Cahiers de Hoummous: Hummus in a time of plague

Hummus has weathered three thousand years. And so it is suited for a time of plague. Three thousand years wear away what is not essential. They find what is irreducible. MidLaw will speak of this, in future cantos. MIdLaw will seek bedrock. DISCLAIMER Cahiers de Hoummous is not legal advice, it is not medical advice, […]

Cahiers de Hoummous: Yuletide hummus, a MidLaw tradition

In the spirit of the season, garnish your hummus with a sprig of holly. The dark green leaf, the bright red berry: they rest so well on a rich bed of beige. (Recipe for the beige: The MidLaw Hummus Way.) But do not eat that holly. Remember: Holly is toxic and can cause death to small […]

Cahiers de Hoummous: who originated articles about who originated hummus?

We are at a tipping point in worldwide hummus culture. The number of articles and posts asking who invented hummus has burst through the top. We cannot absorb more  – playing Israel against Lebanon, pitting Lebanon and Israel against Syria, Turkey, Egypt, and Greensboro. The number of these articles and the diminishing returns from reading […]

Cahiers de hoummous: chickpea shortage looming, discipline advised

In the past 10 years, domestic demand for chickpeas in the United States has gone from less than 47,000 tons to nearly 200,000 tons a year. Between 2015 and 2016 alone, demand doubled. From 2016 to 2017, US acreage planted in chickpeas increased by an estimated 86%. In 2017, Americans ate 1.85 pounds of chickpeas […]

Cahiers de Hoummous: Consider the eggplant

MidLaw has railed in the past against the misappropriation of the term “hummus” for non-chickpea purposes. “Pumpkin hummus”, ” butterbean hummus.” Bah! Pumpkus and butterbumkus! Consider the eggplant. For thousands of years, eggplants have provisioned their own dip. Eggplant dip is virtually identical to hummus, differing only by the substitution of eggplant for chickpeas in […]

Cahiers de Hoummous: Dispatches from the field

From the field comes this report: Saturday night we went to this Israeli  restaurant in New Orleans called Shaya. They had asparagus hummus, which was hummus topped with a blob of greengarlic, snap peas, sumac, and cabernet vinaigrette. We also had a cauliflower hummus which had a topping of caramelized onions, parsley and cilantro. And […]

Cahiers de hoummous: dismay at “chickpea hummus” usage prompts wider concerns & reprises old ones

MidLaw’s recent fulmination about “chickpea hummus” brought multiple responses. They ranged from “O tempora! O mores!” to an objection for the record to the employment of the phrase “chai tea” down at Starbucks, another, to “cheese quesadilla,” then, “pizza pie,” to a reference to Vermont Royster‘s war on the word “upcoming” at The Wall Street Journal. […]

Cahiers de hoummous: chickpea hummus?

MidLaw has warned — no, thundered! — that no good can come of using the term “hummus” to denominate dips made of foreign substances.  “Pumpkin hummus,” “beet hummus,” “sweet potato hummus.” Bah! Well, the chicks have come home to roost. MidLaw was at a fancy event in a hotel the other night. Fancy hors-d’oeuvres were served. Each […]

Cahiers de Hoummous: Yuletide hummus, a MidLaw tradition

In the spirit of the season, garnish your hummus with a sprig of holly. The dark green leaf, the bright red berry: they rest so well on a rich bed of beige. (Recipe for the beige: The MidLaw Hummus Way.) But do not eat that holly. Remember: Holly is toxic and can cause death to […]

Cahiers de Hoummous: The BBC leaps into the fray

Apparently, a recent Cahiers de Hoummous post here provoked the BBC. Last week, it published another one of those who-invented-hummus? articles. (For one of the best in the genre, see Church of the Chickpea.) Demonstrating that the author had read that recent MidLaw cahier, the BBC article opened up with the fundamental axiom: “The recipe for hummus b’tahini (as […]