Skip to main content

Israeli street food – the magnificent and humble boureka

The square shape of the bourekas tells us that they are filled with a potato filling One does not have to spend a long time in Israel to get your first introduction to a boureka. These savory stuffed pastries are everywhere You'll find them for breakfast in hotel dining halls, in countless bakeries and coffee shops, on picnics and even at restaurants that only serve bourekas. They are often eaten in Israeli homes as part of a 'light' or diary meal in the evenings. (Most households in Israel usually serve the large cooked meal at lunchtime.) More often than not, bourekas are also an integral part of the wonderful Friday or Shabbat brunch table. To be really honest however, you basically eat a boureka whenever you encounter one. They are that irresistible. If you stop to grab a quick coffee at a coffee shop, the comforting smell of the bourekas will convince you to upgrade to a 'café ve'ma afe' (coffee + pastry). Wandering through street markets, the sight of fres

The only way to eat sweet potatoes.

We are always running around looking for "fun" things to do or exciting places to go, that one sometimes forget that you are living life right here. Right now, right here where you are, with your hair uncombed and wearing your big and comfy jeans

A small gesture this week just brought this fact into sharp focus again for me. I work in a kindergarten with barely enough time to scratch my head, never mind stopping to smell the roses.

Out of the blue one of my colleagues handed me a little plate and said, "Taste this." The plate was one of those plastic ones that you get to eat from if you work in a kindergarten and "this" that I had to taste was heaven.

Two slices of baked sweet potato with chopped rosemary and olive oil. The sweetness of the sweet potato comes out beautifully when you bake it. Mixing it with rosemary and olive oil was like a divine rhapsody.

I am sure that thousands of people, if not hundreds of thousands of people make their sweet potatoes like this all over the world. But for me, at that moment in time, it was my reason for living.

Those two slices of sweet potato was gobbled up in a second and I am not ashamed to admit that I liked the last bit of sauce from that green plastic dish with my fingertip.

This is life. Those little moments when everything comes so beautifully together like sweet potato baked with rosemary and olive oil. Here is the recipe if you feel like trying to taste what I had tasted that glorious autumn day.

Baked sweet potato

At least four large sweet potatoes scrubbed very clean and cut into thick slices. Use the orange kind and keep the skin on.
Three sprigs of fresh rosemary chopped finely.
A pinch or more of salt.
A glug or two table spoons of olive oil.

Put the slices on a bake plate and cover with the other ingredients. Use your hands to make sure that the sweet potato slices are covered properly with the oil, salt and rosemary. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees Celsius or 360 degrees Fahrenheit until soft.

And there you go, a small taste of heaven. Try to serve it in a green plastic dish...but it is okay if you do not have one.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The wild mustard flowers of Israel

The wild mustard is growing yellow and everywhere in Israel at the moment. But not the kind of mustard that you eat with ketchup on your hotdog! Wild mustard as in wild mustard plants! :) I am talking about  Sinapsis Arvensis , a tiny yellow flower that grows in masses in fields, along road sides and abandoned building sites. Up close the wild mustard flower does not look like much - a bit on the puny side actually. But just come across a field filled with mustard flowers and you will be enchanted - just as I am every spring.

Israeli street food – the magnificent and humble boureka

The square shape of the bourekas tells us that they are filled with a potato filling One does not have to spend a long time in Israel to get your first introduction to a boureka. These savory stuffed pastries are everywhere You'll find them for breakfast in hotel dining halls, in countless bakeries and coffee shops, on picnics and even at restaurants that only serve bourekas. They are often eaten in Israeli homes as part of a 'light' or diary meal in the evenings. (Most households in Israel usually serve the large cooked meal at lunchtime.) More often than not, bourekas are also an integral part of the wonderful Friday or Shabbat brunch table. To be really honest however, you basically eat a boureka whenever you encounter one. They are that irresistible. If you stop to grab a quick coffee at a coffee shop, the comforting smell of the bourekas will convince you to upgrade to a 'café ve'ma afe' (coffee + pastry). Wandering through street markets, the sight of fres

Sarah Aaronsohn - the 100 year-old heroine of Zichron Yaakov

Wikipedia Public domain Well, actually she has been around for more than a 100 years now. Sarah was born on the fifth of January 1890 and in 1917 died from the gunshot wounds of an attempted suicide. Our common home town, Zichron Yaakov, recently held the 100-year old anniversary of her death. In the suicide note she wrote: “I no longer have the strength to suffer, and it would be better for me to kill myself than to be tortured under their bloodied hands.”