CLASSES HAVE BEEN CANCELED AT HARVARD FOR THE DAY!!!!!!!!!
Yes, I've been basically dancing around in delight since the lovely news was broken last night, when Massachusetts declared a State of Emergency. Okay, so that might not be lovely news, but...this is just like the snow days of childhood! Come on, don't tell me that you're not a little happy if you live in the affected area and have no school/work today?
That's what I thought.
Anyway, isn't it the perfect timing for a little escape? One day may be too short for a real vacation, but it's not too short for a tastebud trip!
I've never been to the Mediterranean, even though I love traveling. I also don't have much experience with Mediterranean cuisine, though I do admit that stuffed grape leaves can be quite nice now and then.
And are falafel Mediterranean? I'm not sure, but they are delicious! Anyway, Mediterranean cuisine has gotten a lot of attention over the years for its healthfulness, but it has just never really appealed to me that much, since I'm not a huge garlic fan.
Hummus is such a great dip, salad topping, or sandwich spread, especially for someone who's stomach doesn't do too well with cheese. But since my taste buds don't do too well with garlic (blech, especially to the mouth odor afterwards), I hadn't found a variety that I really liked.
Oasis makes a variety of Mediterranean food products, including all-natural hommus (does anyone know why it's sometimes spelled with a 'u' and sometimes with an 'o'?).
I got to try three of their flavors - their classic Baba Ghannouj, classic Roasted Red Pepper, and zero fat Mediterranean Medley hommus.
I tried the Baba Ghannouj first. For those of you who aren't as familiar with it, it's an eggplant and chickpea based spread. And the Oasis version is not only free of preservatives and additives, but also gluten-free.
It's creamy and rich, with really strong eggplant flavor.
Some Baba Ghannouj spreads go light on the eggplant and heavy on the chickpeas, so that it's just a lightly eggplant-flavored spread, but this one made it clear that eggplant was the star. Unfortunately (for me) garlic was also one of the stars, so I didn't enjoy it as much as I would have without the garlic. Garlic fans would love it, though!
The Roasted Red Pepper spread was also rich and creamy, with red pepper as the featured flavor (and it was a really great, strong flavor) but the same thing went for the garlic level. There was A LOT of garlic. Garlic is really healthy, but that darn after taste...
And I definitely don't need garlic breath when I'm backstage getting my make-up done this evening (poor makeup artist, right? I wouldn't do that to anyone).
The last one that I tried was the zero fat Mediterranean Medley Hommus, which I was very skeptical of. After all, hommus meant to have a good amount of fat!
If you need to watch your fat intake and you're already getting plenty of fat from other sources, however, this is a good option. They didn't use a fake fat source, but stuck to all natural flavorings like spices to keep it yummy. It's still creamy, but not rich in the way that the other two dips were (as expected, as fat is what lends richness to a dish).
For me, the best thing about this dip was that it wasn't heavily flavored by garlic! Garlic was not nearly as predominant in this hommus as the other two.
There wasn't as much veggie flavor as I would have liked, though, it was mainly just the chickpeas. Perhaps I was just spoiled at that point by the veggielicious intensity of the other two?
With a squirt of mustard (because y'all know I'm addicted) it made a really tasty filling for the groove of a celery stick I found in my chiller. Those ridges are just perfect for filling up with hummus or peanut butter!
Do you like garlic?
Do you spell hummus with a 'u' or an 'o'?
Is there any food aftertaste that you can't stand?
Don't forget to enter my giveaways to win a Ronco Food Dehydrator and to win 3 taster bars of organic, fair-trade Madecasse Chocolate!
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