Bagel Toast

Bagel toast is the Israeli café sandwich: a large, soft, sesame-covered Jerusalem-style bagel, oval rather than round and nothing like the dense New York kind, split, stuffed with cheese plus a few vegetables, and pressed flat in a sandwich toaster until the outside is crisp and the cheese has melted into everything. It appeared on the menus of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem cafés in the 1990s and became the default thing to order with a coffee or a beer, and it now sits on almost every café, kiosk and bar menu in the country, usually with a short list of fillings and a side of pickles, olives or a small salad. The base is the yellow Israeli cheese sold as "yellow cheese", often with Bulgarian feta or Tzfat cheese added, and the standard vegetables are tomato, onion, olives and sometimes corn or mushrooms; a layer of pesto, za'atar or harissa is common.