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On 12/4/2017 at 2:26 PM, Ericandblueboy said:

Also, is the hummus as good as Zahav's?

I wouldn't count on it, but do you know a hummus I had recently that is really good?

At Me Jana, order the Lamb Shoulder in the Warm Mezza section - it's shredded lamb shoulder served over hummus, and it's wonderful.  Doordash has it, if you don't want to go out.

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1 hour ago, pras said:

Has anyone heard if there are any modern Israeli restaurants planned for the DMV?

This concept of modern Israeli restaurants has always been confusing to me.

Israel is populated by a lot of the former Jewish diaspora from Poland to Russia to Romania to all parts of Europe and Eastern Europe. To me, modern Israeli restaurants serve borscht, chicken soup with matzoh balls, pierogies, gefilte fish, and all manner of Ashkenazi cuisine. Then there was Sephardic cuisine, which is closer to what I think everyone refers to as modern Israeli cuisine, since it has significant Middle Eastern influences, and is therefore more exotic.

So, along comes the concept of modern Israeli cuisine, which fuses Arab Middle Eastern, Ashkenazi, Sephardic, and even Mizrahi cuisine, into a variety of dishes that really look and taste like Middle Eastern food with some Eastern European influences. All of this is a long way of saying that I might enjoy eating at a local version of Zahav if it were to come here, we're really not talking about a whole different category of cuisine. It's mostly Middle Eastern, and we have plenty of good options for Middle Eastern food in our area.

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6 minutes ago, Kibbee Nayee said:

This concept of modern Israeli restaurants has always been confusing to me.

Israel is populated by a lot of the former Jewish diaspora from Poland to Russia to Romania to all parts of Europe and Eastern Europe. To me, modern Israeli restaurants serve borscht, chicken soup with matzoh balls, pierogies, gefilte fish, and all manner of Ashkenazi cuisine. Then there was Ashkenazi cuisine, which is closer to what I think everyone refers to as modern Israeli cuisine, since it has significant Middle Eastern influences, and is therefore more exotic.

So, along comes the concept of modern Israeli cuisine, which fuses Arab Middle Eastern, Ashkenazi, Sephardic, and even Mizrahi cuisine, into a variety of dishes that really look and taste like Middle Eastern food with some Eastern European influences. All of this is a long way of saying that I might enjoy eating at a local version of Zahav if it were to come here, we're really not talking about a whole different category of cuisine. It's mostly Middle Eastern, and we have plenty of good options for Middle Eastern food in our area.

You're side-stepping around the word "fusion." :)

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30 minutes ago, Kibbee Nayee said:

This concept of modern Israeli restaurants has always been confusing to me.

Israel is populated by a lot of the former Jewish diaspora from Poland to Russia to Romania to all parts of Europe and Eastern Europe. To me, modern Israeli restaurants serve borscht, chicken soup with matzoh balls, pierogies, gefilte fish, and all manner of Ashkenazi cuisine. Then there was Ashkenazi cuisine, which is closer to what I think everyone refers to as modern Israeli cuisine, since it has significant Middle Eastern influences, and is therefore more exotic.

So, along comes the concept of modern Israeli cuisine, which fuses Arab Middle Eastern, Ashkenazi, Sephardic, and even Mizrahi cuisine, into a variety of dishes that really look and taste like Middle Eastern food with some Eastern European influences. All of this is a long way of saying that I might enjoy eating at a local version of Zahav if it were to come here, we're really not talking about a whole different category of cuisine. It's mostly Middle Eastern, and we have plenty of good options for Middle Eastern food in our area.

As a side note, I think you meant one link to be "Ashkenazi" and one to be "Jewish".  I think the food of Israel is neither of the two, but it is as Don put it "fusion".  And the fusion really isn't from the Eastern European side of Jewish Cuisine, it is from the Sephardic (literally Spanish, but this is a discussion for another time), side of Judaism.

This article from Thrilist also tends to disagree with you.  I have spent considerable time in Israel, (albeit a long time ago now), and I was never served borscht.  chicken soup, gefilte fish, etc. (which are all dishes my mom can make in her sleep).  In my opinion, Israel has established a cuisine of its own.  It is certainly middle eastern, and borrows from its Sephardic Jewish population, so it is a fusion of Egyptian, Yemini, Syrian, Persian, etc.

And while there are good (and great) Middle Eastern restaurants around here, there is nothing which conjures my memories of eating through Israel.

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Now this is hummus.  I've yet to find hummus this good in the US (Zahav's product is not even close)

And to me Machneyuda would be a Modern Israeli restaurant, or I think they would probably describe it as a Modern Jerusalem restaurant.  We had a fabulous meal at the chef's counter several years ago.  Their sister restaurant, The Palomar, in London is also excellent, although it roams a little further afield with its influences. 

