Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Download MP3
Israel has taken the upper hand in a different kind of Mideast conflict: using a satellite dish from a nearby broadcast station, cooks in a town near Jerusalem whipped up more than four metric tons of hummus, the chickpea paste that is a staple for many in the region. The cooks doubled the previous record for the world’s biggest serving of hummus, set in October by cooks in Lebanon. That record broke an earlier Israeli record and briefly put Lebanon ahead. Aaron Schachter has more.
(Photo: Alessio Romenzi/AFP/Getty Images)
Read the Transcript
This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.
JEB SHARP: Israelis and Lebanese are engaged in competition. It’s about hummus, namely, who can make the biggest plate of the stuff. A few months back we reported on Lebanon’s salvo. Well today, an Israeli Arab restaurant owner mashed up four tons of hummus, a new world’s record. The World’s Aaron Schachter has this update.
AARON SCHACHTER: Today’s event began simply enough.
ANNOUNCER: For the thousands in attendance and the millions watching around the world, ladies and gentlemen, let’s get ready to rumble!.
SCHACHTER: Well, okay, maybe not like that. But this was something of a grudge match. Here’s the back story: last year, Israeli chefs created a huge vat of hummus on Israeli Independence Day. Lebanese chefs responded by whipping up a two-ton bowl of the stuff, setting a new world record. And they claimed that Lebanese invented hummus. Jawdat Ibrahim, owner of the Abu Ghosh Restaurant outside Jerusalem, says he saw that as a challenge. Hummus, he says, is everyone’s food.
JAWDAT IBRAHIM: Lebanese hummus is good, Lebanese food excellent. But like soccer, when you play soccer or football, someone has to win. It’s fun. We have to show who’s the best; not just who’s the biggest but who’s the best.
SCHACHTER: Ibrahim’s four-ton bowl of hummus was created today by fifty chefs and served from a satellite dish about the size of a backyard jacuzzi. Hummus is enjoyed by rich and poor; Muslims, Jews and Christians, and by Israelis and Palestinians. It’s a simple dish of chickpeas , sesame paste, olive oil, lemon juice, and garlic, but it stirs passion and rivalries across much of the Middle East. For the moment, Arab-Israeli Jawdat Ibrahim has the upper hand. Ibrahim’s bowl today was the biggest ever. This is Guinness judge, Jack Brookbank.
JACK BROOKBANK: It gives me great pleasure to award a new Guinness world record.
SCHACHTER: But it seems Lebanon isn’t taking Jawdat Ibrahim’s challenge lying down. Brookbank says he’s already heard rumblings.
BROOKBANK: Somebody did say to me about an hour or two ago that the Lebanese had already had word of this event and are already planning a counterattack. I think this will be an ongoing battle. This is a very interesting situation we have here.
SCHACHTER: Whether or not Lebanon will seek to reclaim the title for the biggest bowl of hummus, Ibrahim says one thing isn’t in contention: who makes the best hummus.
IBRAHIM: You been here and you tried and you know our hummus. It’s very tasty and it’s very good.
SCHACHTER: Yeah, I’m not getting in the middle of that fight. For The World, I’m Aaron Schachter, in Jerusalem.
SHARP: You can see photos of that record breaking hummus at The World dot org.
Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.
Discussion
No comments for “Another hummus record”