Hey, food fans! Welcome back to Dish of the Week. Every seven days the SPM staff scours the city looking for the best examples of a given dish, which our intrepid tasters will then taste, rate and report back. We’ll let you know which burrito you should eat-o, which pizza pie catches our eye, which hamburger makes us say “DAMN!…burger.” We go through the process of finding the town’s best food so you won’t have to. What can we say? We’re givers.
The Levant region of the Middle East covers the area of Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Northern Iraq, Southern Turkey, and the Palestinian Territories. Though the area’s popularity as a vacation spot has been dwindling in the past decade, demand for their cuisine has not. Levantine cooks have given America distinctive dishes such as baba ghanoush, kebap and tabbouleh, but the most beloved is our dish of the week: hummus.
Hummus (also spelled hamos, houmous, hommos, hommus, hummos, hummous or humus) is actually a translation of the Arabic word for chickpea. The dish into which hungry eaters so readily dip their flatbread is properly referred to as hummus bi tahini (chickpeas with sesame). It’s a dip made from mashed chickpeas and blended with tahini (a paste made from ground sesame seeds), olive oil, lemon juice, salt and garlic. These ingredients ensure most hummus is packed with protein, fiber, iron and other vitamins, making it very useful in vegetarian and vegan diets.
While historians say that chickpeas were cultivated around 7,000 years ago in the Middle East, when man first discovered he could turn them into hummus is unclear. One of the earliest verifiable descriptions of hummus as we know it comes from 18th-century Damascus. However, many cookbooks repeat a legend that the dish was first prepared in the 12th-century by Saladin, a Kurdish Muslim who became the sultan of Egypt and Syria.
Now for a juicy bit of controversy: In October 2008 the Association of Lebanese Industrialists requested that the European Commission grant hummus protected status as a uniquely Lebanese food, since many Lebanese food leaders claim that Israel has been “stealing” their country’s national dishes—like hummus, falafel, tabbouleh and baba ghanoush—for years. Scandalous.
For our tasting, we chose four of Tempe’s most popular hummus hawkers and asked them to each give us a serving of their best. Opa!
The Contenders
Haji Baba Middle Eastern Food – Hamos: This one came topped with a small pool of olive oil along with a pickle slice and a single olive, all sprinkled with paprika.
Pita Jungle – Hummus: A chickpea puree with tahini sauce, seasoned with fresh garlic and lemon juice. Classic ingredients, classic flavor.
The Barrett Honors College Dining Hall – Plain Hummus(?): Buffet-style hummus, hmm? The bowl of stuff we swiped from Barret certainly looked unappetizing—like dry oatmeal, one judge noted — but it’s provided by Aramark, the company that stocks all of ASU’s dining halls, so we assume it’s at least edible.
My Big Fat Greek Restaurant – Village Hummus: a blend of chickpeas, tahini, green bell peppers, cucumbers and jalepenos. Spicy!
The Tasting
We placed each batch of hummus in a box and allowed our judges a serving of pita bread to perform a blind tasting. Offerings were judged based on presentation, texture and overall taste and given a score of 1-10, 10 being the highest. Here’s a sample of our notes:
Haji Baba: “A lot more bland than I thought it would be. I was expecting spicy greatness.” “Good flavor, and most important, looks edible.”
Presentation: 6.7
Texture: 6.2
Taste: 7
Pita Jungle: “Nom! Sexy Greek men eat this.” “Eating this will make you believe you can go vegetarian.”
Presentation: 8.7
Texture: 8.7
Taste: 8
Barrett: “Just looking at it makes me sick, but not terrible tasting.” “Tastes like a yeasty, doughy mess.”
Presentation: 1.3 (Our lowest score ever!)
Texture: 4
Taste: 3.8
My Big Fat Greek: “Grinch!” “Spicy with a bit of cilantro. Makes my taste buds tingle.”
Presentation: 5.3
Texture: 6.8
Taste: 5.7
The Results
First Place: Pita Jungle
Second Place: Haji Baba
Third Place: My Big Fat Greek
Fourth Place: The Barrett Honors College Dining Hall
The Final Verdict
Pita Jungle’s creaminess and solid flavor allowed it to just beat out the hummus of Haji Baba, while My Big Fat Greek was undoubtedly hurt by its poor presentation and Barrett reached epic new score lows.
However, the carnivores among the judges were surprised that something without meat could be so tasty. We’ll definitely be trying more hummus the next time we get the chance. Though it won’t be from the honors college. And it will be followed by meat. Probably hot dogs.
Contact the reporter at Zach.Fowle@asu.edu
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