Foreword

I love Palestinian food. I probably love it more than any other cuisine. That’s a tricky thing to say, I know, since I am not a Palestinian. As a Jewish boy from the Jerusalem of the 1970s and 80s, though, I probably had enough kubbeh, bamia and ma’amoul for these magnificent foods to insert themselves deep in my young psyche. Not to mention those dishes that were also becoming part of the nascent Israeli cuisine – like falafel, hummus and tabbouleh – either as a direct result of Palestinian influence on our food or through Jewish emigrants from the Arab world settling in the city.