
Sidewalk restaurants in Nachlat Shiva,
Jerusalem
salads and grilled meats, plus
traditional specialties such as
mansaf
: lamb on a bed of
f
rice sprinkled with pine nuts.
You may also be offered
maqlubbeh
, which is steamed
rice pressed into a small bowl
then turned out and topped
with slices of grilled eggplant.
Otherwise, places like
Amman have plenty of
international restaurants,
cafés and takeaways.
Food in the Sinai resorts
tends to cater to the tastes
of package holidaymakers.
Most restaurants are attached
to hotels and favour Italian
and other safe international
cuisines. Genuine Egyptian
cuisine is rare, although
the fish and seafood can
be excellent.
Bourj al-Haman Intercontinental
restaurant, Jordan
(see p280)
KOSHER RESTAURANTS
The Jewish dietary laws of
Kashrut
(literally, fitness),
t
determine many of the eating
habits in the Holy Land. To
the outsider these can prove
very confusing, especially as
you will find that all types of
restaurant can be kosher, not
just the Jewish ones. This is
especially true in Jerusalem,
and the more Orthodox parts
of the country. In the rest of
Israel, however, more secular
Jews do not always adhere to
dietary laws, and it poses less
of a problem to the visitor.
What these laws mean in
practice is that meat considered
impure (such as pork, rabbit
and horse meat), as well as
certain types of seafood
(anything without scales and
fins), cannot be eaten at all.
Animals that are permitted
for consumption have to be
slaughtered according to
Jewish religious practice and
JORDAN AND SINAI
Jordanian food is a mix of the
Lebanese-Syrian-Egyptian fare
common throughout the
Middle East, mixed in with
local Bedouin cuisine. Expect
lots of good, fresh
meze
,
Elvis American Diner
(see p274)
