Druze Lunch

Arriving in Israel after the New Year means that there are a lot of holidays almost one after the other. I was up in the North for the start of Succot and as a "tourist" was taken out for the day to the Golan Heights. We spent the morning watching a movie of what the Golan has to offer. An experience that reminded me of Disney World where they put on big fans to give you the feeling of wind, spritz you with water and let you smell the flowers as part of the experience. This was followed by a trip to Mount Meron where you get to see what the bunkers that the soldiers have to live in during the war are like. You are able to see the Syrian border from up there... when you look into the distance everything that is green and flourishing is part of Israel and everything that is brown is part of Syria. Not for lack of anything on their side, but because Israel works at changing the land to support her people.

When lunch time came we found ourselves in a Druze Village closer to the Chermon Mountain. We started off with falafel balls that were soft, really green inside and thoroughly delicious. This was accompanied by pickled vegetables, olives and fresh bread with a sweet red pepper and tapenade (olive) paste. Yum! One of my favourites was then brought to the table... Labaneh drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with Za'atar, accompanied by pita Druzit (thin bread). By this stage I had already eaten so much... but the mains were still to come. In Israel Chumus is considered a main, unlike in the rest of the world where they eat it as a dip. We got one plate of Chumus with Techina and chickpeas, another with fried mushrooms and a third with beef, this was eaten with a salad, chips and although I stayed away from more carbs there was also soft fluffy pita breads! Betay'avon.