Best hummus in PHL?

[AllisonS]

I've been on a major, major hummus kick for the past several months...where's the best hummus in the city or eastern Montco?

Thanks!

[masonwasp]

I always make a point to stop by Armenian Delight in Broomall, although that may be a hike for you. It has the best hummus around, IMO. It's at the intersection of 320 and Rte. 3.

[mitchh]

Had dinner last night at Chaikana in Blue Bell. Dinner was excellent including their hummus with freshly baked naan. While it may not be as good as Arpeggio's, it's a close second and it's not as garlicy as theirs.

[missclaudy]

Have you considered making your own. It's so easy. Search the chowhound recipe boards, find one you like, buy the readily available ingredients, sharpen up your trigger finger, fill the bowl, push the processor button for a few secs and there you go. Even if you need to buy a processor, you'll save a fortune buying way too expensive hummus and yours will be so much fresher AND you can mess around adding your favorite spices. Hummus is not lobster or foie gras. It's peasant food, a small bunch of simple ingreds which is why it's so good. You'll love youself and your pals will love you too when you make yours better than what you have been buying (it may make take a few trys, all mistakes are edible here,good luck.)

[bemycake]

i agree!! SO easy to make tasty hummus. I feel buying store bought is sooo overpriced now that I make my own! :)

[sockii]

Are there any PHL restaurants that don't load their hummus with raw or roasted garlic?

I love hummus but pretty much have to stick to the storebought brands myself. I have a nasty allergic reaction to garlic if it isn't well-sauteed (or removed from a dish after cooking, kind of impossible with hummus) and just get sick as a dog after eating most restaurant-prepared hummus.

[jaba]

zahav.

[Elaine]

Cedars.

[michyphilly]

I think the best hummus is at the Amenian Delight store on rt. 3 in Broomall. Old school women make it fresh in the back kitchen. Try it you will like it!

[Karen K]

Best from a store: Trader Joe's white bean and basil hummus.

[jl0328]

Highly recommend Apamate's chirizo hummus..just won best of
http://www.cafeapamate.com

[jessicheese]

I've been to banquets at Tangerine on two separate occasions and thought their hummus was out of this world. I'm not sure if the menu version is the same, but it's definitely worth a try.

[heartdoc]

Recently at at Kanella and hummus was good too, but Zahav still beats it, especially with there home made Lavash bread!

[hungry100]

For store bought, Bobbi's can't be beat.

[saturninus]

I am a minority, but I don't like Bobbi's. Way to wet and thin.

[Hansel]

For store-bought I like Bobbi's -- it's almost addicting. It's spicy and flavorful and there are now several different varieties available -- red pepper is very tasty. You can buy it at the Sunday Headhouse farmer's market -- a sample taste is free though it's not cheap to buy.

[mpetr]

I really hate to say this, but addicting as the taste may be, I think Bobbi's hummus is a pretty greedy outfit.

I can't imagine anyone paying that much money for hummus, when the recipe has been duplicated so many times. Heck, I made some in my blender the other day, with a copycat recipe I found on Mother Jones. I mean paying out big dollars for an ice cream cup sized container of hummus is outrageous. Great advertising, and hey...an impressive following...but a ripoff nonetheless. I recognize quality, but the price is downright opportunistic, you know? With big cuts coming down the pike, I'd like to know that my comfort foods aren't going to be the cause of discomfort in the months to come.

[mpetr]

k

[isadorasmama]

We've always enjoyed Aliyan's.

[SpdRcr069]

You are not going to believe this but two middle eastern friends of mine, a Lebanese friend and a Pakistani friend, found Johnny Brenda's hummus to be one of the best served hummus in Philly. Konak's very good too, and course Bitar's is highly recommended, but both actually preferred JBs. I always order it (at JBs) with the grilled octopus or falafel. I also agree that Arpeggio's in Spring House, PA makes a darn good hummus and they have great brick oven pizza's too!

[danny m]

The best hummus can be found in Chester County at Brandywine Prime.... It has just the right amount of lemon and talk about smooth!!!!!! I dont know how they do it. They serve it with pita and grilled shrimp.

