The Ultimate Israeli Street Food Guide

Israel eats on its feet, and the street food here is some of the best value in the world - a filling, delicious plate for a few dollars. Here is your field guide.

Start with hummus, because it is nearly a religion. Good hummus is served within hours of making it, warm, with a pool of olive oil in the middle, whole cooked chickpeas, and a plate of warm pita for scooping. Know your styles: classic hummus, masabacha (chickpeas served whole on top), and hummus ful (with fava beans). Rules of the house: no knife, tear the pita and scoop, and it is perfectly acceptable to be in and out in ten minutes. Every city has its hummus legends and heated arguments about them - ask us and we will take you to our favorites.

Falafel - fried chickpea balls with herbs - arrived with Yemenite Jews and conquered the country. A proper falafel in pita comes loaded with Israeli salad (finely chopped cucumber and tomato), pickles, hummus, techina and a choice of sauces; the amba (pickled mango) is the connoisseur's choice. Shawarma, spit-roasted turkey or lamb sliced into laffa bread, is the heavyweight of the trio.

Then there is sabich, the sleeper hit: pita stuffed with fried eggplant, hard-boiled egg, techina, pickles and potato, an Iraqi Jewish classic that became Tel Aviv's favorite breakfast-after-the-club. For dessert, knafeh - the shredded-phyllo and cheese pastry soaked in syrup, best in Jaffa or Acre - and malabi, a rosewater milk pudding with peanut crunch.

Where to go: Jaffa and south Tel Aviv for sabich and shawarma; Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem for everything at once; and for Arab specialties like knafeh, musakhan and fresh pita, the Wadi Nisnas neighborhood in Haifa is our favorite street-food neighborhood in the country.

Join one of our culinary tours and we will eat our way through the markets with you - with a seat at the counter of the places locals actually queue for.