What to eat in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv eats mezze and hummus from the morning: sabich, falafel, shakshuka, malawach, burekas, the Carmel market, tahini on everything and arak with soda.

[ ] 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.
[ ] 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.
[ ] 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.
[ ] 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.
[ ] 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.
[ ] 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.
[ ] 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.
[ ] 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.
[ ] 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.
[ ] 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.
[ ] Try knafeh
    Stretchy cheese under crisp kadaif pastry, soaked in syrup and topped with pistachio. Served hot and eaten immediately, while the cheese still pulls.
[ ] Buy halva at the market
    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.
[ ] Try malabi
    A milk pudding set with cornflour, topped with rose syrup, coconut and crushed peanuts. A cool, un-cloying dessert from street counters.
[ ] Drink limonana
    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.
[ ] Drink a cafe hafuch
    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.
[ ] Try arak with soda
    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.

Checklist from Unload: https://unloads.me/c/food-tel-aviv