What's up with the new plague of bean-based paste being pushed as hummus?
Hummus is made with chick peas. Period. If it's not made out of chick peas, it's not hummus and all the fancy descriptions on a menu will not make it hummus.
In the very recent past, The Soup Lady has had several abominations foisted upon her under the guise of hummus, but let me tell you something: chick peas. Get it?
One such concotion was made suspiciously white, tasteless and without body. Since it was found in an Italian restaurant/pizzeria, one suspects that cannelini beans (the veal of the bean world) were the culprit. Heavy on the garlic; light on the bean flavor.
And just this week in a fancy Philadelphia restaurant, the bread was served with an artfully arranged plate of butter and a small pot of orange paste introduced as hummus. Now you know you got trouble when it comes at you all orange. But I tried it because I am nothing if not open-minded. What? Never mind. It could only have been red lentils. I find it very telling that it was pushed upon us as part of the bread service instead of being listed on the menu for a price. I decline to review it except to say that the butter was heavily salted and very tasty.
Let's get with the program here: hummus=chick peas. If you're not using chick peas, just call it bean paste and get it over with.
Comments