Israel a country whose foodways are diverse and in some respects perplexing. Schwartz (1992) has written with brilliance and sympathy about the diverse strands which have come together to form the present tangle. Underlying it is the simple fare which native inhabitants of the region have eaten for many centuries, even millennia: wheat products, lentils, broad beans, fruit and nuts, raw vegetables, flat breads, some lamb or kid, and—very prominent—dairy products. jordan offers a point of comparison for this stratum.
