Hummous 2010

January 10, 2010 - 10:52 AM by Jessica

Well, we were there at Friday’s presentation of the largest platter of hummous at the Abu Gosh Restaurant. Jawdat Ibrahim, the restaurant owner — who has earned his own share of fame as the winner of a $17.5 million Illinois state lottery back in 1990 — got some 50 Jewish and Arab chefs to contribute their share of the smooth chickpea spread, and as is his wont, saw it as another kind of coexistence effort.

Along with Jewish businessman David Hochner, CEO of SatLink Communications, which provided the a six-meter satellite dish that served as the receptacle for the four-plus tons of hummous, the pair and various sponsors were seeking to break the current Guiness World Record set in Lebanon.

According to Guinness adjudicator Jack Brookbank who was in Abu Gosh on Friday, the Abu Gosh crowd did set a new record at 4,087.5 kilos (8992.5 pounds) of hummous.

The crowd was jubilant, cheering at Jawdat’s image on the giant screen perched outside the restaurant, and at the series of a local singers and speakers who addressed the crowd in Arabic, Hebrew and English.

As for the hummous, which was decorated by Bezalel art students with the usual accompaniments of olive oil, paprika and zaatar, I was told that no one was going to get to eat it, because the sponsors were fearful that it had been sitting in the sun for too long. But if you were lucky enough — or pushy enough — to get into the restaurant, they were handing out free hummous, and we got ourselves two pints, along with some pitot. Good stuff.

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