Sabich

Etymology

There are several theories on the origin of the name sabich.

Many credit the name to the first name of Sabich Tsvi Halabi, a Jewish man born in Iraq who operated a small Ramat Gan restaurant, who is credited for originally serving the sandwich.

It may come from the Arabic word صباح, which means "morning", as the ingredients in the sabich are typical for an Iraqi breakfast.

Another is that it is an acronym of the Hebrew words "Salat, Beitsa, Yoteir Ḥatsil" סלט ביצה יותר חציל, meaning "salad, egg, more eggplant". This is probably a humorous interpretation and hence a backronym.

History

The ingredients which make up sabich were brought to Israel by Iraqi Jews who came as refugees to Israel in the 1940s and 1950s. On the Sabbath, when no cooking is allowed, Iraqi Jews ate a cold meal of precooked fried eggplant, boiled potatoes and hard-boiled eggs. In Israel, these ingredients were stuffed in a pita and sold as fast food.

The dish is said to have first sold in Israel in 1961 at a small stall on Uziel Street in Ramat Gan.

A version without the bread or pita is called Sabich salad (Salat Sabich in Hebrew).

Ingredients

Sabich, served in pita bread, traditionally contains fried eggplant slices, hard-cooked eggs, a thin tahini sauce (tahini, lemon juice, and garlic), Israeli Salad, chopped parsley, and amba, a condiment similar to mango chutney. Some versions use boiled potatoes. Traditionally it is made with haminados eggs, slow-cooked in Hamin until they turn brown. According to the diner's preference it can be served topped with green or red zhug as a condiment and sprinkled with minced onion.