Sabich
 | |
| Course | Breakfast (among Iraqi Jews) and Street food (entire country), Sandwich |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | Israel |
| Main ingredients | pita, eggplant, hard boiled eggs, Israeli salad, amba, parsley, tahini sauce, and hummus |
| Ingredients generally used | potato, onion, and zhug |
Sabich or sabih (Hebrew: סביח [saˈbiχ]) is an Iraqi and Israeli sandwich, consisting of pita stuffed with fried eggplant and hard boiled eggs. Local consumption is said to have stemmed from a tradition among Iraqi Jews, who ate it on Shabbat morning.[1]
Etymology
One theory is that Sabich comes from the Arabic word صباح [sˤaˈbaːħ], which means "morning", as the ingredients in the sabich are typical for an Iraqi Jewish breakfast.[2]
Ingredients
Sabich, served in pita bread, traditionally contains fried eggplant, hard boiled eggs, tahini sauce (tahini, lemon juice, and garlic), hummus, Israeli salad, parsley, and amba. Some versions use boiled potatoes. Traditionally it is made with haminados eggs, slow-cooked in Hamin until they turn brown. Sometimes it is doused with zhug hot sauce and sprinkled with minced onion.
History
Sabich was brought to Israel by Iraqi Jews who moved in the 1940s and 1950s. On the Sabbath, when no cooking is allowed, Iraqi Jews ate a cold meal of precooked fried eggplant, boiled potatoes and hard-boiled eggs. In Israel, these ingredients were stuffed in a pita and sold as fast food. In the 1950s and 1960s, vendors began to sell the sandwich in open-air stalls.[3][verification needed] It has a rural version called Sabich salad (Salat Sabich in Hebrew)
Gallery
See also
- Cuisine of the Mizrahi Jews
- Israeli cuisine
- Iraqi cuisine
- Culture of Israel
- Middle Eastern cuisine
- Sabich salad
