Photo: UNIAN
In general, the cuisine of the Ashkenazim (European Jews) has given the world many dishes that have become integral attributes of the international festive table, for example, forshmak and gefilte fish (that is, stuffed fish).
In Israel, people eat a lot, willingly and often. Portions are designed for a rapidly growing hippopotamus with increased motor activity. I remember when I first saw a young, slender female soldier devouring a sandwich half a meter long and about 25 centimeters thick (half a French loaf, inside - ham, tomato slices, cucumbers, and the crumb smeared with bean paste - hummus), I thought the poor thing hadn't eaten in her army for two weeks. Only later, after months, did I realize that the girl was simply having a snack between lunch and dinner.
Despite all this, truly fat people in Israel, compared to Europe or the USA, are not that many. Everything is explained simply - the hot climate makes the body work more actively, metabolic processes intensify. And the amount of food that in some Westphalia or Kentucky causes obesity and shortness of breath, in their Palestine merely supports the normal functioning of the precious body.
By the way, new repatriates and foreign workers, arriving in the Promised Land, often cannot understand why locals try to avoid them and at the same time wrinkle their noses in disgust. The reason is the same - the body acclimatizes, metabolism "speeds up," and waste products begin to be intensively secreted through the skin pores with sweat, accompanied by a smell that is by no means Chanel No. 5.
Returning to the problems of excess weight, it should be noted that for the most part, excessive corpulence is the lot of the poor, who are little interested in healthy nutrition and diets. For any diet presupposes not only the desire to get on it, but also preliminary consultations with dietitians, the development of an individual ration, the purchase and proper preparation of appropriate products. And what about visiting fitness centers? That is fraught with expenses. And so - pasta, Coca-Cola, hamburgers from fast food. The result - "these factories save on fabrics, and I have to buy clothes one size larger than last year!"
Let's return to food. Clothes can be changed, a tan can be acquired, eyebrows can be plucked. It is much more difficult with food preferences. If for 40 years before that you ate borscht with salo and garlic day after day, washing down this culinary-aesthetic set with vodka (so as not to turn excellent food into a vinaigrette drenched in boiling water), it is unlikely that in your 41st year you will suddenly decide to change priorities and switch to instant puree soups from packets. If vareniki have been an integral part of your diet for half a century, no cheeseburgers can replace them. The same applies to the fat percentage of the sour cream you consume, the milk you drink and the cheese you eat, the quality and filling of baked goods, etc.
Since the local food industry turned out to be unprepared for the fact that Russians (immigrants and guest workers from the former USSR) remain conservatives in their food preferences, not rushing to produce borscht in cubes and vareniki in vacuum packaging, the rescue of the starving was taken into the strong hands of the starving themselves. Throughout Israel, so-called Russian stores rapidly began to appear and are now here to stay - bulwarks of non-kosherness and pork-eating. It is said that thanks to the emergence of a Russian network of small grocery stores, some kibbutzim producing dairy products finally became, if not profitable, then self-sustaining, probably for the first time since the founding of the State of Israel.
With the increase in the number of new repatriates, Russian supermarkets also appeared, where in addition to traditional products one can buy caviar, crab and crustaceans, and similar non-kosher but nevertheless tasty products.
At the same time, the culinary Russification of Israel has practically not affected fast food. Finding vareniki with meat or even cheburek in roadside eateries is very difficult. This market segment has been densely occupied by natives of Morocco and other Arab countries. For such small cafes there is even a general name "falafel shops" from the very curious in taste and method of preparation product not found in Ukraine - falafel. These are peculiar meatballs from ground beans or, rather, bean doughnuts. They are not boiled in boiling water, but fried in deep fat. After that they are placed in pita and eaten with stewed eggplants, onions, parsley and pickles.
Shopping in Israeli supermarkets can be fraught with disappointment in the quality of purchased products. At the same time, one never ceases to be amazed at Jewish ingenuity. For example, when buying frozen steaks, about 15-20 percent of the money you pay for water that abundantly seeps out of the meat as it defrosts. In connection with the same kashrut and the ineradicable love of Russians for pork, Arab Christians have also established a good business. They sell freshly slaughtered pigs to those craving them. Usually three or four Russian families agree among themselves on the division of the slain pig, the seller butchers the carcass right on the spot, and - just step on the gas to get home as quickly as possible and put the pork parts in the freezer. For it is hot.
However, eating pork in Israel is, rather, part of a certain repatriate ritual of mourning for the lost birch trees and all the rest of that Ryazan-Zhitomir, than a conscious violation of established food taboos or an urgent need of the body. Much more popular and digestible is poultry meat, mainly chicken and turkey.
A separate topic is baked goods and sweets. Every neighborhood has at least one bakery that offers all kinds of buns and pastries straight from the oven. The nuance is with cottage cheese or various jams. Again, this is related to kashrut. Combining meat and dairy is not allowed, so if you want to try shawarma with lamb, turkey, or beef, force yourself to walk to the nearest falafel stand. If you can walk past the mind-blowing aromas of fresh pastries. Buns are sold by weight. You can take them to go, but it's better to order a glass of coffee with milk and consume it at a table placed next to the counter. The taste of the pastries matches the aroma that washes over you in waves each time a new batch of buns is pulled from the oven. And the prices are quite acceptable.
