Israel :: There's a HUMMUS among us!

One of my favorite parts of Israel was the food! It was gloriously tasty :D

My friend Danielle and I arrived in Israel roughly 5 days before our "official tour" started, and on our first day in Jaffa, we went on a search for what the Lonely Planet called "the best Hummus in Israel." We considered this a very high proclamation for Hummus and decided that we must see if it was true.

After much weaving and winding (we thought we'd take a "short-cut" and I think it ended up being a "long-cut"), and after much confusion over street names (the Lonely Planet would say Dolphin Street, and the actual street name would look something like akdaulfeen street) We finally found the tiny little corner restaurant with a busy flurry of locals waiting outside. After a short wait, we found two seats open at a rectangular table where five people were already sitting happily eating. [This part reminded me of China, where it doesn't matter if you know people or not, if there's a seat open at your table, someone might get sat there! I was glad to already be familiar with the practice of squishing in next to a table full of strangers... haha]

Looking around the small restaurant, it seemed to have a very short menu as everyone appeared to be eating the same exact thing. So, we went with the flow and moments later the best hummus in all of Israel appeared. Our meal consisted of what's seen in the picture above: two different styles of hummus, a plate of bread, and the somewhat unusually bet even more unusually tasty part: sliced onion and an olive oil sauce to dip it in.

Danielle and I dug in. Thoroughly enjoying what would be the best hummus of our entire trip, even if maybe my taste buds are too "low" to really be able to tell the difference.

At one point in our conversation the people that we shared the table with said "you're lucky, your first day in Israel and you've found the best Hummus anywhere!" So the Lonely Planet wasn't joking, even the locals flocked here for lunch.

To my great joy, upon returning to Shanghai, I realized that the Israeli Ministry for Foreign Affairs has a whole slew of "typical" Israeli food recipes on their site. I've cooked my way through almost a dozen of them, and have been happily fulfilled each time. Along with the hummus, I highly recommend the: shakshouka, the baba ghanouj, and the falafel .... to start :D