"give chickpeas a chance."

The new Lebanese Guinness record and how it made me famous

Many journalists, Israeli and from abroad, has contacted me lately, asking questions about the so called “Hummus War” I’ve been covering here, and also in the highly popular Hebrew edition of the blog. And when the new Lebanese Guinness Record (a 2-ton hummus plate) was declared the flow of attention doubled.

Some of you probably wondered what I have to say about the new hummus guinness record, set by 300 Lebanese chefs. WELL, the first thing that pops in mind is this: never have so many did so much for The Hummus Blog.

In the past two weeks search traffic to this blog went through the roof, with blogs as well as large news sites linking to it from all over the world.

Ynet, the largest news site in Israel asked for a special column. Other local newspapers and radio stations interviewed or asked me to comment about the matter. Some foreign journalists also called me, including French24, and a BBC reporter who, sadly, tried to reach me in the middle of a rock concert.

So what do I think about the new record?

Since writing in English is not as trivial for me is it is to write in my mother tongue, I would like to quote here my writen answer to Mr. Zhangle, a Chinese journalist based in Beijing, to whom I gave a relatively thorough answer.

“Above anything else, I’m very impressed with the new record from Beirut, and would like to use this opportunity to congratulate the Lebanese chefs for a job well done!

I hope other attempts will be made to break this new record, because the bottom line is that such acts help to spread the word about hummus – which as some wise friend once told me, is god’s gift to the poor. This friend (who owns a great hummus place in Jaffa) is Muslim and I am Jewish, but we share the same love for god and the same love for this godly dish.

I tasted Lebanese hummus a few times while touring in Europe and liked it very much. I hope in the future we’ll have peace and I could eat hummus in Beirut and Damascus too. But so far, and from what I tasted, I still believe our Palestinian brothers make the best hummus in the world.

[About the Lebanese claim of ownership over hummus:] I’m not a lawyer, but I doubt it if there’s a case here. First, If Israelis make hummus and sell it, under what name should they do so other than “hummus”? Second, there’s nothing to support the claim that hummus was invented by Lebanese. Hummus is also eaten by Palestinians, Syrians, Jordanian and other Arab peoples. It’s a folk-song that is sung in many countries and which origin is unknown.

Personally, I think that the idea of someone having ownership over an ancient dish like hummus is a bit strange. Who’s the owner of bread? Who owns butter? Who’s the inventor of the steak? Hummus is no-less important in the Middle-East, culturally, collinearly and nutritionally.

And one last personal note: we have many problems in the Middle East. The ongoing conflict is a terrible thing, that already shattered the life of numerous people. I hope Israeli and Lebanese leaders, and the leaders of other countries in the region, will be wise enough to end it soon. I also hope that less people would drag their politics into their hummus.

This alleged ‘hummus war’ is certainly one of the nicest wars we have in the region. Let’s hope all our future wars will be of the same kind.

best regards,
S.G. The Hummus Blog, Israel”

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"give chickpeas a chance."

The world's largest plate of hummus weighs 11.5 tons and was created Saturday by 300 Lebanese chefs

(CNN) -- Lebanon set a record for the largest plate of hummus Saturday in the continuing gastronomic war with Israel over the regional delicacy.

The war has played out publicly for years with two sides outdoing each other for the title of world's best or world's largest hummus dish.

On Saturday, about 300 Lebanese chefs in the village of al-Fanar -- about 8 km (5 miles) east of Beirut -- lay claim to the latter title with a dish that weighed 11.5 tons. That's 23,042 pounds or 10,452 kg.

The achievement more than doubled the previous record -- set in January in the Arab-Israeli village of Abu Gosh.

The January dish weighed in at more than 4 tons -- the same as four average family cars.

Local media said a Guinness Book of World Record representative certified the results Saturday.

The Lebanese chefs used 8 tons of boiled hummus, 2 tons of tahini, 2 tons of lemon juice and 154 lbs (70 kg) of olive oil for their dish, local media said.

