My favorite eateries in Israel

Much thanks to tafka for letting me coerce her into”tagging” me to write about my favorite restaurants in my beloved country. You’ll notice I like cheap ethnic food. I also love foi gras, but I don’t go to upscale joints that often, so I decided to keep it real.

The rules:

1. Add a direct link to your post below the name of the person who tagged you. Include the city/state and country you’re in.

Nicole (Sydney, Australia)
velverse (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
LB (San Giovanni in Marignano, Italy)
Selba (Jakarta, Indonesia)
Olivia (London, England)
ML (Utah, USA)
Lotus (Toronto, Canada)
Andi (Dallas [ish], Texas, United States)
Todd (Louisville, Kentucky, United States)
miss kendra (los angeles, california, u.s.a)
Jiggs Casey (Berkeley, CA, USA! USA! USA!)
Tits McGee (New England, USA)
Kat (Ontario, Canada)
Cheezy (London, England)
tafka PP (Jerusalem, Israel)
Harry (Modi’in (The City of the Future), Israel)

Mordoch, Agripas, Jerusalem: The Mordoch family are Kurdish and serve the best kubbeh soup in the entire country. Kubbeh soup is a meal unto itself. At Mordoch you can get three varieties – red, green and “kubbeh shel pa’am” – Red kubbeh soup is made with chicken stock, beets, tomato paste and swiss chard. Green (commonly known as Chamutzta) is a really sour soup made with swiss chard, zuchinni and a ton of lemon juice. “Kubbeh shel Pa’am” is basically the same as broth as the Chamutzta but with a ton of garlic. The star of all of the soups however is the Kubbeh itself. Kubbeh are seminola dumplings filled with meat and spices.

Batya, 197 Dizengoff, Tel Aviv: This place has been open since 1941. Check out this origin. It used to be a watermelon stand. The customers quickly became more interested in the food that Batya was bringing her husband than the watermelon and hence Batya was born. This place is old school. You can get even order a side of shmaltz to spread on your rye bread. Their chopped liver is absolutely mindblowing and their chicken soup can cure cancer.

Moshiach Ben David, Frenkel street, Tel Aviv: Shai, of the once awesome and now defunct blog, Shaister, introduced me to this place (I still owe you five shekels) last year and I have returned several times since. It’s homemade Bukharin food. You can look at the menu all you want, but the proprietor will let you know what she decided to make that day. I’ve had incredible soup that was somewhere between a traditional Ashkenazi chicken soup and wonton soup, fried rice with chicken, stuffed vegetables with meat and more. It’s uber-delicious and uber-cheap. It’s not the cleanest establishment, but hey, that’s part of the charm.

Ta’ami, Shammai street, Jerusalem: Hands down, the best hummous in Jerusalem. I have nothing else to say. Go now and let Motti serve you.

Ethio-Israel, Jerusalem: My love affair with Ethiopian food started about two years ago. Until last week I’ve been eating it at every joint in the city except Ethio-Israel. Huge mistake on my part. Ethio-Israel is by far the best Ethiopian restaurant that Jerusalem has to offer. Ethio-Israel is located right behind Jaffa street not far from Kikar Tzion in an area which is quickly becoming “Little Ethiopia.” The food is outstanding, filling and super-duper cheap. I recommend their variety platter which features four vegetable dishes and one meat dish for only 35 shekels (about 8 bucks)!

Ofer Falafel, Modi’in: You wouldn’t expect great falafel in Modi’in. Since opening about two years ago, Ofer Falafel has become my preferred falafel stop, although I greatly respect both Yemenite Falafel and Moshiko in Jerusalem. What makes Ofer so special? Well, for one, the falafel is self-serve. You order your pita, they put in the hummous and you put in your own salads, chips and falafel balls. Falafel joints like this are few and far between. The falafel is always fresh, it never sits around in the oil for hours. Ofer Falafel is also immaculately clean and the service is great. Ofer and his merry band of teenage workers serve with a smile.

I don’t really have any friends who have blogs so I’m not going to tag anyone.