Learn 10 ethnic foods
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| Hello, everyone! Welcome to Hebrew Top Words. I am Idit and today, we’re going to talk about 10 Israeli foods. Let’s get started! |
| 1. |
| גפילטע פיש |
| (Gefilte fish) |
| "Gefilte fish" |
| כל שנה בפסח, סבתא שלי מכינה גפילטע פיש. |
| (Kol shana bepesach, savta sheli mekhina Gefilte fish.) |
| "Every year on Passover, my grandmother makes Gefilte fish." |
| Gefilte fish is more of an East European Jewish food and it’s like a chop-chop fish made into little balls and there is a piece of carrot on top and it’s usually served cold and there is like gelatinous stuff around it and it’s kind of grayish. I’m like, urggh, no. |
| 2. |
| חומוס |
| (chumus) |
| "hummus" |
| אני אוהבת לנגב חומוס עם פיתה. |
| (Ani ohevet lenagev chumus im pita.) |
| "I like to eat hummus with pita." |
| I think anywhere in the Middle East where you eat hummus which is pretty much everywhere in the Middle East, you take a piece of pita bread which is flatbread and you wipe the hummus in like a circular motion like that. There was like an old commercial in Israel when somebody wipe the hummus like that and everybody looked at him like, “You’re so crazy!”. He was supposed to do it like that, not like that so... |
| 3. |
| טחינה |
| (tchina) |
| "tahini" |
| אני שמה טחינה על כל דבר. |
| (Ani sama tchina al kol davar.) |
| "I put tahini on anything." |
| If you don’t know what it is, it’s like a sesame paste. When it’s in its rough form, it’s just really sesame and you can make it sweet, mix it up with honey or usually, people make it non-sweet and eat with hummus and they put lemon and garlic inside. If you’re a vegetarian or something or vegan then eat a lot of tahini. It’s really, really good for you. |
| 4. |
| מעורב ירושלמי |
| (meorav Yerushalmi) |
| "Jerusalem mixed grill" |
| נסעתי לאבו-גוש לאכול מעורב ירושלמי. |
| (Nasati le'abu gosh le'ekhol meorav yerushalmi.) |
| "I went to Abu-Gosh to eat Jerusalem mixed grill." |
| Jerusalem mixed grill is like... it’s really bad. It’s a skewer and it has like chicken parts which is like chicken liver and hearts and I don’t know like maybe kidneys or something. I don’t eat those kind of stuff. I think it’s really bad. I don’t think you’re supposed to eat parts of the body that filter toxins and if you cannot eat meat at all which unfortunately I can’t, but if you can do that then it’s better not to. Some people really like it. I think a lot of people from Jerusalem like they swear by it, it’s delicious. They eat in a pita or whatever, but I mean, ugh, no. |
| 5. |
| מצה |
| (matsa) |
| "matzo " |
| בזמן פסח אני אוכלת רק מצות |
| (Bizman pesach ani okhelet rak matsot.) |
| "During Passover I only eat matzos." |
| There is a like a whole argument if matzos are tasty or not. I think they’re not. |
| 6. |
| סלט ישראלי |
| (salat israeli) |
| "Israeli salad" |
| אני מכינה סלט ישראלי עם מלפפון ועגבנייה. |
| (Ani mekhina salat israeli im melafefon ve'agvania.) |
| "I make Israeli salad with cucumber and tomato." |
| Israeli salad is a lot like a Greek salad and it’s pretty much like cucumber and tomato always. Some people like onions, I think most people like onions in it and parsley and then you just put some olive oil and lemon. Some people like to chop it like really big pieces like Greek salad and some people like it very, very small. I don’t really care as long as it’s tasty. |
| 7. |
| פלאפל |
| (falafel) |
| "falafel" |
| אני אוהבת לאכול פלאפל בפיתה עם המון טחינה. |
| (Ani ohevet le'ekhol falafel bepita im hamon tchina.) |
| "I like to eat falafel in a pita, with loads of tahini." |
| So if you don’t know what falafel is, falafel is like little balls made out of chickpeas and they’re deep fried and then you put them in like a pita with some salad and tahini or hummus and some people add french fries inside which is kind of cute. It’s really good, it’s vegan, it’s not the healthiest thing because… I mean it’s deep fried, but some people make them at home and they bake them and they just put a bit of oil in it which makes it a lot healthier and chickpeas are very good for you and they have a lot of protein in it and a lot of calcium and good stuff, tasty and healthyish. |
| 8. |
| פתיתים |
| (ptitim) |
| "Israeli couscous" |
| הכי אני אוהבת את הפתיתים של אמא. |
| (Ani hakhi ohevet et haptitim shel ima.) |
| "My favorite thing is my mom's Israeli couscous." |
| פתיתים |
| (ptitim) |
| or “Israeli couscous” is kind of like osso if you know that. It looks like rice or like tiny, tiny balls, but it’s made out of pasta dough and you can put it in salads and you can make like some sort of casserole out of it and I think it goes really, really well with zucchini. It pretty much goes with anything and it’s really good. |
| 9. |
| קובה ירושלמי |
| (kube Yerushalmi) |
| "Jerusalem noodle pie" |
| אני נוסעת למאה שערים לאכול קובה ירושלמי. |
| (Ani nosa'at leme'a shearim le'ekhol kube yerushalmi.) |
| "I'm going to go to Nasharim to eat Jerusalem noodle pie." |
| Usually, I don’t like this type of food, but this is really good. It’s like noodles and they put maybe some eggs to make it all stick together and sugar and cinnamon and they bake it for a long time and then it’s kind of like bread pudding, but more stiff and it’s really tasty. |
| 10. |
| שקשוקה |
| (shakshuka) |
| "shakshuka" |
| אני אוהבת לטבול חלה בשקשוקה. |
| (Ani ohevet litbol chala beshakshuka.) |
| "I like to dip Hala bread in shakshuka." |
| So Hala bread is like braided bread that people usually eat on Saturdays, but you can also have it pretty much any other day. It’s just white bread. It’s kind of nice and shakshuka is poached eggs in tomato sauce. It’s originally from Morocco I believe, but it kind of made its way into Israel and it’s delicious. You can make it spicy or not spicy. If you like take the bread and dip it inside and you get like yolk and you get tomato sauce and some peppers and it’s really good. |
| So that’s it for today. Today, we’ve talked about 10 Israeli foods. Obviously, there are a lot more. Please tell me in the comments below if you’ve tried any, if you want to know more. Are there any Israeli foods that you like that maybe I didn’t mention? I’ll see you next time. Bye! |
| להתראות |
| (leitraot). |
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