It’s lunchtime and I’m thinking about yesterday’s lunch, which was a shakshuka so good I need to write about it. It all started about two weeks ago, when my friend Myra called one morning to see if I wanted to join her for shakshuka at her favorite place in the Iraqi section of the shuk (Mahane Yehuda). I was out of town at the time but I kept thinking about it since and yesterday was my lucky day.
We met on the earlier side to avoid the crowds, and after winding our way through various alleys and vendors we came out into one of those courtyards that takes you back in time. The first thing you notice is the dozens of men sitting around playing sheshbesh (backgammon) in sheshbesh halls, drinking tea and smoking. They looked up once or twice while I snapped some photos but then went right back to their game. And there, tucked into a corner, is a little tiny hole-in-the-wall restaurant called Azura.
We got a premiere table on the covered porch right next to the window that looks into the kitchen and directly in front of the big vat of shakshuka and dozens of kube waiting to be put into soup.
The menus are laminated in plastic and the restaurant writes the prices next to what is available each day. We ordered two bowls of shakshuka with “shnei beitzim” (two eggs) and it was in front of us in minutes. Rich, tomatoey, garlicky and spicy. Fresh pita helped us mop up the sauce in our bowls and it was completely and utterly satisfying.
As we were wiping the last of the shakshuka from our bowls and watching one of the cooks break new eggs into the big vat of shashuka, we noticed the line forming for tables. Sadly, it was time to go and let someone else have the pleasure.
