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| Course | Sandwich, street food |
|---|---|
| Associatedcuisine | Israeli cuisine |
| Main ingredients | Traditionallylaffa, althoughpita is often used,eggplant, hard boiled eggs,salad,amba, parsley,tahini sauce, andhummus |
| Ingredients generally used | Potato, onion, andzhug |
Sabich orsabih (Hebrew:סביח[saˈbiχ];Judeo-Iraqi Arabic:صبيح) is a sandwich ofpita orlaffa bread stuffed with friedeggplants, hard-boiled eggs, chopped salad,parsley,amba andtahini sauce. It is a staple of Jewish-Iraqi cuisine and was created byIraqi Jews inIsrael in the 1960s.
Its ingredients are based on a traditional quick breakfast ofIraqi Jews; while in Iraq, the ingredients were served separately, the modern sabich, where all of them are eaten together in a sandwich, was created inIsrael, where it is sold in many businesses.
There are several theories on the origin of the name Sabich. Many attribute the name to the sandwich's creator, Sabich Tzvi Halabi, who was born in Baghdad in 1938 and immigrated to Israel in the early 1950s.[1][2][3] The name Sabich means "morning" in Arabic, which may be a reference to the fact the ingredients are those of a typical shabbat breakfast among Iraqi Jews.[4]
Popular folk legend attributes the name to an acronym of the Hebrew words "Salat, Beitsa, yoter Ḥatsil"סלט ביצה יותר חציל, meaning "salad, egg, more eggplant".[3][5] This is a humorous interpretation and hence abackronym.[5]
Halabi bought a kiosk across the street from the last stop of the Number 63 bus on Uziel Street inRamat Gan in the early 1960s. Local workers wanted something more substantial than thebourekas the kiosk was currently selling, and Halabi and his wife created a sandwich based on anIraqi traditionalshabbat breakfast of eggs,tebit,chamin, fried eggplant, and salad.[6][7] Eggplant is a year-round crop in Israel, and eggs were available during the period ofausterity in Israel, so both ingredients had long been in common use in the early 1960s.[5]
In Israel, the sandwich became a popular street food. Halabi took on a partner, Yaakov Sasson, and in the early 1980s moved the operation to Negba street, where as of 2017 it was still in operation.[3][6] The dish is served throughout Israel.[6][3] It is not well-known outside of Israel.[5]
In 2020 the mayor of Ramat Gan announced the Negba St.-Uziel St. intersection would be named Sabich Square.[8]
Sabich typically includes friedeggplant slices, a cucumber-and-tomato salad, amba, andhaminados eggs, which are slow-cooked inhamin until they turn brown.[6] Some versions include potatoes, pickles, a tahini sauce, hummus, or other condiments.[1][3][5][9] It is commonly served inpita bread or wrapped inlaffa, an Iraqi flatbread.[1]
Daniel Gritzer, writing forSerious Eats, describes the sandwich as "it's drippy, it's messy, it's shamelessly moist and flavorful. There are creamy swaths, and squishy bits, and crunchy chunks, and tart bursts".[9]
A version without the bread or pita is called Sabich salad ("סלט סביח" - "Salat Sabich" in Hebrew).
According toRonit Vered [he], writing in Haaretz, the sandwich became "an integral part of the limited canon ofIsraeli cuisine".Tami Shem-Tov wroteSaba Sabich (Grandpa Sabich), a children's picture book published in 2017 byKinneret Zmora-Bitan in Hebrew, which according to Yahil Zaban ofTel Aviv University details how the sandwich became "a symbol of the new Israeli culture".[6][10]
According toJanna Gur, the sandwich is "the first street snack that sprang from a Jewish culinary tradition" in Israeli cuisine and was more popular in Israel than falafel.[7]
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