The famous Sunday market, why midweek is quietly better for the wineries and villages, and where we would actually stop for lunch.

Everyone knows falafel. Almost nobody outside the Levant knows sabich, and that is a shame, because sabich might be the best thing you can put inside a pita. What is sabich? Sabich is an Iraqi-Jewish dish that grew up in Tel Aviv. Fried eggplant, sliced egg, hummus and tahini, chopped salad, and pickles, all layered in warm pita. It began as the Shabbat morning breakfast of Iraqi Jews, made from things prepared the day before, and became one of Israel's great street foods. Where falafel is...

Two of us started Deli Santa Maria. She is vegan. He eats meat & we both love good coffee. We could not have opened a restaurant that only worked for one of us. That was the constraint that shaped everything. Every dish that went on the menu had to be worth ordering. The falafel and hummus because they are genuinely good, not because we needed a vegan option. The lamb because it is the best local lamb we could find, not because a mixed menu needed one meat dish. About 80% of what we cook is...