Comments on: Hummus: is it Israeli or Arab?

By: cbishop

cbishop — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 19:12:49 +0000

Also fish and chips from portuguese jews.. seriously? fried fish are eaten worldwide and chips (potatos) are from america. fish and chips were eaten by native americans for thousands of years before any portuguese ate a potato. curious what my israeli friends who insist latkas are jewish have to say about this. im often served tomatoes peppers and squash in traditional palestinian or lebanese cuisine. wonder if these people realize how recently these veggies were “stolen” from americans

By: cbishop

cbishop — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 18:25:04 +0000

Holy moly! i just became aware that this is a sore spot for people in the region. hbo show called hung has a funny little bit on there with arab and israeli both trying to convince ray that hummus belongs to their country and forcing him to choose a side. here in southern states of the usa we stew our beans till theyre really thick then flavour with garlic salt oil lime herbs etc. then we eat it with flatbread which the mexicans call frijoles and tortillas. i hope they dont get angry at us and fire off an international lawsuit. the commonality of our cuisine has nothing to do with theft of culture but with natural resources available to the region. btw pasta is NOT from italy. also complaints about english speakers pronunciation of huh miss is amusing. if arab speaking countries cant agree on a common pronunciation then there can hardly be a correct one. i have a feeling that the complaints are from people whos pronunciation of english isnt perfect either.

By: meg

meg — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 01:07:08 +0000

I stumbled upon this blog, having a Lebanese neighbor who taught me how to prepare and love this wonderful dish. I only wanted to know how if you promounced it as she did-(somewhere between a “who and a hum”). Upon reading it is clear to me why, during my entire lifetime, the middle east has been in turmoil of some kind…bicker bicker bicker!!! Your food is delightfully tasty…my mouth waters at the mere thought of kibbe (sp?) and falafel in that marvelous cucumber sauce! Put down those guns, stop arguing about bordersor whatever, and join together manufacturing your wonderfully delicious foods, unique to your region, and most interesting to ours —- and make a small fortune! No one here wants to cook anymore for many reasons, so we would ALL buy your products! You become rich, we become fat and happy. I’ve resolved the conflict in the Middle East….I’ll become the “Hummus Hero”!

By: seaki

seaki — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 10:36:22 +0000

Hummus makes me happy, and my tummy glad,…..its soooooo delicious!!!!! that should be the end of this silly blog discussion. I LOOOOVE HUMMUS!!!!! YUMMY!!!

By: shooky

shooky — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 10:20:30 +0000

@anon – as a matter of fact, the Muslims rarely tried converting Jews to Islam. The golden age of Judaism in Spain, for example, was under Muslim governance, and the persecution started only when Spain and Portugal were occupied by the Christians. In the 12 century, Jews actually fought with Saladin against the crusaders.

By: anon

anon — Sun, 09 May 2010 19:00:55 +0000

Where does the “dish” of fish and chips come from? England, right?. Wrong. Portuguese Jews brought it to England, when they were expelled from Portugal. Foods travel and change, as do languages.

As for the pro-Arab commentators hysterically claiming that the Israelis stole their land, and now their food, I would say this: Arabs come from Saudi Arabia. They “spread out” all over the Middle East conquering the local populations, forcibly converting them, destroying their religions and cultures and languages. For example, the copts, the marronites, the berbers, the kurds, and so on. Today this process is going on in Darfur. Also Arabs and other Muslims forcibly converted the Jews they found living in Palestine. It is known in Israel that there are Arab Muslims who are descendants of Jews, i.e. they themselves claim this. So please learn some of your own history before you accuse people of stealing.

By: Twilight

Twilight — Sun, 02 May 2010 18:13:05 +0000

Dear Shooky,

I sincerely thank you for providing an insightful look into “Hummus” As a history buff, and more importantly, not given into emotional frenzy, I appreciate your calm resolve in responding to the various comments. As an Israeli you show a tasteful disposition in responding to even comments that are, quite obviously, deliberately designed to “ruffle your feathers.”

