The Israeli Couscous

There aren't a lot of original Israeli food inventions. Being such a young country means that most food was invented before you but it doesn't mean that there is no Israeli food invention at all.

A lot of the food we know and love was invented out of poverty and using whatever ingredients you have. We can talk about the Italian "la cucina povera" with Pasta and Pizza, we can talk about the Russian potato based everything or the american beans and corn filling every possible food.

But this time we focus on the Israeli financial crisis in the 50's, when rice supply became low but a huge amount of immigrants were basing a lot of their cuisine on it. The Israeli Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion, asked the food company "Osem" to create a rice replacement and they did - a baked form of wheat beans that are pasta like in substance but rice like in visual. The result was called "Ptitim" but is often referred as "Israeli Couscous" or "Ben Gurion Rice".
Today you can find Israeli Couscous in simple home dishes as well as gourmet restaurants.

Source: Wikipedia

Bonus Fact: A few years later another somewhat similar food was invented to add some substance to a clean soup - it is called "Shkedey Marak".

Source: Wikipedia