A delicious, healthy breakfast comprised of eggs poached in tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, and parsley and other various spices.
While I’ve never tried shakshuka, I’ve always wanted to. I don’t like runny yokes, so I’ll probably adapt the recipe a bit. It’s a healthy and filling breakfast that I can’t wait to try.
Shakshuka in Arabic basically means “all shook up,” and in some variants of it, the meaning is more literal than in other variants. In Tunisia, the eggs are poached in a spicy tomato sauce; in Egypt, the eggs are scrambled and often sold in sandwiches on the street; andin other parts of the Middle East, no one version is more prevalent: “The eggs can be firm or "luzzy", the sauce can be thick or thin, the vegetables can vary, and the dish can be made vegetarian, dairy, or meat.” I’ve also seen recipes that use beans (which add more protein and fiber). The best thing about shakshuka is that it’s easy to adapt to your taste, and the ingredients themselves are very simple. If you would like to learn about some interesting ways to adapt shakshuka, readthis article here.
Even though many people today associate shakshuka with Israel, it actually originated in North Africa and the Ottoman Empire: the only reason shakshuka is eaten in Israel is because North African Jewish immigrants brought it there. This brings us to a contentious topic: food appropriation.Here is a great articleyou can read to learn in more detail about just what food appropriation is, but essentially, “food, and what it represents, is a real and powerful symbol in delineating culture, identity, and values…. when profit is involved—especially at the sake of the ‘colonized’ culture—it can be reminiscent of colonialism.”
It has been well documentedthat Israel brands conventional Palestinian food (and food from other Middle Eastern countries) like falafel, hummus, and shakshuka as ‘Israeli’ foods. Haaretz (a liberal Israeli newspaper) wrote an article entitled “How Shakshuka and Other Middle Eastern Dishes Turned into Iconic ‘Jewish Food,’” which states, “Taking what Jews and Arabs have cooked for generations and attaching the label 'Israeli' to it is culinary injustice.” It is a very interesting and illuminating read. There are just too many details for me to lay out in this post, but essentially, food appropriation is Israel’s attempt to legitimize its history while erasing the history of those who lived there before the Zionists came.
Food for thought.
