When some of us think about Israeli food, the first dish­es that come to mind are prob­a­bly hum­mus, falafel, and shak­shu­ka — but that is only scratch­ing the sur­face. Chef Einat Admo­ny and Israeli food writer and expert Jan­na Gur, teamed up to show read­ers deli­cious and authen­tic mul­ti­cul­tur­al Israeli cui­sine in their cook­book, Shuk, by focus­ing on buy­ing ingre­di­ents from the nation’s out­door mar­kets, or shuks.

Before the book delves into its col­or­ful and mouth-water­ing recipes, Admo­ny and Gur pro­vide thought­ful fore­words in which they define Israeli cui­sine. In ​“The Spir­it of Shuk,” Admo­ny gives us a glimpse into her ori­gin sto­ry as a Mizrahi Jew grow­ing up in Israel — cook­ing Per­sian dish­es with her Iran­ian moth­er and shop­ping for ingre­di­ents with her father in the shuk​’s Yemenite quar­ter. Admony’s Mizrahi back­ground is inex­tri­ca­bly tied to her culi­nary exper­tise, which brings some essen­tial Israeli diver­si­ty to the din­ner table, from the Jews of Moroc­co to those of Cen­tral Asia.

In ​“A Short Sto­ry of Israeli Food,” Gur explains how Israeli cui­sine is not so straight­for­ward. Since Israel is a small coun­try rich with many Jew­ish and Mid­dle East­ern eth­nic groups and cul­tures, the culi­nary scene is ​“a mul­ti­cul­tur­al mosa­ic of tra­di­tions from lit­er­al­ly all over the globe.” These two women make sure Shuk accu­rate­ly rep­re­sents the range of food that falls under the umbrel­la of Israeli cuisine.

Admo­ny and Gur do a won­der­ful job of not only incor­po­rat­ing diverse dish­es, like ​“Yemenite Cur­ry Shak­shu­ka,” ​“Doro Wot (Ethiopi­an chick­en),” and ​“Aruk (Iraqi Herb and Pota­to Pat­ties)” but also elab­o­rat­ing on the nation’s sta­ples. They ded­i­cate pages to the rules of mak­ing Israeli sal­ad, some ​“toma­to wis­dom,” and guides like ​“Hum­mus for Begin­ners” and ​“Mas­ter­ing Schnitzel.”

Rather than divid­ing the chap­ters by cours­es, each sec­tion revolves either around an Israeli sta­ple ingre­di­ent, like dairy and cous­cous, or clas­sic Israeli cook­ing meth­ods, such as grilling (“The Fla­vor of Fire”) and stuff­ing (“Deli­cious­ly Stuffed”). The chap­ter ​“Cau­li­flower and Egg­plant: Our Veg­etable Heroes,” includes recipes like, ​“Crispy Cau­li­flower with Bam­ba and Peanut Tahi­ni Sauce,” and ​“The Cous­cous Table” pro­vides recipes for deli­cious mains to serve with cous­cous, such as the Mor­ro­can dish, ​“Red Wine Lamb Tagine with Dried Fruit.” Since many of these chap­ters work around a chief ingre­di­ent or cook­ing method, they get their own spe­cial intro­duc­tions, such as a guide for mak­ing home­made cous­cous and an expla­na­tion of an Israeli style cookout.

What sets Shuk apart from oth­er Israeli cook­books are the inter­ludes between most of the sec­tions called, ​“Our Favorite Shuk.” Eight shuks across Israel, from Tel Aviv to the Old City of Akko, get their own vibrant pho­to spread of their pro­duce and atmos­phere, and a per­son­al guide that tells us ​“The Sto­ry,” ​“The Vibe,” and ​“When to come.” We also get to read about Admo­ny and Gur’s favorite spots with­in each shuk, with brief but thought­ful descrip­tions of what del­i­ca­cies are offered.

While Shuk mas­ters the art of mul­ti­cul­tur­al Israeli cui­sine and cook­ing, it is also filled with fas­ci­nat­ing food his­to­ry, guides for cook­ing and trav­el, and an impor­tant mes­sage about how Israeli cui­sine is influ­enced by all walks-of-life.