Q&A: Israeli vs. Lebanese Hummus
Is there a difference between the Israeli and Lebanese versions of hummus? And what the Syrians have to say about it? Plus: two very tasty and strongly recommended blogs.
Question:
Randy asked: What are the main differences between Israeli style hummus and Lebanese style hummus?
Answer: hummus seem to be less dominant in the Lebanese cuisine than it is in the Palestinian one – and Israeli hummus is pretty much derived from the Palestinian hummus.
In Lebanon hummus is conceived as a side dish or first a course more than a complete meal. In Israel and the “territories” it became a preferred food for the working class, and evolved quickly in the past century. Some Israeli hummus places that are famous and highly successful today, have been known to make ONLY hummus for decades.
Today’s Israeli/Palestinian hummus has several genres, some of which are very similar to what you can find in Lebanon, and some which differ in consistency, amount of tahini added, spicing, and other additions. In Israel variations such as hummus with ful (fava beans), meat or mushrooms, are almost as popular as the basic hummus (Hummus-bi-Tahini).
This does not mean Lebanese hummus is not as good. And they do have some variations that we here do not have (on which you can read about more in this beautiful post by Mercedes from Desert Candy).
Unfortunately, the political climate in the Middle-East does not allow Israelis like me to go to Lebanese and Syrian hummus places (Syrian hummus is also considered exquisite), a reality I do hope will change in the future. So besides Mercedes’s blog which is really great IMHO, I and strongly recommend AbuFares’s blog. This Abu Fares guy is a blogger from the city of Tartous in northern Syria, who – often and with excellent English – writes about Syrian food and posts beautiful pictures of it. Abufares is not a great admirer of Israel, to say the least. Many Israelis, including myself, share som of his criticism on Israel’s actions as a state (at least under the current administration), so I’m ok with the things he says. I wonder what critique he had over his own administration, though, if Syria had given bloggers like him real freedom of speech, which they do not.
But forget about the politics. Ironically, much of the stuff Abufares shows and describe feels very familiar and even somewhat nostalgic to me. My fathers family lived in the Galilee for the past 7 generations, and there are many similarities between the food I know from home and Syrian food, I guess.
From Abufares’s blog I especially liked the post Msabbha: Breakfast of Champions, in which – among other things – he talks about the Tartoussi tradition of eating Msabbha, especially in Friday mornings – like many people in Israel.
My favorite msabbha, which is also considered the best in Israel by many, is Abu Hassan’s, and so The Hummus Blog’s msabbha recipe is of a specific genre – Abu Hassan style. But when in Jerusalem, I sometimes go to Hummus Lina in the old city, whose msabbha somewhat resembles the one in Abufares’s picture. I really want to read this one.
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6 Responses to “Q&A: Israeli vs. Lebanese Hummus”
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Israeli vs Lebanese hummus? ,
First off all, there isnt anything called israeli hummus. Second, i have eaten hummus in the best places of damascus and beirut, and Lebanon wins every time.
The “israeli hummus ” is just a bad imitation of the palestinian hummus.
Dear Johny,
I live in Israel, and so does Said from Acres and so did the late Abu Hassan from Jaffa, whos hummus I love best. There are over 2000 hummus places in Israel and I probably tried some 300 of them. About half of which are owned and operated by Israeli Arabs, and some of them prefer to be called Palestinians.
I fully respect that, but I have no intention to waste energy on being politically correct – Jaffa and Acres are Israeli cities. Israeli Arabs may have a different nationality than mine, but we are all citizens of Israel. So when I say “Israeli Hummus” I mean “the hummus you can eat in Israel”, and please don’t drag me again into this never ending dispute about who invented it and who owns it.
If when saying “Israeli Hummus” you mean “Hummus made by Israelis who are not Arab”, than it is true that we owe the Palestinians a lot when it comes to hummus. Nevertheless, there are also many hummus places which are owned by non-Arab Israeli, many of which make good or even very good hummus.
Shooky,
and you waste your time explaining things to thi kind of people? Let him eat Leb. hummus and be happy…
first of all, there’s no such thing as “palestinian hummus” because there’s no such thing as palestinians – they’re all part of bilad-a-sham (a.k.a “Greater Syria”). from now on, say “shami hummus”. and there’s no point comparing “lebanese” hummus to that, because lebanon also happens to be part of bilad a-sham. “lebanon” is as artificial as “palestine”, as is “israel” or “syria”.
hummus knows no borders, basically. Some people seem to think that because someone draws a political line somewhere, it means anything to foods. i don’t think i have to explain how idiotic that concept is.
and if you still persist, consider that the ethnic composition of the israeli north is not much different than lebanon or syria, excluding ofcourse the ethnic cleansing of jews from lebanon and syria.
Israeli hummus is just like the israelis – it depends on the land of origin in exile. yemenite jews make yemenite-styled hummus. lebanese jews make it lebanese styled. and so forth. ofcourse, local influences partaking.
No matter how you slice it, there’s no such thing as Israeli hummus. I don’t go to the market here and buy American hummus.
I didn’t know hummus was so politically charged. I was just looking for a genuine recipe for an amazing food, and then I came across this discussion. Unfortunately it grabbed my attention. I just want to eat good food. Good food is life. Good food is pleasure.