[heartdoc]

Zahav is amazing, and great bread to go with it
Second, Dimitris also, terrific

[joypirate]

Sue's produce at 18th and Sansom sells the homemade hummus from Byblos next door. That gets my vote. Short shelf life as it is homemade.

[Chefpaulo]

Why not homemade??? Soak and boil up some dried chick peas. Drain but save about 1/2 cup of the liquid. Dump them in a food processor with a few Tbs of tahini and as much garlic a you can stand. Pulse a few times. Add Tb or two of lemon juice, salt to taste and a pinch or two of oregano or parsley. Cumin if you like. Pulse again. If too thick and pasty, add some of the reserved chick pea liquid. Allow to chill overnight. Serve at room temp with olive oil and warm pita on the side.

Anything done at home these days SAVES GAS!!

[crazyspice]

;-D I hear you on the gas thing! I am so busy right now, I have not seen the inside of my kitchen in weeks. SO, how 'bout you make it sell it to the rest of us! Not to worry about delivery service, be glad to do the drive-thru thing.

[PattiCakes]

Ditto on the homemade. In a pinch, when seized by an uncontrollable hummus craving, you can always use canned garbanzos. The beauty of home made is that it's lots cheaper & you can add all kinds of amazing things to it. The only non-standard ingredient you'll have to keep on hand is tahini. Chick peas do not take long to cook. If you are into chick peas, you can also saute them (already cooked ones, of course) with onions, garlic and a combo of olive oil and buttah. Add a little S & P. Great side dish, and yummy with rice.

After you master hummus, you can move on to baba ganoush [sic]. God, I love those Middle Eastern salads! Anyone have a recipe for the one with carrots?

[Buckethead]

Natural peanut butter (not Jif or whatever) makes a good stand-in for tahini in hummus.

[Chefpaulo]

Do you mean the shredded Moroccan carrot salad? I have no set recipe but wing it often. Shred several carrots. Toss with lemon juice, olive oil, cumin powder, a pinch of sugar, S/P to taste. Throw in some raisins (a mix of brown and golden adds color), toasted sliced almonds, chill a few hours and garnish with lots of chopped parsley.

[PattiCakes]

The salad I had was composed of "carrot coins", but this sounds delicious. Thanks!

[missclaudy]

http://splendidtable.publicradio.org/...

Whats up doc?

[FelafelBoy]

PattiCakes - without using a pressure cooker, how do you figure that chick peas do not take long to cook? Cooking time is 1 to 1 1/2 hours, not including the time it takes to bring water to a boil, which does take considerable time (considering the amount of water in which the chick peas is to be boiled in). The last time I cooked chick peas from scratch, I swore it was the last time I'd do that for homemade hummus, as the whole process took well over two hours. The difference between that and using canned chick peas was not worth the additional time. (Now I have a pressure cooker, which supposedly takes about 14 minutes not including presoaking the night before and a natural release cool down period - I figure the actual pc time from start to taking off the cover would be about 25 to 30 minutes, considerably less time than just boiling them in the conventional way.)

The Sabra brand of hummus has to be among the most beautifully packaged hummus I have ever seen - beautiful swirling design on the top surrounding an interior center of pine nuts and oil and who knows what else that I can't remember! Now, I see that another brand is trying to copy them!!

I still find, pouring a can of drained chick peas, sesame tahini, salt, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, cumin, and some water, blended (and topped with paprika and lemon juice) makes a hummus as good as most store brands (albeit Cedars does it good job on its roasted red pepper, a variety that would take extra work - the plain hummus variety can be done even if one is half asleep!!).

What I like about homemade hummus, besides its affordability and control over ingredients is that I can control the texture - sometimes I want a chunkier texture where some bits of chick peas can still be chewed upon, whereas other times I want a thinner texture. I like being able to add fresh garlic and extra virgin olive oil for health reasons and taste.

