Janette Shina’s childhood was one of contrasts. In the late 1940’s and very early 1950’s her family was well off, living in a large four-story home in Baghdad with her parents, grandmother and cousin. While she attended private school during the day, her father worked as a butter and cheese wholesaler and her mother stayed home. Along with a servant, Janette’s mother prepared traditional Iraqi recipes like kubbeh, or semolina wrapped meatballs served in soup and rissoles or croquettes. And, there was always Shabbat t’bit, a whole chicken stuffed with rice and spices that’s cooked in a pot of rice that was placed over hot stones and coals, leaving a crispy bottom layer called h’kaka that everyone would jockey for. 

In the early 1950s, however, the atmosphere in Iraq shifted. Bombings and attacks against Jewish targets pushed many Iraqi Jews towards aliyah, including Janette’s family. In February of 1952, dressed in their best clothes, but without any of their belongings, her family moved to Israel. The reality of their life there was harsh. They were doused with DDT when they arrived and transported in large trucks to an absorption center in Or Yehuda, a small town near where Ben Gurion Airport now sits. During the winter, the camp flooded and the children, including Janette, were taken to kibbutzim around the country for protection. 

Food was rationed and Janette’s mothers recipes that had been signatures of their family home in Iraq nearly disappeared. Her father would barter for rations of powdered eggs that were mixed with water into scrambled eggs for a treat. 

Nearly a decade later, the t’bit returned when Janette married at 20. Even on a tight budget, Janette would stretch what she could afford, making use of every part of the chicken and hosting an open house for family to visit. “We made things out of nothing,” she explains. “If I had in mind to buy zucchini and they were expensive, I would buy eggplant. We could make almost the same dish….we managed very well by improvising.” 

Eventually, life improved and her mother returned to making the t’bit as well. Up until a few years ago, she made it every Shabbat in her apartment for Janette, her siblings and their families. Today, it’s Janette who makes it, though only a couple of times during the winter; her rendition uses chopped white meat and ground beef for the rice. 

Even now, as adults, everyone still fights for the h’kaka, the crispy burned rice on the bottom.