Beyond Hummus: Palestinians Cook up New Food Trends

A cook prepares to serve plates of hummus and fava beans at a restaurant in the Old City of Jerusalem AHMAD GHARABLI AFP
A cook prepares to serve plates of hummus and fava beans at a restaurant in the Old City of Jerusalem AHMAD GHARABLI AFP
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Beyond Hummus: Palestinians Cook up New Food Trends

A cook prepares to serve plates of hummus and fava beans at a restaurant in the Old City of Jerusalem AHMAD GHARABLI AFP
A cook prepares to serve plates of hummus and fava beans at a restaurant in the Old City of Jerusalem AHMAD GHARABLI AFP

From the ancient alleys of Jerusalem's Old City to kitchens around the world, Palestinians are stirring new trends in cooking while abiding by traditions.

The trend has whipped up a growing appetite for specialized books and food tours.

"It's changing for the better, I think. Many Palestinians are keen on promoting their foods," said Nassar Odeh, as oven aromas wafted over a Jerusalem street.

The Palestinian entrepreneur has spent the past few months watching gourmands drift in and out of his new eatery, Taboon, named after the traditional clay oven.

Customers are tucking into dishes such as Armenian lahmajoon, a thin pizza with ground meat and spices which Odeh remembers being sold to hungry crowds in the Old City decades earlier.

"Armenian dishes are part of the Palestinian culture," AFP quoted Odeh.

"This is extremely important because this emphasizes the Palestinian presence and the entrepreneurship," he said. "We need to be proud of our products."

Opened last year in what was once the family's souvenir store, Taboon is part of a string of new Palestinian bars, cafes and restaurants.

Beyond those within the Old City walls, they have sprung up in other areas of annexed east Jerusalem such as the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, or further afield in Ramallah in the West Bank.

They range from a fine dining experience to fusion menus, blending Palestinian ingredients with European dishes, according to Izzeldin Bukhari, who runs Jerusalem food tours and cooking classes.

"It's a great start; we're really in the beginning," said Bukhari, who plans to offer consulting services to business owners wanting to revitalize their restaurants.

"Everyone was doing kind of the same thing, but lately I see people stepping up and doing a new concept, new ideas," he said.

Showcasing the breadth of Palestinian dishes and produce remains central for Dalia Dabdoub, who manages Taboon and owns bars in the West Bank cities of Bethlehem and Jericho.

"We want to change the industry, in doing more food that people don't know," she said.

A variety of aubergines renowned locally which come from Battir, a village in the Bethlehem area, will soon be hitting the Taboon menu, while some produce is imported from Gaza.

"I always try to choose the tomatoes; when they come from Gaza they're really red and they're tastier," said Dabdoub.

Gazan green chillies, meanwhile, are particularly fierce.

The advent of new eateries builds on the Old City's history of hole-in-the-wall spots, specializing in a single dish like falafel.

Palestinian chef Sami Tamimi grew up with home cooking, such as school packed lunches of cauliflower fritters stuffed in pita, and went out for certain foods.

"I remember carrying a plate and going to the hummus guy," said Tamimi, talking avidly about beloved dishes including stuffed vine leaves and courgettes.

Such traditional foods and contemporary takes were compiled in the chef's 2020 cookbook: 'Falastin'.

"Just 10 years ago, if you went to a publisher and said I want to publish a book about Palestinian food, they would say 'Who's going to buy it?'" said Tamimi, who moved to London more than two decades ago.

A growing interest in Palestinian food abroad is tied to a shift away from presenting Mediterranean or Middle Eastern cuisine as one set of recipes.

"Nowadays you see more focus on the country, or the place and their food... I think it's a wonderful thing," said Tamimi, who has a series of cookbooks and runs restaurants with Israeli business partner Yotam Ottolenghi.

Israelis have proven more successful than Palestinians in branding local cuisine, noted Bukhari, including an image of an Israeli flag atop falafel at Tel Aviv airport.

"They are very good at marketing it," said the SacredCuisine founder. "We are leaving a gap for the Israelis to talk about our food."

But Palestinians are catching up internationally, with Bethlehem chef Fadi Kattan set to open a London restaurant later this year.

Tamimi himself is due to return briefly to Jerusalem for a residency at the historic American Colony Hotel in October.

His two-week menu follows a previous event there when the chef saw just how much has changed on the city's food scene.

"It was the first time that I worked with a whole team of Palestinians," he said.



Who Are the NASA Astronauts Who Have Been Stuck in Space for 9 Months?

This image taken from NASA video shows the SpaceX capsule carrying NASA astronauts Suni Williams, Butch Wilmore and Nick Hague, and Russian astronaut Alexander Gorbunov, undocking from the International Space Station on Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (NASA via AP)
This image taken from NASA video shows the SpaceX capsule carrying NASA astronauts Suni Williams, Butch Wilmore and Nick Hague, and Russian astronaut Alexander Gorbunov, undocking from the International Space Station on Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (NASA via AP)
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Who Are the NASA Astronauts Who Have Been Stuck in Space for 9 Months?