In addition, confectionery based on honey and nuts is extraordinarily popular in Israel. This is from Arab cuisine, but also tasty - you'll lick your fingers and gnaw your elbows if you don't buy and try it. Recently, some bakeries have added poppy seed rolls and buns to their assortment - the influence of Russian immigration and catering to its tastes. But native Israelis also appreciated the novelty. By the way, in bakeries, queues always form at the counter, albeit small ones.
Interestingly, with the opening of borders in the early 90s, many Israelis, with pleasure (and poorly concealed surprise at the cheapness), bought Ukrainian electric ovens in large quantities and brought them to the Promised Land. Even with delivery, it was cheaper than Italian or German analogues. As for the quality of our ovens - they still bake, and nothing happens to them.
Pizza has not really taken root in Israel; shawarma is tastier and more filling. But I have seen curious a la Italia creations. I suspect a real Italian would have killed himself if he saw what Israelis turned one of the symbols of the Apennines into. Imagine a pizza the size of our 'Metro' vatrushka, where instead of meat-cheese-sausage there is an ordinary fried egg sunny-side up. With such a dear, native yolk, shriveled in the public-catering style under the southern sun of the Jewish land. However - people eat it.
A feature of Israeli street cuisine is the use of spices unfamiliar to our nose and taste. I talked with many Russian Israelis; almost all of them, without exception, say that for the first time after consuming local dishes, they felt slightly nauseous. In the East, a huge number of spices are used that are unknown to us; many of them simply have no equivalent in Russian or Ukrainian because they are not used.
Speaking of spices, one cannot help but mention pickles. There are many of them - from the pickled cucumbers familiar to the eye and tooth, rightly considered the best in the world, to exotic peppers. One such tiny, fingernail-sized, green and inconspicuous gift of southern nature can turn a family pot of borscht into a semblance of a fire-breathing volcano.
For this reason, everything that is eaten is necessarily washed down with something. With holidays, it's clear; for these purposes there is vodka, or at worst wine. On weekdays, while in the process of labor and defense, everything is different. Drinking alcohol is fraught not only with cerebral hemorrhage in the Mediterranean heat, but also with unconditional dismissal from work. For Israelis are intolerant of alcoholics. Being poor is not shameful - it happens. Only a few of today's middle- and high-income Israelis are seventh-generation millionaires. Everyone has achieved this through their own efforts; at most, grandfather and father had some successful dealings. A drunkard, however, is a person who consciously puts a cross on himself and the well-being of his family. He is not subject to pity, sympathy, or persuasion. Only contempt.
So, for this very reason, an ordinary working Israeli consumes non-alcoholic beverages. The choice is huge. From plain water, for some reason called mineral water, to the most varied natural juices and juice-like drinks. Almost the entire Israeli drinking assortment is also available here in Ukraine, albeit under different names. But there are also peculiarities. For example, a very popular drink is carbonated tea with various flavorings or without them.
Both children and adults happily drink chocolate milk-based drinks (shoko) - tasty, healthy, and filling. Russians, of course, have adapted to washing down sausage sandwiches with shoko, and even a dozen rabbis will not convince a recent Kievite or Khersonite that this is unkosher. But it is tasty. You cannot argue with that.
Strangely, classic lemonade or citro are practically not encountered. I am generally tormented by vague doubts that what we consider lemonade is not actually lemonade. In any case, in Arab cafes in Jaffa, cold water with the addition of freshly squeezed lemon juice is served as lemonade. And they will never confuse it with a canary.
It is problematic to drink really good Turkish coffee, which is actually Arabic coffee. You have to go to them (the Arabs). There is just - terrorist attacks. Nevertheless, Arab cafes are quite visited and held in high regard among Russians. Of course, not those cafes located in the 'territories' - lands belonging to Arabs under the control of the Israeli army - but those nestled in the tangled corridors of the streets of old Jaffa, or in the area of the Haifa port, or in the Arab part of Jerusalem. And tea is best bought at markets from Georgian or Azerbaijani Jews. In supermarkets, loose leaf tea is almost never found; mostly tea bags. There is also no particular diversity of varieties and brands; a small specialized shop in Kiev, as a rule, has a much larger assortment than an expensive supermarket in Tel Aviv.
About the consequences of drinking. Even in the most unpretentious establishments of Jewish and Arab public catering, an indispensable attribute is a toilet accessible to visitors. The climate requires abundant fluid consumption, and the body reacts to such care in a completely natural physiological way. In Israel, it is not considered shameful to ask for a place you extremely need - we are all people, all humans.
The topic of food (and everything connected with it) abroad is endless, like the meal of a healthy rabbit, and multifaceted, like the domes in Kiev. And yet nothing has been said about Israeli restaurants, which offer in abundance dishes from what turns out to be such a multinational Jewish cuisine. But more on them later. For now - have a pleasant time in the Holy Land and «be-teavon» - bon appétit!