Middle Eastern cuisine or West Asian cuisine includes a number of cuisines from the Middle East. Common ingredients include olives and olive oil, pitas, honey, sesame seeds, dates, sumac, chickpeas, mint, rice and parsley, and popular dishes include kebabs, dolmas, falafel, baklava, yogurt, doner kebab, shawarma and mulukhiyah.
Serving in Jerusalem restaurant including falafel, hummus, and salad
The Turkish Doner kebab
Kebab koobideh
Kibbeh nayyeh
The olive, botanical name Olea europaea, meaning 'European olive', is a species of small tree or shrub in the family Oleaceae, found traditionally in the Mediterranean Basin. When in shrub form, it is known as Olea europaea 'Montra', dwarf olive, or little olive. The species is cultivated in all the countries of the Mediterranean, as well as in Australia, New Zealand, North and South America and South Africa. It is the type species for its genus, Olea. The tree and its fruit give their name to the Oleaceae plant family, which also includes species such as lilac, jasmine, forsythia, and the true ash tree.
Olive
Marinated green olives
19th-century
Specimen of Olea europaea sylvestris as bonsai. These trees grow wild in the mountains of the Spanish island of Mallorca and are valued for their tiny leaves and rough bark. This tree won 1st prize in the broadleaf evergreen category in the 2024 edition of the Unión del Bonsái Español (UBE) exhibition in Aranjuez, Spain.