Me'orav Yerushalmi (Jerusalem Mixed Grill)

It is a kebab-shop dish without a skewer, and that is precisely its origin: it uses the parts of the bird that the skewers do not want. It has since become a Jerusalem signature and a fixture on menus across Israel, with the market stalls that invented it still regarded as the benchmark.

This is griddle cooking, not grilling, and the flat-top is essential to the result. The offal is cut small and cooked hard on a very hot surface with sliced onion, so the pieces sear and the onion caramelises into them. There is no liquid at any point; anything that steams turns the offal grey and rubbery.

The order matters because the components differ: hearts and spleens take longest and go on first, livers go on last and need only two or three minutes. Spices go on during cooking rather than as a marinade, so they toast against the hot surface — turmeric especially, which loses its raw edge and turns earthy.

Chicken hearts and livers from a butcher, spleens too if you can get them, plus a proportion of chicken thigh or lamb for body — many stalls use roughly half offal, half meat. Livers should have their connective tissue trimmed; spleens should be parboiled briefly and any membrane trimmed off.

The spice mix is turmeric, cumin, black pepper and baharat, with coriander or a little cinnamon in some kitchens. Sliced onion in quantity. A cast-iron griddle or the flattest, heaviest pan you own; a wok does not reproduce the effect because the food needs contact with a flat hot surface.

Stuffed into pita or rolled in laffa with tahini, hummus, salad, pickles and chilli sauce (schug or harif). Chips are common inside the pita as well. It is street food and it is eaten immediately; the offal firms as it cools.