When Your Father Shares a Name with a National Dish

Photo by Dave Katz

Shared by Tami Shemtov
Recipe Roots: Iraq > Ramat Gan, Israel

As a young girl growing up in Israel in the 1970s, Tami Shemtov was often embarrassed. She was short, had a boy’s haircut, and couldn’t read until she was in the 3rd grade because of a learning disability. But, nothing was worse than the embarrassment from her father.

In her suburb of Tel Aviv, “having a Sabra [Israeli-born] parent was the best, having an Anglo-Saxon parent like my mom was second best, something to be proud of,” she explained at our live storytelling event Schmaltzy in Tel Aviv. “But, nothing really counted if you were suspected to be an Arab — and my father was the only suspect around.”

Her father, who immigrated to Israel when he was 18 from Iraq, had an Arab name: Sabich. When Tami questioned him about it as a child, he explained that it means dawn, or first light, in the language of the Iraqi Jews. While other Iraqi immigrants with the same name switched to Tzvi when they made aliyah, her father refused. “My name is my identity” he told her. Tami recalled: “I became proud of my father for choosing not to deny his Arab origin for the sake of the Israeli melting pot.” Armed with her father’s story, Tami’s embarrassment faded.

“But, sometime in my 20s, I got embarrassed again,” she explained at Schmaltzy. “My father’s name had become a name of a very popular dish. Imagine your father is being called falafel or pizza. I couldn’t believe it was happening to me.” In Israel, say “sabich” and almost no one will think of a man’s name. They will think, instead, of a beloved national dish made of fried eggplant, hard-boiled or long-baked eggs, tahini, chopped salad, pickles and a piquant sauce called amba, stuffed into a pita or rolled into a flatbread called laffa. The recipe has its roots in Iraq, where generations of Jewish families would lay out a spread for Shabbat breakfast. It grew out of a need to use the “brown eggs” from a Shabbat lunch recipe called t’bit, which enterprising cooks paired with other ingredients that could be prepared before shabbat for a simple but hearty meal.

Iraqi Jews, like Tami’s family brought the custom with them to Israel; serving it as a spread on Saturday mornings, allowing each family member to customize their dish. But the origin of the sandwich as an Israeli icon is traced to the 1980s in Ramat Gan, a suburb of Tel Aviv, where Iraqi immigrant Sabich Tzvi Halabi started to sell the Shabbat dish to bus drivers at a kiosk at the end of a bus line. The recipe caught on and spread across the country — and to the United States where it’s sold to expats looking for a taste of Israel.

Over time, Tami came to embrace her father’s name, writing a Hebrew-language children’s book called Saba Sabich, or Father Sabich, about her dad and the sandwich. More than 40,000 Israeli children received it as part of PJ Library in Israel. Tami added: “I hope it will make them feel more comfortable with whom they are, where they come from, with their family, heritages, cultures.” She dedicated it with love to her father, Sabich, “who taught me how to be courageous.”

Tami shared a version of this story at Schmaltzy: Tel Aviv, our first live storytelling event in Israel on March 13. Listen here:

Photo by Dave Katz

In many Iraqi Jewish families like Tami’s, a sabich spread still graces the table on Saturday mornings. Each family has their own variation, but most include eggplant (fried is the traditional way but roasting works too), pickled turnips, parsley, tahini, Israeli chopped salad, and amba. Boiled potatoes are also a popular addition. Tami shared her family’s version of sabich, but, like each Iraqi family, you are encouraged to make it your own.

Sabich: Shemtov Family Style

Serves: 6-8
Time: 1 hour

Ingredients
8 large eggs, hard boiled, quartered or cut into ¼” slices
2 medium eggplant, sliced into 1” rounds
2 teaspoons kosher salt
olive oil, for brushing the eggplant
6-8 pita or laffa

For serving:
Israeli chopped salad
Tahini
Parsley
Pickles
Olives
Hot peppers
Pieces of cooked potato
Zhoug (spicy yemenite hot sauce)
Amba (pickled mango chutney)

*Specialty items like zhoug, amba, tahini, and laffa and can be found at a market like Kalustyan’s.

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 425°.

2. Prepare the eggplant: Lay the eggplant rounds in a single layer on a wire rack set over a baking sheet. Sprinkle both sides with the salt and leave to sweat for at least 20 minutes or up to one hour. Thoroughly wipe the water from the eggplant slices using a paper towel and pat dry.

3. Generously brush both sides of the eggplant with olive oil and lay out on a baking sheet being careful not to overcrowd. Roast the eggplant for 20 minutes, flipping halfway through until browned and golden.

4. Create your spread: Pile the hard boiled eggs high in a bowl and lay the eggplant slices and pita out on plates of their own. Beyond these key ingredients, the experience is up to you! Assemble the rest of your spread by laying out your accompanying ingredients/condiments of choice in separate bowls or plates.

5. Make your sabich: Grab a pita, stuff it full of your favorite ingredients and enjoy.