Hummus and the City
The appearance of hummus in “Sex and the City 2″ is great news for hummus lovers and hummus manufacturers in the US. Hummus is definitely on this year’s fashion collection
[Image credit: miss604 on Flickr.]
Sex and the City 2 was heavily promoted – huge posters showing the four shining girls could be seen everywhere.
After the movie came out, critics stormed the film. The general opinion was that the plot was lame, but that was expected. There were also accusations of politically incorrect scenes and even the clothes that Sarah Jessica Parker and her friends wore came under scrutiny. But we’re here to talk about hummus.
Hummus also had a small part in the film. Kim Cattrall, who plays Samantha, the liberal minded woman, has an encounter with chickpeas. Some thought that seeing her with hummus wasn’t a pretty sight. But lifestyle expert Colleen Mullaney of the Huffington Post did seem to like it:
I whipped up a big bowl of hummus and pita chips, ode to Samantha’s youthful quest, and I watched the red carpet fashion extravaganza we’ve been anticipating all year!
The 11.5 Ton Lebanese Hummus Plate & The Zionist Conspiracy
Another Guinness record for the largest hummus plate was set by Lebanese – 11.5 tons this time. But is it possible – and I’m just thinking out loud – that some people take this too seriously?
The famous 300 Lebanese chefs did it again. Earlier this month they broke the recent Guinness Record, set on January this year in the Arab village of Abu Gosh, near Jerusalem.
The fine PR work around this new record, led – again – to an unprecedented coverage in the media.
Naturally, as the only person on earth who has not one but two blogs about hummus (including the Hebrew version), I was promoted from “only” being interviewed by CNN, BBC and such, to have been quoted as a “Quote of the Day” in TIME alongside Gordon Brown, Barack Obama, and a few others who may achieved a little bit more in their life than I.
A joke that is slightly less funny
In a post about one of the previous records (here) I already explained why I think this alleged “hummus war” is rather funny. And better yet, why it’s a great PR for hummus – even though it is anything but a genuine rivalry between Israeli and Lebanese chefs.
The Lebanese campaign of reclaiming hummus has little to do with national feelings or gastronomic pride. The question is not “who owns hummus” but who will sell packaged hummus to the American market. And I think most Israelis and Lebanese will agree that’s not even real hummus.
I still think the hummus war is one of the nicest we had in the region, and we should all wish for more wars like this and fewer wars in which people are actually killed. Unfortunately, when there’s so much money involved, there will always be people who will use the opportunity to demonstrate their politics of hate. Try this video for instance:
One of the funniest pieces on this hummus war was published last week in Asharq Alawsat, a respectable Arab Read more
Sweden: the Nordic hummus superpower
Sweden is quickly becoming the Nordic superpower of hummus. Not only can you eat hummus in Lebanese restaurants in Stockholm, but you can find packaged hummus from Sweden in supermarkets all over the region.
Us Israelis, have a long history of special relationship with the Swedish people. They saved a lot of jews during WWII – for which we repaid in excess consumption of TV shows based upon classic Swedish children literature – from Pippi Longstocking to The Moomins to Astrid’s Emil to Nils Holgersson.
Not to mention the unbelievable popularity ABBA had here, up until today I think. Read more
Hummus is on the Rise
More and more people worldwide are searching for Hummus. According to Google Trends, the search for the chickpea spread is rising all over the world.
Yohuy Eilam, ForexCrunch
Google Trends is a tool that gives excellent indication about search trends, since it’s run by the #1 search engine on the internet, and practically the world’s number one website.
Since the internet is used everywhere, Google Trends gives a good indication of market trends also outside the virtual world. We can assume that the global demand for humus is growing as well. More people are becoming acquainted with this superb dish.
As you can see in the graph, the term humus shows a steady and significant growth from 2007 to 2009. The growth in search traffic for the term hummus is even stronger. Is the spelling with two ms taking over the spelling with one m?
Apart from the growing popularity of hummus on the net, we’re seeing the strongest growth in unexpected regions and in languages that aren’t normally associated with the Middle Eastern dish. Read more
The Hummus War has Begun
Last Sunday, the Hummus Was has finally began. Unlike other wars, this one is going to be fairly harmless, because the fighting will be done by means of marketing, advertising, giveaways and special prices.
Calcalist is the #3 business publication in Israel, a relatively new and small newspaper. It’s a very mainstream, nevertheless, so it usually deals with mainstream business news – nothing like that main headline on August 3rd. The headline said: The Hummus War.
It’s seems like a very common news item: two major local companies fighting over a market. The point is that these two companies, Osem and Strauss, are fighting over the American hummus market. Read more
New Guinness Recored: Largest Hummus Plate ever
Over a 1000 tones of hummus were eaten last week, during Israelis Independance Day (“Yom Haatzmaut”). 400kg (881 pounds) of which in a Jerusalem event, out of a single Guiness-Record size plate.
It was last year when the American Sabra hummus manufacturer set the first Guinness Record for eating hummus in a New-York event. They served their hummus in a plate with a diameter of 3.5 meter (3.8 yards).
Last week a new the record was set in Mahaneh Yehuda market in Jerusalem: Hummus Tzabar, an Israeli hummus manufacturer, served some 400kg (881 pounds) of hummus in a 4 meter (4.35 yard) plate. This incredible hummus feast was documented of course, to verify the Guinness Record commitee it really happened. Here’s one of the pictures:
Hummus with Pretzel Crisps?!
Yes, I admit to have eaten the delicacy mentioned in the title once or twice, I’m not proud of that though. And I never tried to convince myself that packaged hummus with pretzels will be good for me, or that it tastes good.
In this blog, I already discussed the poor situation of hummus in America, a few times before. Some of the questions asked here by my readers, also shed some light on the subject.
Sabra Greek Olive Hummus
Yet, I was somewhat surprised to read about the new Sabra snack on Jewish Press.
Read more
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