What is it about Israeli food that looks and tastes so good? According to Janna Gur, the author of The Book of New Israeli Food, one of the most thorough cookbooks to come out in recent years, and also the one that most accurately reflects how Israelis really eat, "Fusion is the essence."

The book, which is available only in Israel, relies on noticeably Israeli ingredients, but, the authors ask, what is Israeli? Chicken soup and tahini cookies coexist cheerfully in this volume, and the recipes for Moroccan and Polish chulent can be found side by side, both temptingly photographed.

You will find the recipe for Israeli cheesecake (given below) as well as Malabi mousse cheesecake which relies on orange blossom water in both the mousse and the red jelly topping, something your Bubbie never imagined on her Shavuot table.

This 303 page cookbook replete with photographs not only of the food, but also of the people who make and eat it. The book follows both the history and appetite of a nation from the simple recipes (pita and shakshuka) to the exotic (stuffed baby eggplants and courgettes in pomegranate sauce).

The book's strength is its breadth and depth. It has chapters on the holidays, chapters on bread, wine, and cheese, coffee and fish, meat and more. Each of these topics is then discussed at length. Did you know, for instance, that a book written in the 30s attempted to explain the advantages of Middle Eastern ingredients to the potato based Eastern European housewives, or that eggplant used in imitation chopped liver resulted from meat shortages? The lively chapters on culinary sociology and history taught me how rationing in the early days of the state produced new types of pasta, the history of olive oil, and when and why Tel Aviv food culture sprang up.

But aside from the recipes, which I found practical, delicious, and just exotic enough, this book passes through the realm of mere cookbook and attains the status of coffee table book thanks to its' stunning pictures. In the hands of photographer Eilon Paz a picture really is worth a thousand cheesecakes.

Both the chapters and the accompanying photographs follow the Israeli food cycle as it travels from farm to market or cafe, and from the fields to the barbecue or the Shabbat table. The pictures lend the book an atmosphere of everything we love about Israeli cuisine. It leaves out no detail of the food process, running the gamut from shuks (open air markets) to Tel Aviv eateries, local bakeries to chain store creations. There are wine barrels and fishing boats, olive trees and open fields, Shabbat tables, barbecues, and coffee houses, but most of all there are people: Arabs and Jews, rustics and Cosmopolitans, tourists and locals, and of course yiddishe mammas, all eating.

For the English speaker who wishes to experience the variety and spice of the local flavor, or for the recent immigrant who wonders what all those spices in the local supermarket are, or maybe just for someone who enjoys a good artistic rendering of a country enjoying its' favorite pastime, this book is for you.

Israeli Cheesecake
Ingredients (for a 20x27cm/8x11 inch rectangular baking dish):

The crust and topping:
200g (7 oz, 1 2/3 cups) crumbled petit-beurre cookies
120g (4oz) melted butter
25g (1 oz, 2 Tbsp) sugar

The filling:
200g (7 oz) butter
200g (7 oz, 1 cup) sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
250 g (9 oz, one small container) of gvina levana or soft white cheese
200g (7 oz, one small container) sour cream

1. Prepare crust and topping: combine the crumbled cookies with sugar and butter
2. Press 2/3 of the mixture onto the bottom of the baking dish and freeze it for 15 minutes until the crust solidifies. Keep the rest for the topping.
3. Prepare the filling: Beat the butter with the sugar, egg, and egg yolk in a mixer for 10 minutes until it is creamy and fluffy.
4. Gently fold in the cheese and sour cream, and pour the filling into the prepared crust. Coat with the remaining cookie crumb mixture and refrigerate for 24 hours before serving.

*Variation: Replace the gvina levana with an equal amount of cream cheese.

This book is available at:
Gur Arieh Bookstore, Yoel Solomon St 8, Jerusalem
Tel: 02-625-7486. Fax: 02-625-4265

Books can be ordered from eLuna.com, for pick up at Gur Arieh books.