This image taken from NASA video shows the SpaceX capsule carrying NASA astronauts Suni Williams, Butch Wilmore and Nick Hague, and Russian astronaut Alexander Gorbunov, undocking from the International Space Station on Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (NASA via AP)
This image taken from NASA video shows the SpaceX capsule carrying NASA astronauts Suni Williams, Butch Wilmore and Nick Hague, and Russian astronaut Alexander Gorbunov, undocking from the International Space Station on Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (NASA via AP)

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were barely known outside space circles when they strapped in for what was supposed to be a quick test flight of Boeing's Starliner capsule last June. Nine months later, they've captured the world's attention — and hearts — as NASA's stuck astronauts.

Their homecoming is imminent now that a new crew has arrived at the International Space Station to replace them after launching from Florida last week. They're flying back with SpaceX, their problem-plagued Starliner having returned to Earth empty months ago, leaving them behind in orbit. Their SpaceX capsule undocked from the station early Tuesday for the 17-hour ride home, The AP reported.

Here's a look at “Suni and Butch” and their drama-filled mission:

Who are the stuck astronauts? The two test pilots came to NASA via the Navy. Wilmore, 62, played high school and college football in his home state of Tennessee before joining the Navy. Williams, 59, grew up in Needham, Massachusetts, a competitive swimmer and distance runner.

Wilmore racked up 663 aircraft carrier landings, while Williams served in combat helicopter squadrons.

NASA picked Williams as an astronaut in 1998 followed by Wilmore in 2000. Each had two spaceflights behind them including monthslong stints at the space station before signing up as Starliner's first crew.

While they accepted their repeated homecoming delays, they noted it was much harder on their families. Wilmore’s wife Deanna has held down the fort, according to her husband. Their oldest daughter is in college and their youngest in her last year of high school.

Williams’ husband, Mike, a retired federal marshal, has been caring for their two Labrador retrievers. She said her mother is the worrier.

What are the stuck astronauts looking forward to on Earth? Besides reuniting with loved ones, Wilmore, an elder with his Baptist church, can’t wait to get back to face-to-face ministering and smelling fresh-cut grass.

Wilmore kept in touch with members of his congregation over the months, taking part in occasional prayer services and calling ailing members via the space station's internet phone.

Williams looks forward to long walks with her dogs and an ocean swim.

Several other astronauts have spent even longer in space so no special precautions should be needed for these two once they're back, according to NASA.

“Every astronaut that launches into space, we teach them don't think about when you're coming home. Think about how well your mission's going and if you're lucky, you might get to stay longer,” NASA's space operations mission chief and former astronaut Ken Bowersox said last week.

Why were the stuck astronauts in a political dust-up? Wilmore and Williams found themselves in the middle of a political storm when President Donald Trump and SpaceX founder Elon Musk announced at the end of January they would accelerate the astronauts' return and blamed the Biden Administration on keeping them up there too long.

NASA officials stood by their decision to wait for the next scheduled SpaceX flight to bring them home, targeting a February return. But their replacements got held up back on Earth because of battery work on their brand new SpaceX capsule.

SpaceX switched capsules to speed things up, moving up their return by a couple of weeks. The two left the space station in the capsule that's been up there since last fall; Williams blew kisses to the seven station residents staying behind.

“It’s great to see how much people care about our astronauts,” Bowersox said, describing the pair as “professional, devoted, committed, really outstanding.”

Why did the stuck astronauts switch space taxis? Astronauts almost always fly back in the same spacecraft they launched in. Wilmore and Williams launched aboard Boeing's Starliner and transferred to SpaceX's Dragon for the ride back.

Their first flights were aboard NASA's space shuttle, followed by Russia's Soyuz capsule. Both the Starliner and Dragon are completely autonomous but capable of manual command if necessary.

As test pilots, they were in charge of the Starliner. The Dragon had fellow astronaut Nick Hague in command; he launched in it last September with a Russian and two empty seats reserved for Wilmore and Williams.

What's the future of Boeing's Starliner? Starliner almost didn't make it to the space station. Soon after the June 5 liftoff, helium leaked and thrusters malfunctioned on the way to the orbiting lab.

NASA and Boeing spent the summer trying to figure out what went wrong and whether the problems would repeat on the flight back, endangering its two test pilots. NASA ultimately decided it was too risky and ordered the capsule back empty in September.

Engineers are still investigating the thruster breakdowns, and it's unclear when Starliner will fly again — with astronauts or just cargo. NASA went into its commercial crew program wanting two competing U.S. companies for taxi service for redundancy's sake and stand by that choice.