Advertising by the hummus orthodoxy
Friday 23 May 2014
Link: Big Hummus wants the government to regulate your hummus
My dad shared this article on facebook and I thought it was pretty amusing. Apparently the company Sabra Hummus wants to regulate what is defined as "hummus". They propose that hummus should be legally defined as a food made mostly of chickpeas and tahini (sesame butter), with tahini making up at least 5% of the hummus by weight. They are outraged by hummus impostures who sell "hummus" made of lentils or edamame (soy beans) or who don't include tahini as an ingredient. I'm not sure that I'm such a hummus purist as Sabra. I don't mind creative twists on classic hummus; I think they can often be tasty. What do you think? Are you a hummus conservative or a hummus liberal? Is it false advertisment/cultural appropriation to call, say, lentil "hummus", hummus?
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Being born in Lebanon, I am 100% a 'hummus' conservative. Creative twists are definitely great, however still calling it 'Hummus' is unacceptable. I understand where they are coming from. My grandma would definitely call this blasphemy. I had encountered something similar to this story when one of my friends who lives in France told me that what she knows as Taboule is very different than the one I know. Her Taboule was some sort of couscous and parsely mix. I thought that was outrageous. 'Hummus' is chickpeas and Tahini. 'Taboule' has no couscous ingredient whatsoever.
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