The Food of Jerusalem – Part 1

I have never been to Jerusalem. I have a basic understanding of the political and religious struggles, but no real knowledge of what the city is like. I don’t understand the cultural melting pot that is the city of Jerusalem, or the culinary traditions that make up the food. So why did I buy Jerusalem: A Cookbook? Because a Jewish friend of mine, who has been to Jerusalem, who does understand the culture and the people, told me to. Thank you, Nancy! According to her, the dishes in this book are spot on and can give me an insight to the culture if only on the basis of their food.

It’s been sitting on my bookshelf for a few months now, and since I had a little free time on my hands, I figured it would be fun to cook a meal centered around dishes in the book. I’ve made their basic hummus and kofta b’siniyah, served alongside their fresh vegetable salad. Both will be individual posts, and since they don’t give a recipe for making your own pita, I turned to Jennifer Reese’s recipe for homemade pita from Make the Bread, Buy the Butter. All three recipes were completely new to me and I was both excited and nervous to try them out for the first time on the blog.

Here is the whole meal once it was complete…

The recipes were well written, easy to follow and absolutely delicious. When I make them again, and I will absolutely be making them again, I plan on changing nothing. They were that good.