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4 minutes ago, Tweaked said:

Now this is hummus.  I've yet to find hummus this good in the US (Zahav's product is not even close)

And to me Machneyuda would be a Modern Israeli restaurant, or I think they would probably describe it as a Modern Jerusalem restaurant.  We had a fabulous meal at the chef's counter several years ago.  Their sister restaurant, The Palomar, in London is also excellent, although it roams a little further afield with its influences. 

That video made me very hungry.  Nothing like that around here.

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On 12/8/2017 at 9:46 AM, Kibbee Nayee said:

This concept of modern Israeli restaurants has always been confusing to me.

Israel is populated by a lot of the former Jewish diaspora from Poland to Russia to Romania to all parts of Europe and Eastern Europe. To me, modern Israeli restaurants serve borscht, chicken soup with matzoh balls, pierogies, gefilte fish, and all manner of Ashkenazi cuisine. Then there was Sephardic cuisine, which is closer to what I think everyone refers to as modern Israeli cuisine, since it has significant Middle Eastern influences, and is therefore more exotic.

So, along comes the concept of modern Israeli cuisine, which fuses Arab Middle Eastern, Ashkenazi, Sephardic, and even Mizrahi cuisine, into a variety of dishes that really look and taste like Middle Eastern food with some Eastern European influences. All of this is a long way of saying that I might enjoy eating at a local version of Zahav if it were to come here, we're really not talking about a whole different category of cuisine. It's mostly Middle Eastern, and we have plenty of good options for Middle Eastern food in our area.

I like the description above.  Ashkenazi and Sephardic cusines are virtually completely different.  I don't recall hummus at any old ashkenazi traditional dinners, in any environment and I don't recall hummus at typically ashkenazi delli's going back to the 60's or 70's at least.  Maybe it was there.  I simply don't recall it.

I have not been back to Israel in a long time.  When there I ate simply, I don't recall if there were food movements, etc.  Most of what I ate was  middle eastern and if it was particularly Jewish in a context it would have been Sephardic in a more general sense.  

I have some debate with how the term Mizrahi is used above.  I am not an expert on this.  My understanding of Mizrahi is that they are Jews from Arab lands in Asia.  The link also references North African Jews and their foods.  My understanding is that North African Jews fall under the general description of Sephardic and there is another more specific term, Maghrebi.

Maghreb cuisine might be a more specific description for North African styled dishes than Arab Asian cuisine/Mizrahi.

Now as to food, I only bring that up in that for about a decade I was quite friendly with a spectacular cook in the states who was from Israel, but born in Morocco and moved to Israel in his youth.  His cooking was completely based on the spices and foods from Morocco.  He learned to cook from his mother.  We lived in a cul de sac with folks from around the Mediterranean, with specific cooking styles from Morocco, Lebanon, Turkey, and Spain.  We ate and barbecued together a lot.  There were talented cooks among these folks, but this person's cooking was far better than that of anyone else.  Possibly it was the ingredients but I am sure he was significantly more skilled than any of the rest of us.  His meals were superior to those I experienced in Moroccan restaurants.  I would call his style of cooking Maghrebi. 

As to the food movement in Israel; to the extent it combines so many different cultural elements fusion would be a fine general term.

And btw:  That is a terrific hummus video. 

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5 hours ago, Tweaked said:

Now this is hummus.  I've yet to find hummus this good in the US (Zahav's product is not even close)

And to me Machneyuda would be a Modern Israeli restaurant, or I think they would probably describe it as a Modern Jerusalem restaurant.  We had a fabulous meal at the chef's counter several years ago.  Their sister restaurant, The Palomar, in London is also excellent, although it roams a little further afield with its influences. 

Try Perfect Pita.  Not kidding.

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On 12/8/2017 at 4:08 PM, zgast said:

Try Perfect Pita.  Not kidding.

It’s not only good you can get it in a very handy highly  functional 9 oz squeeze top plastic bottle.  

That makes it easy to add to grilled burgers or grilled hot dogs, etc

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On 12/12/2017 at 11:42 PM, DaveO said:

It’s not only good you can get it in a very handy highly  functional 9 oz squeeze top plastic bottle.  

That makes it easy to add to grilled burgers or grilled hot dogs, etc

I'm not sure why but I'm intensely skeptical of a squeeze top bottle.  Does this make me a luddite?

