Hummus sandwiches with the works

Apparently, a fun parlor game in Jerusalem is to debate where you can get the best hummus in town. To get our feet wet, we followed a recommendation from our guidebook to a place in the Old City, Abu Shukri.

We were famished, as you can see from my mom's delight in getting our first wave of food. This consisted of fresh pita, sour cream with olive oil, arabic salad, tomato salsa, and mixed pickles. The sour cream presentation was notable. I had never see that combination of sauces together, and it worked surprisingly well. The arabic salad was a bit of a let down as the produce freshness wasn't up to par. The salsa (I'm not really sure if it was salsa, but what else is there to call it?) was tasty and provided a welcome kick.

Our reason for going, the hummus with pine nuts, was quite good. The plethora of pine nuts was a welcome textural contrast and the red ground spice added a heft of flavor. There was a minor skirmish over the hummus as we all scrambled to get our share. I do have to say that it was not the most spectacular hummus of my life, merely rating "very good."

As a counterpoint, we got the fall with hummus. This was...interesting. We could not figure out what the "fall" was. It seemed to be a mix of refried beans, mashed chickpeas, and whole chickpeas, all topped with hummus. Oh, and it was warm. Kinda bizarre, not that tasty.

The final dish was a plate of lamb shawarma. This meat was well seasoned and well cooked, with some crunchy bits and some tender bits.

Indeed, the best part of the meal was when my mom discovered the hummus sandwich, which we made by taking pita, adding hummus, tomato salsa, shawarma, and some sour cream. Wow, I could have had several of these if we didn't run out.