This is the first of two episodes that were recorded during the food tour with Izzeldin Bukhari from Sacred Cuisine in the old city of Jerusalem. We talk with the women from Bethlehem who sell vegetables in the streets, we eat manakeesh (oven baked flat bread with zaatar), we buy all kind of pickled veggies and different kinds of old city sweets and we visit the oldest still functioning ka'ek oven, very famous (!!) Izzeldin takes us to one of his favorite humus and falafel places and talks about the different types of food you can eat there.

Izzeldin was raised in the old city. His family is a prominent Sufi family and in a previous episode we talked about Sufism in Jerusalem.

He connected to cooking while he was abroad in the United States and he missed the Palestinian cuisine. Cooking was meditative for him. And cooking mindfully made him also more aware of where the food that he cooked really comes from, what is the relation to culture and tradition and how can we preserve these traditions in the fast changing world around us.

With Sacred Cuisine he tries to revive the Palestinian somi food (vegan /vegetarian) and when he works as a caterer he focuses on local and seasonal products.

 At the core of SacredCuisine is the return to the roots of the Palestinian approach to food, from growing to sharing, based on the values of fair-trade, sustainability, independence, nourishment, and cooperation. The aim is a rediscovery of Palestinian heritage through food, that bridges the past and the present

From his website:  In Sufism, feeding others is considered to be the highest form of worship. The idea being that the health of the mind and body are intertwined. Food is understood to be a divine gift and sharing it is an act of love.

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