Keep going…good luck!

Twilight

By: Joe

Joe — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 16:00:06 +0000

But people LOVE conflict and arguing! It makes them feel like they’re contributing to something great. They feel as if their resolve is being tested, and their ego is challenged. Not many things are more intimate than an argument or a conflict. It’s one of the reasons why war will never disappear from humanity. Hummus….it tastes awesome!

By: hannah

hannah — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 08:41:44 +0000

I live in Greece and have noticed that many greek dishes (which the greeks swear are greek) are actually similar (but not exactly the same) as other dishes from around the mediterranean. I think hummus is a regional dish rather than a national one. Here they also make pastes that go with certain foods, and some islands actually serve something quite similar to hummus made with fava – but with olive oil not tahini. Like Falafel, the greeks also like to mash up vegetables (spinach, tomatoes,or zuchini)and pulses(lentils), mix them with other stuff and fry them up into delicious little patties or balls. People cook with the stuff that grows best in the region so I imagine chickpeas have around in the Levant and the Med. forever.. Mashing and mixing stuff and frying it seems to be a mediterranean favourite preparation method. I don’t think anyone can deny that the greeks have been living around here for donkey’s years? Of course semitic peoples (Arabs and Jews) have been living around the levant for thousands of years all the way back to Mesopotamia – isn’t that where Abraham came from? Perhaps, as other people have mentioned over the years on this blog it is time to celebrate the commonalities.

By: Mr. Egypt

Mr. Egypt — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 10:44:37 +0000

Ahahaha… Jews acting oh so stereotypical, humus is a wonderful metaphor, next thing you know they will trick a powerful country to support their occupation of humus. Maybe prop settlements to garnish the humus. Just remember that falsehood by its nature is meant to perish.

By: ala

ala — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 22:39:16 +0000

R Mc D thanks for the comment, i would go with you, and i would say that quality of tahini what makes it special, if you could make good tahini i would call it the fantastic scottish tahini, who found it is dead, we have to make sure that we make a good tahini to respect the founders of tahini, and to give our consumers the best and healthiest food, naturality of sesamy seeds, and cold graunding makes the richiest tahini ever.
sandy thanks for the comment , lebanone has a special food, we all like it.
jabbathanks for the comment, nice to have you.
have nice himmous made from the best tahini.
love to all
ala

By: Sandy

Sandy — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:25:14 +0000

Hummus is Lebanese no doubt ,
every country tried to have their own version of Hummus , and I tried most of them , the Lebanese was is the best(maybe because we Invented it ?) the first canned hummus was made by a lebanese company named Cortas in 1956, Lebanon is filing for the trademark to the hummus and Tabbouli…….

By: jabba

jabba — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 23:11:37 +0000

so what yall trying to say is humus is an israeli dish?
thats retarted thats like saying a taco part of an israeli dish

By: R McD

R McD — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:44:34 +0000

I think to properly ask this question you need a clear idea of what makes a food a national dish. I don’t think it’s to do with who invented it, or ate it first. I’m Scottish, and one of our national dishes hagis was probably invented by the English. I don’t think that stops it from being Scottish. What seems to be important is that people of that nationality eat it, have a history of eating it, and consider it to be a part of their culture. On these terms I think both Isrelis and Arabs can say that the dish is part of their national cuisine. There isn’t anything wrong with that – many countries share distinctive dishes such as Pakistan-India or Norway and Sweeden.

By: ala

ala — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:56:39 +0000

pupularity of hummus is not a country wise thing, here in nablus, palestine we have one or two special hummus makers, you might not fined the same hummus anywhere in the world, the same story can be true for lebanon and israel, or anywhere else. the acceptance of taste deffeirse from a place to another, like in india they love spicy food, yet we dont. therefore for a good evaluation for the best hummus in the world i would suggest a worldwide compitition, the winner will carry the belt of hummus and he can assume that he is the first to make hummus, and this could be every four years.