Chummus: New Fad Food

Posted on April 15, 2012 by Angela Yuriko Smith

 

Mmmmmmm.... is that chummus?

 

Today I started a new fad food at work.

I work as an Event Specialist for a marketing company. I perform demonstrations for new products to educate the general public about them. In regular English: I pass out free samples at Sam’s Club.

I love the job because I get paid to chat with my friends and feed them. I also have the opportunity to define and create trends, and the trend of the day is what I affectionately call “Chummus”.

Chummus, like ice cream cones and Bourbon, was a happy accident. I was serving out hummus, Provolone cheese and chicken lunchmeat. I ran out of chicken within the hour and was left serving cheese and hummus in a small cup. Then we ran low on cups.

I started passing out triangles of Provolone with dabs of hummus on them and the first recipients were not pleased. “You can’t serve hummus on cheese!” came a complaint. That sounded like a challenge to me and I started talking up the benefits of my amazing new snack.

“Hummus makes a fabulous healthy sandwich spread,” I’d start off. “High in fiber and protein, it makes a satisfying snack. Today I am serving it on cheese instead of crackers because so many of us are moving away from our gluten heavy diets and trying to introduce more protein in our diets. Cheese is a wonderful alternative to wheat and grain snack bases.”

Eyes would light up as the recipients of my speech would look interestedly at my unusual snack. Just about everyone agreed that eating cheese instead of crackers was better. Many people made sure to take home the hummus and Provolone so they could make the snack at home. My favorite was a woman who agreed with me wholeheartedly and swore she had been served hummus on provolone “just like that” at a party last weekend.

The point of my story isn’t to promote eating chummus but to illustrate how easily we are influenced by trends. Because I said it was a good snack with authority the majority of visitors agreed with me and jumped on board to promote the amazing combination to their friends. I’m sure if I had been on the other end I too would have been impressed by hummus on cheese.

As easily influenced as we are, apparently names are equally important. No one wanted to try my sample when I introduced it as “chummus”, only when I asked if they would like hummus on provolone. Shakespeare’s observation on roses by any other name may sound romantic but in reality it seems off. Chummus, Heese and Chmeese didn’t whet appetites like elegant sounding “roasted red sweet pepper humus on a quarter slice of provolone”.

So watch out at your next party… you may very well find hummus being served on slices of cheese instead of crackers or pita bread. Just don’t call it chummus unless you want the tray to yourself.