I’ll eat anything.

November 9, 2008 - 2:20 PM by Harry · 1 Comment
Filed under: Food, Travel

Fried Samboosak I’ve been living in Israel for quite some time now and have pretty much eaten my way through the country. I’ve eaten everything from turkey testicles (delicious if you can get past the fact you are eating balls) to a raw meatball of sorts prepared by Druze in the north to calf’s foot soup in the inner depths of Meah Shearim. It is incredibly rare for me to come across an item of food that I have never eaten. Last week I had to go to the Licensing Bureau to renew my license. The closest branch to my home is in Ramle so I took a ride over with dreams of either Indian food or hummus in mind. After the arduous process of basically waiting in line for an hour and running back and forth between numerous windows and locales I took a detour on the way back to my car via the shuk. I had plans to stop by at Hummus Khlalil for lunch but while walking through the shuk the smell of something being fried immediately caught my olfactory system. I asked the young man what he was frying and he told me they were samboosaks. Now sambooksaks are common throughout the middle east and are readily available in Israel as well – though I had only seen them baked – never fried. The young man explained to me that they are stuffed with mashed chickpeas spiced with garlic, paprika and other flavorings. The verdict is that they were incredible. Crispy, delicate, flavorful and deliciously oily. Yes, I know, deep fried anything isn’t so healthy, but everything in moderation.

Walking further through the shuk I came upon a bakery that was selling my absolute favorite Bukharian bread. I had only known of one place in the shuk in Jerusalem that sells it (and it always sells out rather quickly early in the day). After noshing on the samboosak and gnawing on the bread I actually headed over to Khalil for some hummus. I waddled back to my car, unbuttoned the top of my pants, drove home and took a nap.