By Tim Franks
BBC News, Jerusalem

WHERE THERE IS HUMMUS, THERE IS RIVALRY

If there is one thing that you can find wherever you go in the Middle East - Jerusalem, Gaza, Beirut or Cairo - it is hummus, that mashed-up festival of chickpeas, olive oil, sesame paste, lemon juice and garlic. It should be touching - a food that unites.

But the Middle East is a place where passions are quick to ignite. And so, where there is hummus, there is also intense rivalry - over who has the best recipe, over who invented it, and over who can make the biggest bowl of it.

Last year, Israeli chefs came up with a huge vat of hummus to coincide with Israeli independence day. This year, Lebanese chefs managed to make a cool two tonnes of the stuff - and in so doing, not just set a new world record, but claimed the invention of hummus for all Lebanese.

THE BEST HUMMUS IN TOWN

Now the Israeli Arab town of Abu Ghosh is preparing to strike back. In six weeks' time, Abu Ghosh is planning to construct a four-tonne bowl of hummus.

Leading the charge is Jawadat Ibrahim, the owner of the Abu Ghosh Restaurant. On the terrace of his establishment, on a warm November morning, he mixed good humour with flashes of steel.

He had seen the news report from Lebanon that not only had chefs there produced their record-breaking vat of hummus, but they had claimed Lebanon as the birthplace of hummus. Mr Ibrahim took issue. "It's not like champagne, or cognac, in France. This is traditional food. I remember my great-grandfather making it. It doesn't belong to just one side."

He dismisses the notion that four tonnes of hummus is a ridiculous amount - it is a "celebration", he insists. And, unsurprisingly, Mr Ibrahim will not be drawn on the secret of what he says is the "best hummus in the world".

"It looks simple," he says. "But it's not simple. You have to make it with love."

It is a winning sentiment, but in Abu Ghosh there has been a danger of the local dish becoming soured by a bitter local rivalry. One Israeli TV channel heard about the town's record-breaking plans. So they phoned the restaurant. The trouble was, they phoned the wrong place - not Abu Ghosh Restaurant, but a restaurant in Abu Ghosh, called Abu Shukri. The TV researcher asked the owner if he was planning to break to the world record for the biggest bowl of hummus. "Sure," replied Abdelrahman Baha.

The Abu Shukri Restaurant is a short walk from the Abu Ghosh Restaurant. It is smaller and more modest. But its ambition is no less large.

"It was our idea, long before the Lebanese, to break the world record," Abdelrahman Baha assured me. "We thought of making a tonne and a half. But during our preparations, the father of Abu Shukri passed away. So we put it to one side, and before we came back to it, the Lebanese had come up with two tonnes."

Mr Baha also insists that, contrary to what I might have heard elsewhere, it is in fact Abu Shukri that makes the best hummus in town, "if not in the country, if not in the world".

But he will not speak quite as lyrically as his rival of what makes it so special. "We're not building an atomic bomb," he points out. "You just have to use the right quantities, and the right ingredients."

Mr Baha says that Abu Shukri is now willing to co-operate with Abu Ghosh Restaurant on the record-breaking attempt.

Mr Ibrahim has a slightly different take, saying the owner of Abu Shukri "phoned to apologise". But he offers a touching conclusion. "This is for the whole village, the whole country, the whole people. People love hummus. They love to live side by side."

So whose is better? In the spirit of selfless research, I tasted both, extensively.

In fact, I consumed two fresh bowls of the stuff, on that bright November morning. They were garnished with fat dollops of warm fava beans. And at the risk of fuelling the hummus wars of Abu Ghosh, I would have to say that Abu Ghosh Restaurant's is sweet and smooth, Abu Shukri's is earthier, but still deeply alluring.

But there again, when it comes to hummus, what would a mere European know?

Reference: news.bbc.co.uk