![\"\u05e1\u05d1\u05d9\u05d7](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ryew8fHZmMg_0_0_960_1280_0_x-large.jpg\" "\\"Sabich")
<\/a><\/p>\nSabich Halabi <\/p>\n
(Photo: Courtesy)<\/p>\n
\u201cWe lost the right to make money from the name,\u201d one of Halabi\u2019s relatives told ynet this week, \u201cbut what hurts me more than the money is that people don\u2019t believe my story. When I tell them the dish is named after Sabich Halabi, some people think I\u2019m making it up.\u201d<\/p>\n
The prehistoric roots of sabich go back to Iraq. The traditional Shabbat breakfast of Iraqi Jews was made up of many of the ingredients in what we now know as sabich, though back then it had the much less exciting name of \u201clafa with egg and eggplant.\u201d<\/p>\n
Back in Ramat Gan, Halabi and his wife Rina initially sold soft drinks, candy, cigarettes and snacks to passersby from their small kiosk. But for the drivers of bus line 63, whose last stop was right next to the stand, that was not enough. They wanted a filling meal and asked the couple to bring food into the kiosk.<\/p>\n
Sabich remembered the Shabbat table of his childhood in an Iraqi home: brown eggs that had cooked overnight, eggplants fried in advance, boiled potatoes, hummus, amba, chopped salad and a handful of fresh herbs. Then, instead of serving everything on a plate, as was customary in Iraq, he packed all the ingredients into one pita. To him and his wife, it seemed like a simple, filling and easy-to-eat solution for tired and hungry bus drivers finishing their shifts. That is how, almost by accident, a classic was born.<\/p>\n
Sabich\u2019s dish became a hit <\/p>\n (Photo: Courtesy)<\/p>\n Word of the bus drivers\u2019 delicious meal spread like wildfire. Everyone wanted sabich, and a long line formed around the stand.<\/p>\n Sabich himself had not planned to brand the dish with his own name. It simply happened. \u201cPeople would stand in line and ask, \u2018Make me a dish, Sabich.\u2019 People on the side thought the dish itself was called sabich, and it became \u2018a sabich dish,\u2019\u201d a relative explained. \u201cIf you ask any Iraqi who was born in Iraq what sabich is, he won\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n Over the years, different theories emerged claiming the name came from the Arabic word \u201csabah,\u201d meaning morning, or that it was an acronym for \u201csalad, egg, more eggplant.\u201d None of them is true.<\/p>\n Did Sabich understand that he had given the dish its name?![\"\u05e1\u05d1\u05d9\u05d7](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/SJZvUzHWQGe_0_56_806_573_0_x-large.jpg\" "\\"Sabich\u2019s")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\n\u201cIn the early 1990s, there was a flood of sabich stands across the country. He saw it and told his wife that even after his death, the family would not be rid of him, and wherever she went she would see his name. Sabich was hardworking, and he was also a copywriter. He invented sayings and threw around phrases. For example, he had something called a \u2018mana b\u2019shwung,\u2019 where anyone who had already eaten one portion and wanted a second could order without waiting in line. He peeled the eggs on the spot, put his hand into the boiling water, pulled them out and peeled them one by one, then cut them there. People say he no longer had feeling in his fingers because of the boiling water.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\u05de\u05d6\u05e0\u05d5\u05df](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/rymP8GHZ7Ml_0_0_1280_960_0_x-large.jpg\" "\\"The")
<\/a>![\"\u05de\u05e0\u05ea](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/SJNPUMHWmGl_0_0_960_1280_0_x-large.jpg\" "\\"A")
<\/a>