Hummus, a regional delicacy, made of chickpeas, sesame paste and garlic, among other ingredients, is loved equally by Arabs, Jews and Christians living in the Middle East.

Yet, in spite of their shared appreciation, the origin of the dish is a source of heated debate with the Lebanese claiming ownership and Israelis denying that they have exclusive rights to the name.

Lebanon has been seeking approval from the European Union to register hummus as a national dish.

"What we have been trying to do is just what the Greeks have done with feta cheese," said Fadi Abboud, president of The Association of Lebanese Industrialists, in January.

In 2002, the European Commission gave Greece a "protected designation of origin" right to the name "feta," for the white sheep and goat's milk cheese made there. Similar cheeses from outside the country must use terms like "Greek-style cheese".

Abboud maintains that Israeli companies are depriving Lebanese companies of huge potential earnings by exporting hummus made using traditional Lebanese recipes.

The Israelis see things differently.

"Trying to make a copyright claim over hummus is like claiming for the rights to bread or wine," said Shooky Galili, an Israeli whose blog, dedicated to all things hummus, bears the credo "give chickpeas a chance."

"Hummus is a centuries old Arab dish -- nobody owns it, it belongs to the region," said Galili, who believes the rivalry is about control over the hummus market. Globally, the market is worth $1 billion, according to Abboud.

However, Galili is hopeful that the so-called "hummus war" will be beneficial for relations in the long run.

"If you enter any good hummus restaurant in this region, you will see Jews and Muslims, Palestinians and Israelis sitting at the same table, eating the same food. I think in the end this rivalry will show that we in the Middle East have far more in common than the things that divide us."

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Psychological Warfare

13/05/2010

By Muhammad Diyab

Israel always succeeds in dragging us away from core issues to be preoccupied by marginal ones, such as the "hummus" or "falafel" war that is currently raging between Lebanese chefs and the Israeli intelligence's psychological warfare department. This is because I doubt that Israeli chefs are responsible for their rivalry with us over cooking the largest falafel dish or fighting over the origin of "hummus" but rather this is a game to drag us to marginal issues and deflect our attention away from what is happening in the major arena.

As Arabs, why are we concerned with competing with Israel on issues such as "hummus" and "falafel" whilst ignoring competition in the fields of industry, scientific research, educational and military excellence, and other fields that should be a priority in the competition between us and the Israelis?

If the issue was limited to the origin of dishes like "hummus" or "falafel" or "tabbouleh" or "fattoush" than things would be much simpler, however what is more dangerous than this is that we are more concerned with recovering these dishes than we are towards recovering Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, the Shebaa Farms, and other occupied lands. The reality is that these dishes will always be ours, and it does not matter what the Guinness Book of World Records says for we live on "hummus" and "falafel" and "Ful Medames" [Fava beans] and other such dishes.

Our story of being concerned with marginal issues at the expense of core issues, resembles the old joke "they stole the safe, Abu Lama, but don't worry, the key is with me!"

This is close to the story of a sick man who was given instructions on how to make a potion that could cure any infirmary. The man put these instructions in his pocket and went out to buy the ingredients required to make this, and these included cumin, ginseng, honey lotus, and other ingredients which he wrapped up safely in a package. However just as the man was returning home to make this potion a crow snatched this package from him and flew away. The man began to laugh hysterically imagining the crow's disappointment at not finding instructions on what to do with these ingredients.

There can be no doubt that Israel is carrying out a psychological war in order to confuse and embarrass us and preoccupy us with marginal issues. This psychological war even saw a singer named Raheela appearing [on Arab television] to sing Arabic songs like "Ya Tayeb al-Qalb" and "Tizkar" and others. However after we took the bait and met her, she appeared on Israeli television speaking Hebrew, with the Israeli broadcaster gleefully announcing that Raheela was appearing from Tel Aviv.

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See:- http://urlshort.me/1u6 and http://urlshort.me/1u7

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