Eggs poached in a simmering pan of tomatoes, peppers, garlic and cumin, served straight from the skillet with bread for dipping, the breakfast dish Tel Aviv's cafes now run all day.
Where to eat it: 2 restaurants across 1 city.
The name comes from an Arabic root meaning to mix or shake, and food historians disagree on its path: Gil Marks traces it to the Turkish sakshuka spreading through Ottoman rule into the Maghreb, while others group it with menemen and piperade as a wider Mediterranean vegetable-and-egg family. Absent from Palestinian and Levantine kitchens until the 1950s, shakshuka arrived in Israel with Maghrebi Jewish immigrants that decade and only reached restaurant menus in the 1990s. Dr. Shakshuka in Jaffa has plated its Tripolitan version since the early 1990s, while Meshek Barzilay's vegan take shows how far the dish has spread across the city's kitchens since.
Common allergens: Eggs, Gluten
Tip from the editors. Cover the pan once the eggs go in; steaming the whites from above is what sets them without turning the yolks hard.
Dr. Shakshuka in Jaffa, Tel Aviv runs a kosher Tripolitan kitchen founded in the early 1990s, plating shakshuka with couscous, shawarma and schnitzel.
OrderA shakshuka variation with a side of couscous and vegetables.
TipKosher hours apply: closed from Friday afternoon until after Shabbat ends on Saturday.
Meshek Barzilay off Rothschild Boulevard runs an organic vegan kitchen in Tel Aviv, with weekend brunch starting two hours earlier than weekday lunch.
OrderThe organic vegan breakfast plate with tahini and fresh-baked bread.
TipWeekend brunch opens at 10:00, earlier than the weekday lunch start; go early to beat the wait.
More cities are in research. Want shakshuka covered somewhere specific? Tell us where you want to eat.