Some store brand hummus now uses canola oil. Olive oil is supposedly a healthier oil, and this dish is a great way to get that oil. Some store brands actually use sugar and fillers!!! Horrible!!! Beware of the apparent size of the packaging!! Most have that hole in the bottom center which goes right up into the space of the packaging. While 8 oz. may sound and look like alot, you are lucky if you get two servings out of the package if you are hungry and eating it with one pita bread and salad for a meal.

For convenience, store bought hummus is good, but if you have a little bit of time and money, the best way to go is to make your own or go to any of the restaurants that make it. They know what they are doing better than the rest of us.

[missclaudy]

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Moroccan-Style-Carrots-12173

http://splendidtable.publicradio.org/...

[Boognish]

It doesn't always save gas to make your product at home. Restaurants have the advantage of creating large batches of a product at once which ultimately uses less natural resources than multiple people creating their own individual batches.

Economies of scale and all that.

[oliviasaru]

For store hummus, I LOVE Sun-ni hummus. Unfortunately, I can only get it at Whole Foods and am trying to avoid the place. :(

[Ali]

Saad's at 45th & Walnut is amazing. The hummous is glorious and smooth and is served with warm pita if you eat in the restaurant (~$6/lbs or something equally ridiculous) - I've actually always gotten warm pita, but someone I recently sent there said she didn't. (The babaganoush is also incredibly smooth and lovely.)

[mitchh]

The best hummus that I have had is at Arpeggio in Spring House. Everything else on their menu is great as well.

[crazyspice]

I agree the hummus is wonderful at Arpeggio, but it is also really delicious at Iron Hill in English Village.

[cybermome1207]

I agree..and the baba ghanoush is the best

[GBak504]

the hummus at Caspian Grille in Lafayette Hill is very good. as is their babbaghanoush.

germantown ave.

[juice]

KONAK. Hands down. The bread they serve with it is even better. Go on Tuesday night, most of the menu is offered in sampler size for $2.

Sabra (store brand) garlic is really good although they have jacked the price lately. Cedar's Garlic is pretty good too.

[saturninus]

Restaurant: Dmirti's
Store: Sabra

[Bigley9]

What/where is Sabra? Google will not answer me!

[saturninus]

It's a supermarket hummus - you can find it at some larger supermarkets and even large containers at Costco. Some say it's nothing fancy but I much prefer it's thick, creamy, aromatic taste to smaller local hummus' like Bobbi's.

[Bigley9]

Ah! Thanks

[discndav]

I found Sabra hummus at a deli/store on Chestnut just west of 8th St in Philly.

[sockii]

Sabra is great! It's easily my favorite store-bought hummus. Lots of rich flavor plus there doesn't seem to be raw garlic in it, so I can eat it without setting off my allergies.

[pamd]

FYI....the recipe for Sabra hummus is on topsecretrecipes.com this week!
where do you buy citric acid/sour salt - at a regular grocery store?

oh and the hummus at Kanella was really good!

[kahm]

The only place I have found sour salt is online. King Arthur's catalog has it and by the time you pay shipping and handling it is over $12.00. I heard you can use "real lemon" but again I can't find it anywhere. I think Cost Plus World Markets had it but they closed in town. I found Lime Salt (Limon y Sal) by Morton Salt at Walmart and it does the trick, and is great on other foods also.

[phillybakingqueen]

Fresh Grocer at 40th and Walnut has sour salt/citric acid in small bags on a spice rack in the produce department. I was surprised when I randomly spotted it there last week! It was under $2/bag.

[barryg]

Spice Corner on 9th in Italian Market definitely has it.

Best hummus I've had in town is a draw between Zahav and Shouk. Zahav has better bread, but Shouk can do the hummus with sauteed mushrooms--it's delicious.

[SnappyH]

Second the Dmitri's vote.

[jonnyblueshoes]

I recently had the hummus at Zahav and was very impressed. garlicy and smooth with marinated fava beans on top i believe, and warm freshly made bread to accompany it. I think they have a few other varities available as well. ,

[brightman]

I like Bitar's at 10th and Federal.

[mazza3]

i second that! damm, you may have just forced me to go there for dinner tonight....