A Letter From Jamie: We Love Israel

Living in Israel is a dream, a blessing. I feel that with such intensity that I just want to share it with the world.

The first episode of JOY of ISRAEL, our food and travel web series, premiered on April 3, 2013. At first we thought it may be a limited series, perhaps 10 episodes. I mean, how much could we possibly showcase when it comes to food and travel—Israel ain’t very big. We thought we’d go north and then south and then to all the major cities in between, and so we began our research, only to find the vibrancy and depth of the food scene in this tiny country to be unmatched. Forget the travel destinations—really, just fuggedaboutit.

It’s almost hard to explain—it has to be seen and smelled and tasted to be believed.

Well, Shifra took me up on the challenge, vowing to create the ultimate #IsraelIssue in the pages of our Winter 2016 magazine.

Together with her husband, Shlomo, after touring and eating their way across the country in the span of one week—including about three destinations for dinner and three more for dessert per evening and probably no more than three hours of sleep per night—she finally realized that, in addition to being stuffed, she only scratched the surface.

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Shlomo is ready to move. Shifra thinks we could publish a magazine dedicated to Israel for the next three years and still not run out of material.

The 2016 special IsraelIssue is organized by day as we take you on our seven-day culinary tour throughout Israel, featuring some, but certainly not all, of our favorite classics like salatim, pita, falafel, and shawarma with more modern recipes like Beet Pasta and Amba Gnocchi.

We have extended The JOY of ISRAEL web series into the pages of this special issue and I plan to continue sharing the tastes of Israel with my new JOY of ISRAEL column, debuting next month.

Read the stories, enJOY the pictures and you’ll surely feel as if you’ve traveled the world without leaving your kitchen.

As we say in Israel, “Bitayavon!”

Images courtesy of Shlomo Klein.