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18 hours ago, zgast said:

I'm not sure why but I'm intensely skeptical of a squeeze top bottle.  Does this make me a luddite?

ha ha.  Dare I say it but I'm something of a Neanderthal.  But when I saw the Perfect Pita squeeze top bottle for their hummus the word "cute" came to mind.  "Cute"  That is repugnant to my Neanderthal nature, but it looked so nice I purchased one.  They are available at their stores and certain markets.

It pours out like a plastic mustard container.  I've now used it on grilled hot dogs and burgers.  I'll try it on other things.  I eat a lot of hummus on pita.  It pours out well on the bread.

Okay.  I sort of love it.  We haven't dated yet. I haven't introduced the hummus squeeze bottle to my family yet.  But we have a "thing".  It works.:wub:

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First off the best hummus is freshly made hummus and it doesn't get any fresher than when you make it yourself. If you have a food processor - it is super easy and quick to make. There are tons of good recipes and it is easy to tweak to your personal taste - add more/less lemon/garlic/cumin/tahini, add herbs, etc.  The longer more complicated recipes like Zahav or Ottolenghi may taste a bit more refined but if you are in a hurry - my tips are: 1) do use fresh lemon juice 2) do use not-dead/old spices but dried are fine 3) use canned chickpeas and don't waste time trying to remove the skins - they taste very similar to soaking dried overnight. This last point is heresy to some but taste them side and side and you'll see the canned ones are a bit less creamy but remember you have hummus in 15 minutes and didn't wait overnight and then cook for the chickpeas for hours. 

That video was cool but it comes down to personal taste - I would never put that parsley in my hummus but I'm sure others love it. 

As for local places, go to Little Sesame - lots of fresh hummus with interesting toppings - it is in the basement of DGS Deli in Dupont. Also, I recently ate a few times at the chain Naf Naf - they do hummus bowls (also off-menu baba ganoush bowls) as an alternative to rice/pita or salad. On a side note they also make great pillowy pita bread in house (similar to the independent and reliable Yafa Grill a few blocks away downtown).  The garlic hummus at the local Lebanese Taverna chain is also rather good. (they also have the my favorite baba ganoush in the area).

I recently attended part of a whole conference at AU on what is Israeli cuisine: http://www.american.edu/cas/israelstudies/cuisine/index.cfm. Answer - no one knows but it is really a blend of mostly middle eastern/north african with some influences from Europe with a twist of kosher laws.  If you want to check out more, watch the Netflix movie In Search of Israeli Cuisine starring Chef Solomonov of Zahav: https://www.netflix.com/title/80172948.  There is a big political/colonialist element to debates on what is Israeli food (not dissimilar to any discussion of Israel). 

If anyone is actually going to Israel and wants to check out the food scene - an old friend and former Washingtonian runs food tours https://www.deliciousisrael.com/ 

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On 12/8/2017 at 4:08 PM, zgast said:

Try Perfect Pita.  Not kidding.

 

On 12/14/2017 at 5:54 PM, KeithA said:

First off the best hummus is freshly made hummus and it doesn't get any fresher than when you make it yourself. If you have a food processor - it is super easy and quick to make. There are tons of good recipes and it is easy to tweak to your personal taste - add more/less lemon/garlic/cumin/tahini, add herbs, etc.  The longer more complicated recipes like Zahav or Ottolenghi may taste a bit more refined but if you are in a hurry - my tips are: 1) do use fresh lemon juice 2) do use not-dead/old spices but dried are fine 3) use canned chickpeas and don't waste time trying to remove the skins - they taste very similar to soaking dried overnight. This last point is heresy to some but taste them side and side and you'll see the canned ones are a bit less creamy but remember you have hummus in 15 minutes and didn't wait overnight and then cook for the chickpeas for hours. 

 

I agree that fresh hummus is excellent hummus.   Regardless I’ve recently been quite lazy and have not made any.

No problem-  Perfect Pita hummus is excellent!!!   Even if not in a squeeze top bottle

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I love the conversation here....

At its essence, hummus combines chickpeas and tahini, which is sesame paste, and fiddles with additions of lemon, garlic, and other spices. No two are alike, but quite a few of them are delicious. 

The concept of hummus fits perfectly with the Middle Eastern mezze, which is a table full of small plates, and fresh from the oven pita bread is used to scoop the various bites from the multiple dishes. Baba ghanouj plays nicely in this arrangement, as do other dips like labneh, and multiple meat stews. 

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6 hours ago, DaveO said:

Stopped by there the other evening.  I'm on a hummus kick.  I'm making my own, taking notes and working on getting a "best in house"  (pfft) version.  My fave in the area is Perfect Pita:  nice quality texture, --love the flavor/ spicing.

You should really try Chloe if you haven't - Haidar has Lebanese blood in him, and it shows in his hummus.

Hummus.jpeg <--- This was as good as it looks.

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