Jerusalem is home to a great many family-owned working-class Middle Eastern meat restaurants, particularly in the area around Agrippas Street and the Machane Yehuda market, which is crammed with Iraqi/Kurdish culinary establishments. Some of these working-class Middle Eastern restaurants have achieved a near-legendary status in the Jerusalem dining scene.

King of the Iraqi/Kurdish lunchtime joints is Mordoch, a family affair on the corner of Agrippas and H'armonim streets only a few short feet away from Machane Yehuda. Enter and you'll see rows of enormous pots, two or three deep, all filled with simmering Middle Eastern delicacies.

Dining in gets you a tray of mezze, including various pickled vegetables and dips, and the menu includes a wide variety of salads, stuffed vegetables (the grape leaves are divine), Iraqi meat dishes, and what many consider to be the best kubeh (dumplings stuffed with spiced ground beef) in Jerusalem, which can be obtained fried or in several kinds of soup, including adom (so-named for its deep red color) and chamusta ("sour" in Aramaic).