I’ve always been fascinated by Iraqi cuisine. I love hearing stories about what life was like for the Jews living in Iraq, as well as seeing the beautiful colors, and smelling the wonderful aromas of Iraqi Jewish food.
In Iraq, kitchens were always constructed on the ground floor, with a door opening onto a courtyard. Visitors at the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center can see a reconstruction of this traditional home inside the museum. Although the kitchens were modest, they were built to be extremely functional. Many dishes, such as the preparation of kubbeh balls, were prepared while sitting on low wooden benches situated in the courtyard.
Until the 1930s, Jews in Iraq would cook food over a wood-burning stove, and in later years, on Primus stoves. In the exhibition, visitors will actually be able to experience the aromas that would emanate from specific dishes that were traditionally prepared in that era. There are also video clips that show step-by-step how certain dishes were prepared by hand.
The video I was most struck by was titled “Inside Shula’s Kitchen,” in which Suzette Shulamit Binyamin makes hamin (Iraqi cholent) in her famous pot with her granddaughter, as she reminisces about traditional Iraqi cuisine. And so, following my visit to the museum, I immediately set out to meet with Binyamin in person at her home in Tel Aviv.
Binyamin, 83, answered her door and immediately led me to her kitchen, from which an amazing aroma of spices wafted from huge pots that were full of okra, pumpkin and kubbeh balls.
Binyamin has four daughters, 11 grandchildren and one great-grandson. She told me all about her childhood growing up in Iraq, and what it was like preparing and cooking food in her mother’s kitchen. According to Binyamin, Jewish-Iraqi cuisine was influenced over the generations by Turkish, Persian and Indian cuisine.
While she was talking, her fingers were busy putting together a huge pan of baklava, and she quickly offered me a generous portion, alongside a steaming glass of tea. I felt so honored when Binyamin began sharing with me all the shortcuts she has developed over the years for making the best tasting baklava. Only after she got married did she actually begin cooking herself, at which point Binyamin began searching for techniques that made preparing traditional Iraqi food easier and quicker, without compromising on flavor and taste.
For example, she loves preparing kubbeh, which she adds to sweet and sour soups, as well as crispy sambusak pastries. Binyamin kneads the dough, checks on the softness of the beef, removes the kubbeh the second they’re ready, and then quickly adds the pumpkin and okra. She says the shape of the kubbeh is not so important, so long as the semolina coating around the meat balls is thin, but covers all of the meat.
As she pours my Iraqi tea, Suzette tells me how impressed she is with how much I already knew about Jewish-Iraqi cuisine. She also offers me a piece of candied bitter orange, as well as candied pieces of Dabdab etrog, which has especially thick skin.
As I taste these delicacies, she whispers to me that if I use the juice from the bitter orange when making kubbeh, the flavor is much more intense than if made with lemon juice.
If you’re interested in the exhibit featuring Jewish-Iraqi cuisine, the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center is located at 83 Mordechai Ben Porat St. in Or Yehuda. For more information, contact Orli Bahar Levi and Nava Mutzafi at 03-533-9278. The entrance fee is NIS 45.
by Pascale Perez-Rubin
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