Anyone tried hummus? It's mashed chickpeas, blended with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and garlic.

guacamole beats the $hit out of hummus

Great topic! Why? Because me, wife and daughter just had 'hummus' for the first time last week at the renowned Arab (Yemeni) restaurant, RESTORAN SABA (Saba Restaurant), in the sprawling nouvelle city of Cyberjaya just outside of Kuala Lumpur and next to its sister city of Putrajaya.

Actually, I didn't really know what hummus looked like before we went to Saba. I didn't know that it was shaped like a crater with a watery hole in the middle! I was imagining 'hummus' to be a dish of chunky beef or mutton. Gee! When it was served to me in a bowl, I thought the restaurant made a mistake! The bowl was white, and so was the edge of the hummus crater, so I could only see the hole in the middle of the crater since the rest of that hummus was camouflaged by the color of the bowl. My wife and daughter had the same vision too! Then the garcon pointed to the thick white hummus edge, so then only I knew it! But it tasted like some mashed saltless peanut. My wife said it was made of mashed pistachios..

Don't know if I would care for hummus again, tasted bland to me!

Come on, man. You live in Malaysia and don't know what hummus is? You should visit Kuala Lumpur which is more Middle Eastern than the Middle East. In the Golden Triangle, hummus is more common than nasi lemak.

You are probably right! KL is probably very Mid East with more Arabs teeming into the city now. I live in Bangi, closer to Putrajaya than to KL, but still only 30 minutes from KL. But I generally avoid KL, especially the Golden Triangle, unless I need to go there. That place is too congested with foreigners, give me the creeps! Hahaha! Still, I love nasi lemak better than hummus. Some Arabic cuisines are OK though with my taste buds.

Hummus is ok, but not like fantastic to me. It sort of tastes like cardboard.

This looks like something that has to be eaten with three fingers of the right hand.

I would rather have a Bic Mac than a bowl of hummus! As for the nasi lemak in the picture above, most of the time (I'd say over 90% of the time) Malaysians use spoon and fork to eat it. This is strange because most Malaysians, particularly the Malay and Indian ones, prefer using their hands when eating rice. Nasi lemak is a rice dish, the word nasi lemak itself means 'fatty rice', but I can say that nasi lemak is the only rice dish in Malaysia that Malaysians feel uncomfortable to eat with their hands or even three fingers. It's always spoon and fork for nasi lemak! But this 'mat salleh' (white) lady in the pic below obviously feels that it's OK to eat nasi lemak with three fingers! Hahaha!!

they always give some Hummus with my middle eastern box lunch from the deli

kebobs

rice

Hummus

flat bread

middle eastern salad

Hoi! Esfandari. That's not nasi lemak she is eating. She is eating Indian banana leaf rice and the only way to do that is Indian style: all fingers - mash it in the palm of the hand and plop it in your mouth like a kiling.

yes, it's very good. u usually find it in greek, middle-eastern and indian restaurants. i like it with falafels and spanish rice. i like to dip chips with it too.

I love the garlic dips.

yea, love garlic myself. mix in some garlic and olive oil to hummus with a bag of potatoe chips and i'm set.

i like falafels

You are right! It is NASI DAUN PISANG (Banana Leaf Rice), not NASI LEMAK, it was am oversight on my part. I realized that a few days ago and was going to come back to admit my mistake, but you got here first to tell me! Still, I am very right in saying that Malaysians generally don't prefer to eat NASI LEMAK with hands though they prefer to use hands when eating NASI CAMPUR (Mixed Rice). NASI CAMPUR is the regular rice dish eaten as main meals during lunch and dinner if one eats out at restaurants. At home, we may or may not eat rice NASI CAMPUR style. Normally, at home we eat NASI HIDANG (Served Rice), i.e., the LAUK (side dishes) are not served on same plate with NASI PUTIH (white rice) - side dishes will be in different containers served on a table, and one has to spoon out or pick with hands each of the side dishes onto his/her plate of white rice. NASI HIDANG is eaten together with family members.

But just because I make a mistake of presenting Nasi Daun Pisang as Nasi Lemak, doesn't mean my points about Sabah and the Philippines claim on Sabah are also wrong! Hehehe!

NASI CAMPUR (MIXED RICE)


NASI LEMAK


NASI HIDANG

^ man that looks freakin awesome. nasi is indonesian right?

NASI is rice in both Bahasa Malaysia (Malaysian) and Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian), the two languages being variants of Bahasa Melayu (Malay).

I'm not really a fan of hummus, it taste like eating a piece of raw dough.

Hummus is delicious and good for you! Chickpeas are full of protein and fiber and keep you full longer. Also, chickpeas are very low in fat, meaning you can eat a larger amount and it is still healthy! Other ingredients in hummus are also healthy, including olive oil. If you have tried hummus and didn't like it, try making it yourself. It is simple to make and you can add just about anything you want. I made my own hummus not too long ago. I combined chickpeas, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper, black olives, garlic, and feta. Delicious!


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Jayde Miller, Health Insurance Advisor

Usually I don't like saying this about food, but hummus both looks and tastes like $hit!

I love hummus, but usually homemade is better becuase I like a bit more lemon and less olive oil. Garlic is a good addition, though I usually get garlic bagel chips to dip it with instead of adding it in. The idea of adding feta instead of just having it on another plate is something I will try next time.

As for guacamole, yes it's better, when you can get good avacados. Hummus you can make anytime.