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GW—47
When he was nine his family
emigrated to Israel in Operation
Magic Carpet, a secret mission
that saw almost 50,000
Yemenite Jews airlifted to the
newly formed nation. The family
continued their healing work on
their Jerusalem farm, and 10
years ago Hezi opened this
utterly unique stall.
There are about 300,000
Yemenite Jews in Israel today,
and the recipes they brought
with themhave become fixtures
of the culinary landscape. I
headed to Jachnun Bar on Hillel
Street in downtown Jerusalem,
where owner Yariv Gury bakes
malawach, a thick, fried pancake,
and stufs it with hard-boiled
eggs, tomato, tahina (crushed
sesame seed paste) and a spicy
sauce to create the eponymous
jachnun. “Not that long ago, this
food was only eaten by Yemenite
Jews in their houses,” says Gury.
“But now it’s everywhere - you
can even get microwave jachnun
in supermarkets.”
Uzi-Eli Hezi says he loves the
outdoorMahane Yehuda because
he can get all the fresh produce
he needs from its 300 or so
traders. But it’s somuchmore
than just amarket. You could eat
here three times a day for a week
without having the same thing
twice. The best place to start your
tour is hip, laid-back Café
Mizrachi, where they serve
Jerusalem’s best cofee, and for a
mid-morning snack you can’t
beat Turkish-style burekas (filo
pastry stufedwith spinach) from
Ramleh, a stall just outside the
mainmarket on Agrippas Street.
Mahane Yehuda is the perfect
place to sample Israeli cuisine,
which combines food native to
the region with dishes brought
by Jewish immigrants from
around the world. Change
doesn’t come naturally to
Mordoch on Aggripas Street,
where the interior design
belongs firmly in the 1950s.
But it’s worth entering this
YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT
Matthew Lee samples Jerusalem’s food markets, where every
dish is flavoured with the history of the community that created it
J E R U S A L E M
“T his man has very low
energy levels,” said Uzi-
Eli Hezi, pointing to a
customer at his stall inMahane
Yehuda Market, Jerusalem. “But
I created a special remedy for
him and in a fewweeks time he’ ll
be full of beans.”
While I was judged to have
sufcient beans to be spared this
particular remedy, I was still
treated to a bewildering variety
of the unusual treatments Hezi
has on sale. A lotion that
prevents wrinkles (true, at least
in Hezi ’s case) was rubbed into
my face and hands. A chocolate
that causes weight loss (not true,
at least inmy case) was
swallowed. And a juice made
from pure qat , a stimulant
banned in several countries, was
hesitantly consumed. By the
time both “natural Viagra” and
“natural Prozac” had been
sprayed into my mouth, I
wondered if I’d make it back to
my hotel without causing an
international incident.
As it happened, I felt fine. It
seemed his whispered blessing,
ofered while I closed my eyes
and tried to block out the noise
of a bustling food market,
engendered an extraordinary
sense of calm, just as he said it
would. Hezi, known locally as
the EtrogMedicineMan (etrog
being a citrus fruit that’s
symbolic in Judaism), descends
from a family of Yemeni healers
– he makes the same formulas
his grandfather taught him.
Essen auf Rädern: Ein Stand am Damaskustor, dem
Eingang zu Jerusalem’s Altstadt, bietet Essen an
Meals on wheels: a food stall near the
Damascus Gate, entrance to Jerusalem’s old city
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