Ode to the Pita

I think I am starting to get the hang of grocery shopping and cooking in Israel. Some simple rules are: you go to the fresh produce stands once a day and get the bare minimum that you need so that you waste nothing. But if you can go to the large downtown souk (pronounced "shook") you can get food at about half price. You dont buy bakery items at the grocery store...only at the bakery down the street or at the souk. You only buy your meat at the souk or at the very large supermarket near the mall, called Mega. Cheese is not really a good price anywhere, unless you want feta or goat cheese. "Salty cheese" is their funny version of chedder but it doesnt taste anything like chedder. You can go a couple miles downtown to the Russian Markets where they sell real chedder like we are used to in the states. Blue is for unsalted butter, and Red is the salted. There is one percent and whole milk only. There are about 100 types of yogurt. And if you see an American brand item that you like, make sure that you buy all of it that is in stock because you may never see it again. Oh, and most packaged goods here have been expired at least 9 months by the time it gets to us. You need to plan on paying a higher price for everything for a smaller quantity, and you have to just stop balking everytime you see a 30 as a price for cereal (30 shekels equals about 7 USD).

There are some things things about shopping and eating here that I really love. One of those things is the fresh juices. There appears to be only one brand of juice in the entire country and they only provide fresh squeezed juices at high prices. But they are sooo yummy. I also love that I can get huge tubs of hummos here for just a few dollars - and I am talking HUGE tubs. And I love that most everything at the souk is fresh and inexpensive. And I really, really love the pita here.

I can get a big bag of hot, piping pita bread for less than two dollars - 6 of them costs about 75 cents or 2.50 shekels. Because pita is such a good deal around here, we use it for everything. Below is a list of the great things you can do with a pita:

You can fill it with peanut butter and jelly
You can fill it with eggs and cheese
You can fill it with leftover salmon, or with tuna and tomato
You can use it for sloppy joes
or hamburgers (they call it a McKabob here)
You can fill it with hummos and tomato-cucumber salad
You can put cheese in a pita, grill it up and have it be a grilled cheese pita (creative name, ehh?)
You can cut it in half, broil it and tell your 5 year old that it is a very large English muffin (with jam)
(have I mentioned that all of this is authentic Israeli cuisine?)
You can make it into croutons
You can make it into pizza (kosher of course, with sauce and salty cheese)

You can probably get the point - since we are sort of on a budget here (retirement income) the economy of the pita is incredibly appealing to me. Not sure yet if the family has joined in my little love affair, but I am sure they will come around. If you have any other good pita recipes, please send them my way. We will try them (just so long as any other necessary ingredients can be found at the souk.).