Food

Food Truck Serves Up Shakshuka — and Middle East Peace?

By Liza Schoenfein April 23, 2015

The Shuka Team (the three 20-something Israeli pals in baseball caps) says that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon (center foreground) just experienced his first taste of shakshuka — and loved every bite.

“The Shuka Truck will bring the PEACE to the middle EAST,” according to a , three Israeli friends who rolled out their food truck in New York City on December 1, 2014.

Listen, whatever works.

“@UN Secretary- General ‪#‎Ban‬ Ki- Moon is having his very First taste of Shakshuka from the @shukatruck and he LOVED it !!” the post continued.

The Shuka truck, which roams the streets of New York, sharing its location via Facebook and Twitter, was parked on 2nd Avenue in the 40s on Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day, outside Israel’s mission to the U.N.

Whether it was a symbolic gesture of political diplomacy or a universal gesture of culinary affinity, know one knows for sure.

The Shuka Team is Josh Sharon, Solomon Taraboulsi and Gabriel Israel — longtime pals who moved to New York a little over a year ago to pursue careers in real estate and restaurants. Instead, they ended up doling out the ever-popular Israeli/Tunisian breakfast of fried eggs over spicy, earthy tomato sauce to New Yorkers far and wide.

Maybe the change of course was worth their effort.

Liza Schoenfein is food editor of the Forward. Contact her at [email protected]. Her personal blog is Life, Death & Dinner

Liza Schoenfein is a former food editor of the Forward and author of the blog Life, Death & Dinner. Follow her on Instagram @LifeDeathDinner.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO