Work through the list in order. Hide the notes when you know what to do.
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Eat hummus in a hummusia
Warm chickpea purée with tahini, lemon and olive oil in a deep bowl, topped with whole chickpeas, ful or egg. It is eaten with pita rather than a spoon.
Turn the pita around the rim of the bowl, scooping in a circle; that is the technique. A hummusia closes in the afternoon when the pot runs out.
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Eat a sabich
A pita filled with fried aubergine, boiled egg, potato, salad, tahini and amba, a pickled mango sauce. An Iraqi-Jewish Shabbat breakfast that became street food.
Amba is sour and pungent, and it is what makes a sabich a sabich; ask for more rather than less. In the proper version the egg is long-cooked and brownish.
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Get falafel
Chickpea balls with herbs and spices fried until crisp, in a pita with salad, tahini and hot schug. Ask for them fried to order rather than taken from the tray.
The inside should be green from parsley and coriander; a pale middle means too little herb. Schug is very hot and is best asked for on the side.
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Eat shakshuka
Eggs poached in a thick sauce of tomato, pepper and spices, served in a cast-iron pan with bread. A North African dish that became the default Israeli breakfast.
The yolks must stay runny, and that is the test. The green spinach-and-cheese version and the classic red one are different dishes, both worth trying.
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Order an Israeli breakfast
Eggs your way, a finely chopped cucumber and tomato salad, cheeses, tahini, hummus, bread, olives and coffee — all at once, for one person. A legacy of kibbutz canteens.
The salad is cut very fine and dressed with lemon and olive oil, never vinegar. The portion assumes you will spend the day working in a field.
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Try malawach or jachnun
A Yemenite laminated flatbread fried until crisp, served with grated tomato, schug and a boiled egg. Its relative, jachnun, bakes overnight and is eaten on Saturday morning.
The grated tomato and egg are part of the dish rather than a garnish. Look for jachnun on Friday evening and Saturday morning; at other times it does not exist.
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Get burekas
Flaky pastries filled with potato, cheese or spinach, sprinkled with sesame and served with a boiled egg and a pickle. A Sephardi legacy from the Balkans and Turkey.
The shape tells you the filling: triangle for cheese, round for potato, consistently everywhere. The egg and pickle come free and always.
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Try kubbeh soup
Dumplings of bulgur or semolina with a meat filling in a sour beetroot or lemon broth. An Iraqi-Kurdish dish served in market canteens on weekdays.
The beetroot broth is pink and sweet-sour; the lemon one clear and sharp. It is usually the dish of the day and sells out by two.
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Try meorav Yerushalmi
Chicken hearts, liver and meat fried on a flat-top with onion and spices, served in a pita. Dense, heavily spiced and thoroughly street.
Ask for tahini and pickles; without them it is too heavy. Chips go into the pita too if you ask.
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Order mezze
A dozen small plates for the middle of the table: tahini, labneh, matbucha, hummus, baba ganoush, pickles and fresh salads. Ordered for the group and eaten with bread.
Many places bring mezze automatically and add it to the bill, so ask if you do not want it. Taboon bread arrives hot and is refilled.
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Try knafeh Desserts and pastries
Stretchy cheese under crisp kadaif pastry, soaked in syrup and topped with pistachio. Served hot and eaten immediately, while the cheese still pulls.
The Nablus school with its orange crust is the benchmark. It is cut from a large tray, so ask for an edge piece if you like it crisp.
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Buy halva at the market Desserts and pastries
Sesame halva in dozens of varieties — pistachio, chocolate, coffee — cut from an enormous block, with tasting encouraged. This is what the Carmel market is for.
Fresh halva crumbles and melts rather than sticking to your teeth. Take small pieces of several kinds; it is very rich.
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Try malabi Desserts and pastries
A milk pudding set with cornflour, topped with rose syrup, coconut and crushed peanuts. A cool, un-cloying dessert from street counters.
It comes in a plastic cup, which is the normal format rather than a shortcut. The rose water is prominent, and that is the flavour.
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Drink limonana Non-alcoholic drinks
An iced blend of lemon juice and mint whipped to a slush. Invented in Israel in the 1990s as an advertising stunt and adopted as the national drink.
The real thing is pale green with ice shards rather than syrupy. Every kiosk and market stall sells it.
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Drink a cafe hafuch Non-alcoholic drinks
Upside-down coffee: espresso with milk foam, where the milk goes in first. The standard order in any Tel Aviv café from morning to night.
Sitting in a café for hours is normal and nobody hurries you. The other common order is cafe botz, coffee grounds steeped in the cup.
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Try arak with soda Local alcohol
An anise spirit that clouds when water is added, like ouzo and raki. Drunk diluted over ice with mezze, and mixed with grapefruit in bars.
The order matters: arak first, then water, then ice, or it does not emulsify properly. The grapefruit and mint mix is a local staple.
