When travelling through Israel you will often read that restaurants are kosher. Or even if you don’t recognize this, the rules of the Thora and the Bible will influence what you’ll get to eat. At first Jews are only allowed to eat mammals that are cloven-hoofed and ruminants (no pigs, no rabbits, no horses) or that have scales and fins (no clams, no prawns, no lobster).
Most interesting is the rule set by 2. Mose, 23:19: “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk”. This leads to some typical European meals missing on restaurant menus; everything that combines milk with meat. Kosher kitchens have to have two sets of cookware. And as milk and meat should also not mix in the stomach of the guest, in the morning often only milk products are served but no meat and in the evening vice versa.
This all doesn’t lead to going hungry to bed: the Israeli kitchen is well known for its wonderful starters (like of course: hummus!). And you get falafel and shawarma everywhere. Breaking the rules is also pretty easy (if “necessary”): There are lots of non-kosher restaurants, especially in Tel Aviv.