Published: 28 July 2020
Last updated: 5 March 2024
THE BOOK On the Hummus Route begins with an antique-style map of the road taken by the chickpea paste. A simple dish, nonetheless its path has been convoluted. Hummus meandered between Egypt and Gaza, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Acre, continuing onward to Damascus. One might wonder how much there is to say about this utterly simple Middle Eastern staple.
But the deeper one gets into the book the more the plot thickens and the journey along the hummus route, a contrivance invented by the authors, does not bore.
The book is the impressive creation of Ariel Rosenthal, owner of Falafel Hakosem in Tel Aviv; food researcher Orly Peli-Bronshtein, who has a dozen cookbooks to her name; and Dan Alexander, a well-known designer who moved to France some years ago.
The book has 408 large-formatted pages and a golden-hued cover bearing the word “hummus” in Arabic, English and Hebrew.
It contains hundreds of high-quality and wonderful photos, texts written by dozens of writers, and 70 recipes that include hummus as an ingredient. Yet it defies categorisation.
It’s somewhere between an art book and an anthropological treatise, a cross between a book of travels in the Middle East and a cookbook. One could not imagine a wider disparity between a serving of cheap, simple hummus and this book.
Published a year ago by Magica, the book was an instant hit and was awarded, among other prizes, the “Oscar” of the genre: the Gourmand Award, in March. The New York Times showered it with praise. Even the pope (I swear) appears on the communiqué that accompanies the book, blessing its message of spreading human ties and fraternity around the world.
FULL STORY Acclaimed hummus book 'will never come out in Hebrew, the language of the occupation' (Haaretz)
Photo: A waiter serving hummus in Gaza (Mohammed Asad)
