The Battle For Hummus and Falafel
I remembered this story after a discussion with Forsoothsayer and after watching this video. It’s a personal favorite. Enjoy!
Several months ago, immediately following the summer’s Israel/Lebanon skirmish, I went downtown to meet a Palestinian friend (Shadi) and a Jewish friend (Barry) for lunch. The mere fact that an Egyptian, a Palestinian and a Jew are all friends with each other is entertaining in and of itself but the potential for awkward, sensitive and hilarious (at least for me) exchanges are colossal. It’s a damn shame that a situation like the following hadn’t transpired earlier.
We met on a busy intersection around lunch time with no particular idea where we would eat and as a result we stood around making suggestions for nearly a half hour. Finally me and the Palestinian gave up and conceded to go wherever our Jewish friend wanted to go. To our horror can you guess what he suggested?
The Jew: “Well I know this really good Jewish restaurant nearby that serves authentic Jewish food!”
With our stomachs growling the Palestinian and I agreed and the three of us headed outward on a journey for “authentic Jewish food”. Can you believe that this guy took us to a Jewelry store in the middle of the diamond district!?
Your’s Truly: Hey Barry we really don’t have time to visit your dad at work!
The Jew: “Shut up asshole, the restaurant is here.”
The Palestinian: “Excuse me? Here where?”
I swear to you, this guy took us to a cafe in the back of a huge jewelry store, who would put a cafe inside of a jewelry store? Anyways we approach the counter and begin glancing over the menu, I see……
-Hummus
-Falafel
-Shawarma
-Tabouleh, etc.
You should have seen the look on the Palestinians face, it wasn’t anger it was more like, “seriously, are you kidding me?” I guess we were expecting bagels and gefilte fish, instead we got a collection of foods found on Arab tables for the last 1400 years. I didnt care but Shadi the Palestinian looked mildly irritated.
Without incident we sat down to eat and did the usual, told stories, laughed, made fun of each other, laughed some more and had a generally good time. In the middle of our feast, Barry the Jew starts going on and on about the authenticity of this “typically Jewish food”. I looked over at Shadi and realized it was all he could take, the frustration was welled in his eyes and the excitement was filling in my heart, this is the conflict I had been waiting for all these years! Yes, finally!
Finally Shadi the Palestinian interrupts Barry the Jew in mid sentence while he is talking about hummus. Shadi takes his fist, slams it on the table and yells…
The Palestinian: “God damn you, you son of a bitch! First you steal my country and now my food!”
Possibly the single funniest outburst I have ever witnessed. I laughed so hard I had hummus and falafel lodged in my sinus’s.
It’s amazing how some Jews can’t understand the difference between “Jewish” and “Israeli”… Though it isn’t entirely their fault.
March 13th, 2007 at 7:00 amHa. Great story. And only in good ol’ Chicago, right D.B?
It’s actually an interesting debate. Where did all those delicious foods come from? The history of food is actually a minor fascination of mine.
And a quick glance at wonderful Wikipedia found that Hummus (Levantine Arab) and Tabouleh (Lebanon) may be accurately considered “Arab” but Shawarma is Anatolian (Turkish) and Tamaya/Falafel and Ful Medames are….yep, you guessed it, Egyptian!
From wiki about Tamaya:
Falafel (Hebrew: פלאפל, Arabic: فلافل falaafil (help·info), also known in Egypt and Sudan as ta’meya (طعمية) is a fried ball or patty made from spiced fava beans and/or chickpeas. Originally invented by Egyptian bedouins.
So in regards to the international “Falafel sandwich”…they’re both wrong about its origins. But these new delicious jazzed up versions I get from Old Jeurasalem in Old Town are probably an Israeli/Lebanese improvement, sorta like how Chicago and New York improved on the pizza from Italy.
Food history is so delicious.
March 13th, 2007 at 1:27 pmAbu R and I went to the Holy Land restaurant for shawarma a couple of weeks ago. Here in the Bay Area few Arabs trust anyone but Jews to make their food. They sure don’t trust the Asians, for fear of pork contamination. Anyway the owners are Israeli. They had 2 Palestinians cooking the food for a while, but when we went last time there was a weird looking Asian guy. Everyone here is hiring Mongolians to work in their restaurants. I am not sure why, except that the girls, often waitresses are unbelievably beautiful, a good enough reason. The have cool Russian accents too. If I had a business I’d hire only good looking women, probably Mongolians, also they are very competent, which is rarer for the Bay area. So, back to my long and convoluted story. Abu R and I are sitting there and his Jewish friend walks in with his girlfriend and her Israeli mother. The Jewish guy introduces them to Abu R. The Israeli woman looks a little shocked upon hearing Abu R’s Arabic name. But Abu R’s mom is actually half Syrian Jew. He is Muslim, but because Judaism is matrilineal, he’s a Jew if he wants to be. When we walked up to the cafe, a Jewish hippy chick was eating at the outside tables with her out of control, curly headed kids. At one point one little kid popped his head into the restaurant doorway and yelled, “The food in here is stinky!” So I said, “Yes, but sometimes, stinky food tastes really good!”
