The hummus hostilities are at a stalemate…for now

LUDOVIC AVICE ON UNSPLASH

Eastern Europe’s borscht battles are like the hummus hostilities in the Middle East, the Jollof Rice jousts in West Africa, the Balkans’ ajvar agitation and South America’s pisco provocations.

(Read about Ukraine’s brave and passionate soup soldiers here, here, here and here.)

There was a flurry of frontline moves in the hummus hostilities last decade but since 2017, matters have largely been at a stalemate.

As for the hummus hostilities, they are seemingly a lot less fierce at the moment.

There was a flurry of frontline moves in the last decade but since 2017, matters have largely been at a stalemate.

So, for example, a Google search for news on “hummus” on April 29 yields 815,000 results, most of which are rather anodyne stories, such as “You’ve been eating hummus all wrong — you have to bake it” and “Where to dig into hummus in London”.

Make no mistake though, matters are not resolved.

Who does hummus really belong to?

Lebanon? Israel? Syria? The Turks?

Who invented…