Before I start eating my way through the market, I like to awaken my senses. Behind a stand selling touristy trinkets, I slip into Uzi-Eli’s small storefront. ‘The Etrog Man’ is a third-generation Yemenite healer who creates juices from the etrog, an ancient citrus fruit, as well as a range of other botanicals and fruits.

Suitably energised, I walk through the Yemenite Quarter to my next stop. It’s 10am, but it’s never too early for hummus. The Middle East’s iconic chickpea dish actually originated as a labourer’s breakfast, and the best hummus purveyors still open at the crack of dawn. Shlomo and Doron have been serving hummus made to the same recipe for four generations, recently adding a few unconventional twists: a hummus and shakshuka option and a Balkan version with smoked aubergine, olives and pickled lemon.

Continuing my journey from the market’s backstreets, I walk down Carmel Market’s colourful central strip past the hawkers bellowing prices, trying to outdo their neighbours. I’m always amazed to see the diversity of the food stands: Venezuelan Arepa’s, South African Bunny Chow (curry in a bread bowl), Japanese Okasan, Viva Mexico’s burritos and Balinjera’s Ethiopian dishes – each owned by immigrants who missed their home food and wanted to share it here.

For something sweet, I head to HaMalabiya for its signature dessert, malabi: a creamy Turkish pudding drizzled with rosewater. In a nod to the city’s booming vegan population (a quarter of Tel Avivians don’t eat meat), there’s a coconut milk-based option.

The best way to explore is to lose track of time and wander throughout the city’s neighbourhoods: swanky Rothschild Boulevard, hipster Florentin, the quaint Yemenite Quarter and historic Jaffa.

There are an overwhelming number of restaurants to choose from in Tel Aviv. Here are some of my top choices:

OCD: A nine-course molecular gastronomy spectacle where all 19 bar seats face the chef’s open kitchen stage. Expect complex dishes with lists of unexpected combinations such as sweet pea panna cotta with lemon, habanero and cured egg yolk.

Taizu: Asian-Mediterranean cuisine in which the elements of Asian cooking fuse with local flavours into dishes like paneer tikka bun with aubergine aioli and cherry tomatoes; and crispy rice cone with a fish tartar and soy foam, topped with roe.

M25: the city’s carnivores choose their preferred cut of meat from the open display and sink in with their steak knives minutes later.

Mashya: Moroccan-influenced culinary works of art.

Bana: the hub for Tel Aviv’s vegan diners. Bana elevates plant-based cuisine with dishes like acorn squash with coconut cream and quinoa to a level that non-vegans will love as well.

Milgo & Milbar: if you prefer fish and seafood, this is my number one choice in Tel Aviv for flavour-bursting combinations like the fish carpaccio with crispy ginger, grapefruit, chilli and mint.

Imperial Craft: hidden in the back of a linoleum-lined hotel lobby, this bar, which squeaked into the top 50 of the World’s Best Bars 2017, serves up made-to-taste cocktails alongside Asian-influenced dishes.

Israel can be covered from top to tail in less than six hours. Tel Aviv is in the centre, so day trips out are easy. When I’m in need of a change of scenery and some fresh air, I get into my car and head up north for the day.

My first stop is usually Goats with the Wind, a serene, solar-powered goat farm overlooking Galilee’s lush green hills. After some selfies with the farm’s baby goats, I sit on some floor cushions and tuck into a cheese plate, organic salads, and crusty, fresh-out-of-the-oven loaves.

My next destination is Noura’s Kitchen, in the Druze town Daliyat el Carmel. Noura always greets me warmly, offering me stuffed vine and cabbage leaves. Although a typical Druze meal involves an endless spread of salads and pot-cooked delicacies, I convince Noura just to let me nibble on her famous atayef, a fried walnut-filled dumpling, glazed with sweet geranium syrup.

If I am up for a longer drive, I head to the Golan Heights, the home of my favorited winery, Pelter, which started as a backyard passion project, and now supplies the country’s top restaurants with cult favourites Trio (its cabernet/ merlot/cabernet franc blend) and sauvignon blanc, as well as arak, date brandy and gin.

Ready for dinner, I head just north of the city of Tiberias, where Magdalena’s incongruously elegant restaurant serves Instagram-worthy versions of locally foraged, Arab-style food. I tuck into shishbarak (lamb-stuffed dumplings cooked in goat yoghurt); kubbeh stuffed with chickpeas and halloumi cheese; and wild chicory with caramelised onions.

Just an hour southeast of Tel Aviv is Jerusalem.

On the way, in Ein Rafa, there’s Majda, where a Jewish chef and her Arab husband serve local specialities like kubbeh siniya, a meat pie cooked on a bed of bulgur and tahini.