For the Love of Hummus

Delicious, delicious hummus.

Monday, November 29, 2010

Ariella's Visiting! Quick! Hide the cigarettes in the cat baby by the fridge next to the vodka condoms

Well shalom, shalom. We miss y'all and we know you miss the hummus, so here we are.

Since we last left off, dear readers, Rachel and Dafna had just returned from Nahariya, city for fun lovers. Many amazing things have happened since then, and you probably want to know about them, yes? Where to even start?

To celebrate the first weekend of October, Rachel, Dafna and Dafna's fantastic roommate, Jessica, ventured a little journey up to Ramat HaGolan, near the Syrian border, to see some nature! And boy was there nature.






There have been concerts:

(Marsh Dondurma, this fun brass band (See Rachel's article here.)
http://blog.omanoot.com/the-peoples-band#more-2397

And sports:

(Hapoel Yerushalayim basketball with PJ, Dafna's neighbor and the nicest guy alive)

Go Randall!

And of course, hummus:

(From Rachmo, a cafeteria-style restaurant right outside the Iraqi Shuk, and Ha'Agas, a little organic place in the shuk)


Rachmo intentionally has some of the lowest prices in Jerusalem. We've heard also that if you don't have money they will just feed you. Nice.

Agas (Pear). We tried the hot pear cider, hummus and red lentil soup:

Both Rachmo and Agas serve hummus that can be characterized as Jerusalem hummus. I can't believe we sort of know what that means now. It's gritty and earthy, well flavored with a hint of lemon.



We had some not so great hummus at another place at the end the Iraqi shuk. It was incredibly crowded so we assumed it would be good. Everyone working there looked alike. One big happy mizrahi family. The people-watching was phenomenal but the hummus was too creamy and lacked flavor.

We had a beautiful Thanksgiving at Rachel's apartment with some great company:

In other cultural news, thanks to Dafna's internship at the Jerusalem Cinematheque, we saw several hundred movies at the International Jewish Film Festival, like Mary and Max the sweetest, saddest movie you'll ever see.

Rachel and Leah Zeff braved a 2 hour movie about Otto Frank in German and French with Hebrew subtitles.

What's new in Jerusalem, you ask? Plenty, we say. Rachel is knee-deep in her Master's work, learning how to manage conflicts like a champion (in HEBREW, it must be noted.) Dafna has language envy. But you know what Dafna has right now? Her parents are visiting! She is looking forward to spending Shabbat with them in Tel Aviv. Not to mention Dafna's sababa, 100 achuz sister Ariella is arriving shortly. New Years/Silvester will be one for the books. Rachel is excited that Rabbi Susan Elizabeth Lippe of Austin, Texas is visiting soon. There's talk of eating pomelos at Kibbutz Yahel. 'Tis the season!

Rachel just started working for Masa doing "hasbara" (PR) for taglit groups. She gets to wear a cool white collar shirt and visit hotels in East Jerusalem. When Rachel starts working for the Academy of Hebrew Language "Litaglet" (to taglit) will be added as a verb.

Sad news: It's been 7 days and 3.5 hours since Dafna and Rachel stopped eating bread and pasta. That means no pita! They're finding substitutes though. Yesterday Rachel and a friend went to hummus ben sira (see earlier post) and shared some hummus ful with rice. Also, there's peanut sauce. Gallons of it. And delicious, undercooked tofu. And healthy brown rice and barley. HELP I'M STARVING.

We're going to try to crash an interview/concert tonight...for our own safety we'll only blog about it after if we succeed.

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for the shout outs, ladies. Can't wait to see you in like, a week! And there had better be some copious amounts of hummus action.

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  2. You're adorable. Where were you doing aquatic push-ups?

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  3. Hello from Seattle. I'm here at Technology Boot Camp for Jewish Educators. I just wanted to chime in: Last Tuesday, at our adult intro to Judaism class, Sarah and I made a 3 chummous taste test of 3 locally made Austinite chummous entries with "pita chips," tortilla chips, and carrots. The sad thing is - none of them were good. One tasted like lemony AIR. One tasted like smoked salmon. And one tasted like garlicky mortar. Sadly, it's all about Sabra here. Just thought you'd want to know I strive to participate in the chummous quest from home.

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  4. Right on, S! Keep up the good fight. I hope for good hummus tastings in your near future.

    Betsy, I was doing aquatic push-ups at Tel Dan!

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