Hummusgirl's Blog

Yeah, so I’m sick of Lansdale, PA. So I started to dream and since I’m into all things hummus and my Mediterranean restaurant friends are from Lebanon, I started to think that Beirut would be the place to go. 

Maybe all those newspaper articles about the Iraq War have gotten to me because I read and care more about the Middle East now then when Bush was in office.  Beirut, Lebanon is known as the Paris of the Middle East, according to Wadih of Oasis.  However, like Iraq, they had some troubles, particularly a civil war from 1982 to 1990. 

However, I still want to go to Beirut because not only did The New York Times rate it as the top place to visit in 2009, but Beirut now has a redesigned city center, marina, pubs, nightlife districts, and also hundreds of art galleries. 

Maybe, dreamer that I am, I could go to the Middle East! I just applied to the tourism job sight, so who knows, I could be there next summer!

Since I’m obsessed with chickpeas, I had to make the unhealthy food, falafel, out of it at least once.  It’s amazing to me that we have all this fast food here, but yet don’t take advantage of the deep fried falafel.  And yet hummus is gaining in popularity as evidence by the attention it gets in magazines, stores (such as Whole Foods), and displays. 

So falafel is historically an Egyptian dish and I just happened to sign up for a Save the Children child from there so I have my connections.  Wikipedia says that falafel’s origins are controversial, which may be because food is such a big deal to them (just a guess).

But to make the falafel, I soaked the chickpeas for over 12 hours, then added tahini, lemon juice, water, onions, and a bunch of spices. Because mine seemed too watery (I think I added too much lemon juice, I added what felt like a cup of flour (supposed to be 2 Tb).  So I fried them in vegetable oil and ate them with drizzles of tahini and some tomatoes and all was well.