Israel, Day 3: food tour at Carmel Market, Tel Aviv

A note about breakfast in Israel - I fell in love with a tasty, yogurt-like substance called labneh, which is like Greek yogurt with olive oil and spices swirled in. The Israelis serve pastries (not sure if this is eaten traditionally or if it's just for tourists), olives, hummus, vegetables, and sometimes salads. I greatly enjoyed this, but don't expect traditional eggs and bacon if you get my drift.

Anyway, I ate way too much at breakfast on this day, because we had scheduled a food tour today of the Carmel Market with Delicious Israel, a company I highly recommend, and we ate and ate and ate.

Kite display at entrance to Carmel Market

The food tour was a great blend of information about history, culture, and food. And of course there are the samples. Right at the entrance to the market, we sampled juices at Etrog Man - the juices were delicious but the staff there was a little intense, making us sample lotions on our skin and up our noses. (Not that it wasn't refreshing.)

Next up was sabich sandwiches around the corner from the market (location simply named Sabich at Tchernikhovski St 2) - these amazing little sandwiches come to Israel courtesy of Iraqi jews, who enjoy them for breakfast on shabbat. The pita is stuffed with chopped egg, veggies, greens, sometimes potatoes, and a tasty mango sauce (amla). I fell in love with this sandwich and absolutely need to replicate at home.

Next up was malabi at a traditional little stand just around the corner from the market entrance - malabi is like panna cotta or flan, covered with nuts, sauces, and maybe coconut. 

Food tour spot for malabi

Next we took a break from eating and visited Shrem Spices, purveyor of fine spices, teas, and dried fruits since 1979! 

Spice shop

I learned about tasty zatar (and came back to buy some on a later day of the trip) and other wonderful spices from all over the Middle East, and brought home by Jewish diaspora to make Israeli food culture unique.

Street in Yemeni Quarter

Next up was some truly spectacular hummus at Schlomo & Doron - the hummus itself is wonderful, and they add extras to make it a fuller meal. Below you have shakshuka hummus in the upper left, Balkan hummus in upper right (eggplant and pickled onions), and falafel hummus in lower left (my favorite).

Life-changing hummus at Schlomo & Doron

I had never dipped hummus as a meal before, nor had I dipped with onion slices, but it works surprisingly well. I truly did myself credit here and could have eaten it all day. A bit of a warning, it's a family business and some of the more non-traditional flavors (such as Mexican hummus) are not available when the elder statesman of the company is serving that day. Take what you can get.

We headed back into the market area itself to learn about the meat vendors and how Jews prepare for shabbat. It's definitely not just a tourist market, but locals still shop there heavily.

Penultimate stop of the trip was Lela's, a tasty Georgian pastry shop and bar where we ate all manner of pastry stuffed with cheese and veggies, and the shop keeper made us do shots, too.

Shots & delicious Georgian pastries at Lela

My friend went to Georgia earlier this year, and based on her food photos and my visit to Lela's, I think Georgia makes my list someday. The mountains are also quite beautiful. (And I think they're getting over that whole Stalin thing.)

We walked back through the market, where I ogled some baklava and avoided the purveyors of "stuff" who were trying to sell us mystical hand prints, posters, flip flops, and more.

Outside of the market, back to the art fair area we had visited the day prior, we ended our food tour with gelato at Arte, run by an Italian couple. There is an excellent selection of chocolate-focused flavors (I got spicy chocolate and dark chocolate, though I also tasted cinnamon and hazelnut), as well as some vegan options if you lean that way.

Tel Aviv in general is very vegan-friendly, which you can chalk up to the fact that many Jews will simplify their Kosher eating rules altogether by avoiding dairy a lot of the time.

After the food tour, I ran back to the market to buy dates to bring home, as well as baklava and kunafeh to eat on the trip. I selected a reasonable amount of baklava from one vendor, who gave me a chunk of kunafeh the size of Gibraltar and wanted me to pay for the whole thing even though I only wanted a small hunk. I argued with him and he took 50 shekels off, so be careful when you are self-serving and getting help from the vendors in Carmel Market.

In the afternoon, Dave went to the art museum and I went to the beach to knit, read, and chill out for a bit. I finished the book I was reading ("Pride & Prejudice & Zombies"), but the chilling out was interrupted by proselytizing Christians who said all the Jews are going to hell and we have to pray for them. Nice, real nice.

Later, I was not feeling any food at all, so we went to the beach again for drinks. Michael had visited Hilton Beach and swam around a bit, so he actually ate, and the rest of us just drank Kosher wine or fancy cocktails. 

And I knitted.

Knitting and drinking on the beach

The food tour of Carmel Market was probably my favorite thing we did in Israel. After starting our food tour trend in Cuba and Montreal, food tours are definitely something we want to weave into future travel, if possible. And hey, maybe even where we live in Chicago.

Overall, it was a less packed day than I usually do on vacation, but I decided to allow myself to have more relaxation and not "go go go" all the time. Maybe it's because work and personal obligations in Chicago have been busy or because I am traveling more for work, but I enjoyed letting go a bit, and our next few trips will similarly include lots of down time.