Our tour guide told us about sabich and was going to take us there, but we had already been there. If you want really good sabich, you should go to Aricha Sabich/ אריכא סביח in the shuk.
Sabich is the only purely Israeli street food in Israel because falafel and hummus are actually Egyptian.
Another purely Israeli food is Israeli couscous/ פתיתים. In the beginning of the state, Ben-Gurion wanted to create a cheaper version of rice. People really liked pasta, so he decided to make a new dish called Israeli couscous/ פתיתים or Ben-Gurion’s rice.
How sabich got its name:
There was a guy named Sabich and his family was Iraqi. He was an Israeli bus driver for egged/אגד (a popular bus company).
Every Sunday morning his wife would make him an open pita with all the ingredients from the past Shabbat dinner. It would have a big variety of things. Sabich would bring it to work every Sunday and all the other bus drivers wanted to try it. They tried it and loved it!!! So they told him to open a stand of his food and that’s the story of sabich.
Sabich, today, is fried eggplant, hard boiled egg, Israeli salad, and tahini in a pita.
– Naomi
P.S. Sabich can be improved with the addition of garlic