The Grilling Tradition of Israel’s Independence Day

Walk outside in Israel on Yom Ha’atzmaut, Independence Day, and you will be greeted by the entrancing scent of mangal, or barbecue. Chicken legs and kebabs sizzle away over charcoal grills and watermelons are cracked open in parks and backyards as friends and families gather to celebrate. That’s how it was for Asaf Doktor when he was growing up by the sea in Caesarea, a town nestled between Tel Aviv and Haifa.

Outside of the holiday, his family didn’t cook much, but, he says “I loved eating and watching food TV shows — and, not having prepared food at home — I started cooking. It’s the basic story of an ‘80s kid in Israel.” Today Asaf is the chef and co-owner with his brother Yotam of the acclaimed restaurants Ha’achim (Hebrew for “The Brothers”) and Dok in Tel Aviv and his Yom Ha’atzmaut traditions have changed.

For several years, he and Yotam threw a massive party in the streets of Tel Aviv outside of Ha’achim. “We invited 2,000 people and they all came,” he says. There was barbecue and a large truck that doubled as a stage for musicians. “This is how I celebrate...It’s a very memorable party in Tel Aviv,” he says.

Unfortunately, permitting for the event became too tricky. These days, Asaf celebrates the holiday at the restaurants, which open and bustling. “Night time [on Yom Ha’atzmaut] is one of the most hectic nights of the year….Everyone is outside watching fireworks.”

When we asked Asaf for a menu to celebrate the holiday with, he shared a mix of what he serves in the restaurants and what he would serve if he hosted a party for friends. At the heart of the menu are chicken kebabs laced with lamb fat. “You must have a kebab and chicken skewers,” to celebrate the holiday, he says. To balance the rich and smoky flavors, he pairs the meat with a raw zucchini salad tossed with dried apricots and fresh oregano, and a play on tabbouleh where bulgar is swapped out for pistachios, pumpkin and sunflower seeds.

While the menu is modern, like his restaurant Dok, there’s a dose of tradition mixed in: his grandmother’s eggplant salad. It’s a riff on a recipe for chopped liver that may have arrived with her family when they emigrated from Poland in the late 1930s, when his grandmother was three-years-old. “In the 1950s, it was...a very poor time in Israel. People didn’t have money to buy meat and expensive ingredients,” Asaf explains. So liver was replaced by eggplant. It was a staple in Asaf’s life growing up. We “always had it in our fridge,” he said. The recipe was passed on to his father who started to make it and ultimately to Asaf. “When I opened [Haachim] it was one of the first items on the menu,” he says.

While the recipe is no longer served at the restaurant, it seems to suit this Yom Ha’aztmaut menu, bringing a dish from the past to the table for the country’s 70th birthday celebration.