I am a hummus consultant
A few weeks ago there was a party at someone’s house. Like most Consulate parties here in Shenyang, the format was pot luck. My contribution was homemade hummus with Uyghur flatbread from a nearby street stand. A quick-and-easy snack.
The Americans at the party recognized it at once, and dove in with relish. It’s hard to find chickpeas here, so I used some that I bought from the U.S. There were several LE Staff at the party too, and apparently they had never seen hummus before. They were interested in it, and after they tried it, there was an animated discussion about how it’s made.
A few days later at the office, I was accosted by two different LE Staff members who demanded that I try their hummus and tell them if they made it right. One person invited me to stick my finger into his bowl of hummus. Another thrust a small jar into my face and demanded to know if she put in the right amount of garlic. “Does this stink enough?” she barked.
Yes, it did stink enough, indeed.