The Hungry Cyclist In The Holy Land

The panniers were packed, the bike was boxed and after what had been far too long the Hungry Cyclist was back on the road. Over a year had passed since I arrived back from Rio and the end of my culinary quest through the Americas. I can’t tell you how nervous and excited I was to be returning to the life I love – cycling and eating in foreign lands.

Loading my bike into the hulk of an airplane and flying to Jerusalem I continued my pedal-powered search for the perfect meal.
It might be fare to say that, other than being billed  as a land dripping with milk and honey, Israel does not have a unique or long-standing culinary heritage. So why head there in search of gastronomic excellence I hear you ask? As a land populated largely by immigrants, Israeli cuisine is a wonderful mish-mash of the culinary cultures. A hot pot of generation of immigrant cuisine and if you have ever dinned in the home of an Israeli you will understand why I decided to come to this historic, often volatile but fascinating corner of our world.

Ubiquitous falafel stands in Eastern Jerusalem, bagels dipped in zaatarspice in the old city. Tabbouleh and babaganoush under the pyramids. These trade-mark dishes of the Levant fueled my pedal powered quest to Cairo, accompanied by kilos of beloved humus and plenty of pita and here on thehungrycyclist.com  you can enjoy some of the recipes I found and the photos of this fascinating part of the middle east. Whereas my ride from new York to Rio took over two years, this trip was a little shorter but no less interesting.

“And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey: unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.”
– Exodus 3: 8 (KJV)

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