Rescued by Hummus
I had one of my molar tooth yanked last Tuesday. A very nasty experience, I can tell you. In fact, it was so horrible that I bravely decided not to go into the details.
Anyhow, as I sat at home a few hours later, swollen and sad and very much in pain, I realized I’m pretty hungry. I already followed the common advice for such situations and ate a bucket of ice-cream, but ice-cream can hardly be called food.
Knowing that I can’t really bite anything, and I shouldn’t eat anything hot (such as soup), I dragged myself to a local hummus place and asked for hummus-meshawsha. Read more
Inside the Israeli Pita
Falafel, an ancient dish from Egypt, found itself in our era in the middle of this civilization collision mess. If only all other outcomes of cultural conflicts were so tasteful.
I’m afraid we are all living in what that famous Chinese saying calls “interesting times”. And it’s most certainly too interesting here, in Israel.
Even if you follow the news, you probably don’t get the full picture. It is complicated, and I’m really here to write about food, so I’ll say just that: both us Israelis and our Palestinians brothers, are good people with lousy leaders.
But well, I’m here to tell you about the complexity of the Israeli pita bread, so lets get down to it.
Read more
Pseudo hummus
It’s not enough to call a certain dish “hummus” for it to become hummus. If I had a nickel for every strange looking hummus I saw, I would probably have some… 20 bucks by now.
When I say “pseudo hummus” I refer to dishes which may look like hummus, or even have somewhat similar ingredients, but do not taste anywhere near the real thing. Of course, when something don’t even look like hummus, this may be a good indication for it not being hummus. Unfortunately, having tasted some of these hummus-mutations, I can assure you they do not come close. Read more
Video Tutorial: Making Hummus like in New-York’s Hummus Place
In our new video Shay, one of the guys from Hummus Place in New-York, is sharing the recipe and showing how to make real hummus.
Hummus Place is a New-York restaurant serving mostly hummus and middle-eastern dishes. I never been there, but people who did say their hummus is pretty good, so you can trust Shay – one of the owners, and the guy explaining the process of making hummus in the video – to know what he’s talking about.
Who stole my hummus?
Hummus, Falafel and Shawarma ARE Arab foods. And they are also Israeli foods. Those who claim differently, too often lack the knowledge or the wisdom to see things as they really are.
I already addressed the issue of subjecting hummus and other middle-eastern foods to political disputes. You can read all about it in my post Hummus, is it Israeli or Arab. But I can’t help commenting on this piece, a column by George S. Hishmeh titled ” The undeclared war on Arab cuisine”.
Hishmeh says: “My niece, Irene, called me a few days ago indignant that some of her American friends, including some Jews, keep describing typical Arab foods such as falafel, hummus and shawarma, among others, as Israeli. She wanted to know how she can convince them this is not the case.” Read more
Online Encounters from the 3rd Kind
This hummus blog thing is very awkward for me. Not because I think a blog about hummus is a strange thing, but – I suppose – mainly because English is not my mother tongue.
You see, when writing in Hebrew for the Israeli version of this blog, I feel comfortable both with the language and the audience. When writing in English, I address a completely different kind of online community, in a language which I’m obviously less fluent at. Read more
Old Jerusalem Part II: Hummus Lina
The admired hummus place of Lina’s, is making the same hummus for 35 years now. Besides being exquisite for itself, it has a one of a kind surroundings. Check out these photos.
Part I: Old Jerusalem Market
Most people go to Hummus Lina through Jaffa Gate, which is also the gate through which you get to the Wailing Wall. On my last journey, as I explained in the previous post, I took the Nablus Gate (Damascus Gate) and a camera. Here are some more pictures. Read more
E-mail updates
The hummus SHOP
Buy tahini, chickpeas, olive oil, falafel mix., halva & more.