March 13th, 2007 at 1:32 pmPete- yes Falafel was created by Egyptians but it spread through the middle east by means of a common culture and language and therefore has been a part of arab countries for a LONG time, so i can undedrstand the Palestinian feeling that Falafel is his own. However Israel hasnt been around too long and I doubt Jews in Europe were eating falafel, they obviously adopted it from the people around them when they began immigrating to the Holy Land. Therefore its no problem if you eat it, but claiming its authentic jewish or even Israeli food is a crazy.
Miss C- You clearly have dynamically different taste then the rest of us but thats ok. If I was stuck in a room with women from all different countries, I think a woman from Mongolia would be my 2nd to last choice. It isnt a coincidence that they call people with downs syndrome mongoloids.
March 13th, 2007 at 2:09 pmTotally agree with you D.B. about falafel not being Israeli, that’s just ridiculous, they may have done a good job of “jazzing” it up but the origins go way back to Pharohnic times…just like so many things, even things most Egyptians aren’t even aware of.
But hey, this should be a uniting thing and not a dividing thing. Who can argue with the “Tamaya?”
March 13th, 2007 at 2:35 pmI don’t care who’s idea it was, falafel are terribly tasteless and Israelis can claim them if they want…but they can’t claim other, better tasting authentic egyptian dishes!
March 13th, 2007 at 2:56 pmwe discussed this? you mean via blog comments?
i think it should be one more dividing thing! as far as i am concerned, culture is a far more valuable commodity than land.
dude, how do u do the delicious bookmark this blog icon at the end?
March 13th, 2007 at 3:23 pmlol yes we discussed through a dialouge of comments back and forth.
Yes agree that culture is a far more valuable commodity and as far as the delicious bookmark thing i will send you an email about it.
March 13th, 2007 at 3:54 pmI don’t think you have seen the Mongolian girls Sho They look like a cross between Russians and Chinese, which makes both races sooo much better. They look like sexy kittens. The men, though, that’s a different story.
March 14th, 2007 at 1:49 pm[…] blogger Whispers of Madness is still laughing at the Falafel and Hummus war going on between his Palestinian and Jewish friends. Amira Al […]
March 14th, 2007 at 4:16 pmInteresting story. Thanks for sharing it with us!
March 14th, 2007 at 4:21 pmNice post, to confirm Miss Carnivorous comment, I remember in Philadelphia all Moslems were buying food with kosher sign on it to be sure their food is Halal!
March 15th, 2007 at 2:17 amOn the other hand, where else in the world will you find a blog totally dedicated to Hummus but in Israel?
http://humus101.com/
If you find one, drop me a line and I will forward it to the blog owner.
March 15th, 2007 at 3:34 amJust found out that the Hummus blog has also an English version
http://humus101.com/EN/
March 15th, 2007 at 4:54 amThe Palestinians have done it again. This time they have kidnapped a BBC journalist. Now how does that help their case , I don’t know , what do they gain by doing this , again I don’t know. What I do know is that they (the Palestinians will never miss a chance to screw themselves.
April 3rd, 2007 at 9:13 amWe have seen them over the years send suicide bombers onto buses while their elected leader (Arafat) was sitting negotiating. Kidnapping aid workers, journalists, setting fire to the British council office and planting a bomb in the Al arabiya office. Now they keep on saying they want the west to help them with their cause !!!! Why would anyone want to help them when they do stupid things like these . The government needs to get a grip on what is happening and the people have to wake up and smell the coffee.
Falafel is 100% arabian palestinian food. Israel start to steal it from arabs.isrealian people had stealed from arabs and they r thinking to prove it as a national isrealinian food while its not !!! the israliean had went to palestine had steal it from the palsestnian and they trying to make it’s their tradtional food!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! its the palestinian arabic food !!!! how we find an isreal falg on that palesrintian arabic food !!! isn’t its enought they stealed the land !!! and now they r trying to steal the palestinian traditional food!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
November 9th, 2007 at 12:55 pmwhere is this place? what is it called? what’s the address?
April 19th, 2008 at 10:38 pm