What’s an “inline review ” ?

Personally , I would have loved it if food could bring people together
same like you , and when people are open minded , they can become friends
over food … (and I have at least 2 such friends here in Cambodia – Jad from Bt Lehem , and Muhammad Nadeem from Pakistan)

But for example , I was almost assasinated at a certain Lebanese restaurant in Phnom Penh (there’s only 1 Lebanese restaurant there …)
I heard about it from a different Palestinian friend – Baset – and well , offcourse I was intrigued , and even though my hummus is considered “championship hummus” I had to go and try the food there …
I went to eat there 3 times and each time the food was worse … and expensive
It’s beautifully decorated , and I thought , well , it’s a new restaurant and we should give it a chance …

There was no Nasseralla poster on the wall , beautifull white maps and wine glasses , and many posters of different places in Lebanon . And nice modern Arabic music that put you in the right mood .

On my last visit , I talked in Arabic with the owner , seemed like a nice guy ,
the hummus arrived together with my friend Gaby so we started wiping it together … and both og us spat together .
Bad = spoiled/sour/dangerous hummus !
at least 4 days old , with a bad smell and taste …

Offcourse we sent it back to the kitchen , and asked for a different one .
The same one came back out with more olive oil and parsely on the top …

We left .

I’m not sure what is worse ? Lebanese trying to assasinate Israelis with bad hummus ? or a beautifull Lebanese ” ÿaani French” style restaurant selling
salads that aren’t fresh ?!?!?

Simply shame on them ! I view it as sacrilege to give unsuspecting people bad hummus like that ! The owner and cook both did not come out of the kitchen either .

An other thing – I don’t see hummus causing such a stir among Arabs as it does among Israelis , it’s just one more salad/first course where as for many Israelis it is the king of all foods .

So how about : Hummus in the Far East special ?

I believe in an ideal world food could bring people together and what better
food than Hummus , but in the real world too many people are too full of misconceptions …

Food is definitely part of culture and a great way to start cultural exchange but many people are not into that .

On travel forums like Lamtayel there’s the perenial question : should you eat in local restaurants ? or in Israeli restaurants ?

Living in Asia for a long time , when I go to Bangkok I really like to go and eat Hummus , and on my last visit some points crystalised :
In Chabad Bangkok there are some really nice people who welcome Israelis
and even opened a Kosher restaurant.(Despite previous experiences several years ago) I ordered Hummus – the thing that arrived at best would be called “pseudo hummus”,in Israel no one would dare to sell something like that , but I said what the hell , I’ll eat it. The taste(probably because I was hungry) somewhat resembled bad hummus,but they had good olive oil so I ate the thing.
The next day , after complaining to many of the regular customers there , I talked to the restaurant manager : ” How can we make better hummus here ?”
I asked him to which he replied : read an extra Tehilim chapter everyday …

Several new Israeli restaurants opened and I went to try the hummus in all of them – mediocre to less then mediocre to bad . The reason as allways – Tahina shortage …

Than I went to my favorite of several years ago : Sara Restaurant – the hummus was even better then it used to be – delicious , but the restaurant’s empty .

I tried bringing people over from Chabad and from the other restaurants and everybody(the regulars) refused to come … why ? The owner of Sara is Muhammad from Hebron …

So here you have it : Israelis complaining about bad to terrible hummus in BKK
and how much they miss hummus but refuse to go and eat hummus from an Arab in the same street ……..

The Hummus , Falafel , shchnitzel , are excellent there but the place is empty.
The tourists don’t even know about it , and the Israeli long term stayers preffer to continue complaining about the bad hummus in the other places rather than go and eat real one .

Next time I’ll write how I was attacked by bad hummus in a Lebanese restaurant in Phnom Penh Cambodia.

here’s a newsflash for this enterprenuering student:
* eating not only hummus but a nearly exact mirror of the rest of the populace’s food did very little to help the political status of jews in arab countries. that’s an understatement and i’ll not exapnd because this blog deals with hummus and not with politics.
* the view of hummus (or of arab cuisine in general) as an representative of arab culture is demeaning and insulting. there’s much more to cultural exchange than eating similar foods. if you want to think positive, consider arab musical influences. if you want to think negative, think of how arabic knowledge is lost among new generations of second and third generation to jews born in arab countries. but for god’s sake, leave the hummus alone!

there, i had to vent off some steam.