It’s shredded phyllo dough layered with cheese like a lasagna, and then -- instead of tomato sauce -- it's covered in qatir (cat-ear), a super sweet syrup made mostly of sugar and water. Look at the cheese stretch on the one in my photo!
Yemen: Yemen is a pretty big country that lies southwest of Saudi Arabia and just east of the east coast of Africa, and it used to have a large Jewish population. Jews had lived in Yemen since biblical times, but most Yemeni Jews live in Israel now for a bunch of reasons. When they came to Israel, they brought saltah (salt-ah) and mulawah (mool-ah-wuh), the national dish of Yemen. It’s your classic soup and sandwich combo (saltah is the soup and mulawah is the bread), and is usually eaten for lunch. I had a chicken soup version and it was unbelievably delicious!
Ethiopia: Wait, there are African Jews? Yes, and they’ve been there for a while! Jews have probably lived in Ethiopia, a big landlocked country in East Africa, since the time of the Biblical King Solomon; his son Menelik was the first ever king of Ethiopia! Like Yemeni Jews, almost every Ethiopian Jew lives in Israel right now. When they came, they brought injera (in-jehr-rah), a thick, spongy bread that you can put all kinds of sauces and soups on. The injera I had was topped with a meat sauce and three Ethiopian dipping sauces to give the bread some variety. It's super unique and super tasty!
The Levant: This is the actual place where Israel is!
