The Hummus Project

I've been desperately craving for hummus since I ordered a really bad version of it in the Turkish Restaurant we went to in Ho Chi Minh (I think it's called Pasha in District 1). Ever since my friend, Talha, told me it's easy to make, I've been nurturing that idea at the back of my head while googling recipes in my spare time. It seemed easy enough as the recipes normally tell you to just dump all the ingredients in the food processor... and voila! You have hummus that you can flavor any way to want.

My first attempt at making hummus from scratch was a success!!!

The main ingredients you need for hummus are chickpeas and tahini (or sesame paste). You can find chickpeas or garbanzos in any supermarket but tahini is more of a challenge unless you are willing to go to Mustafa, the 24hr super store in Little India. I wasn't sure I wanted to make my own hummus THAT much, so I only searched for tahini in my general surroundings which include 1 FairPrice, 2 Cold Storage branches and 1 Japanese Grocery (Mediya). In fairness to Mediya, they did have Goma (sesame) Paste - but I wasn't quite sure that they were the same.


I decided to search online for where to buy it by typing "Tahini Paste + Singapore" and one of the blogs I found directed me to a "Turkish Food Supplies Warehouse at 100G Pasir Panjang Road". I also found a post that said you could buy it from an Organic Store at the Pasir Panjang Wholesale Market, but when I did further research it seemed like the Pasir Panjang Wholesale Market was more a (BIG) Fresh Foods Market which had an Organic Store so I opted to go to the Turkish Store instead.


It's called the STRAITS MARINE SUPPLY PTE LTD, and although their office is at 8 Shenton Way, they have a walk-in store in their warehouse at 100G Pasir Panjang Road. I called them before making my way there to make sure that they had tahini paste and I can just walk in to buy a bottle. The lady was very nice and even asked how I found out about them, when I told her I read about it on the internet, she was very pleased. Well, she can be more pleased because I am writing about them again :)

The lessons I learned today are simple:
1. Number 100 is not all that far from number 10 or number 20.
My office is at Number 10-20 Pasir Panjang Road. I assumed that Number 100G would be quite a distance away. I crossed the highway, took a bus, and told the driver to tell me when we got there. He looked quite confused and then he told me to go down approximately 30seconds after boarding. He even let me down even if there was NO bus stop (which is definitely out of the ordinary in this country). 
2. Directions from gothere.sg can be trusted
In hindsight, now I know why the directions for the bus was "no available bus route found".
The mobile version is more frank. It said "Don't be lazy - walk!" 
Now, if they only had a map which shows you where to go. (they probably do - I just haven't figured out how to get to it).


Anyway, after going around in circles, I decided to just walk down Pasir Panjang Road away from the office and after a few minutes later I got to 101 - so I knew that I had to cross the high way again. Quite tricky as I had to jaywalk... but I survived. It turns out that 100 Pasir Panjang is a side street with buildings numbered 100A all the way to 100G and if I wasn't running around like a headless chicken - I could have seen that it was just 2 blocks or 10minutes walk away from my office.

100G is actually a compound and the lady I talked to already told me to just go to the back and look for their warehouse so it wasn't too difficult finding them. There's a small air-conditioned room where you can walk-in and buy anything you want. They had loads of stuff from Turkey including Turkish Delight, Baklava, Tea and even Turkish Tea Glasses, as well as a full range of cheeses which they patiently explain and even let you taste. They also game me Natural Spring Water from Turkey which they told me is so much better than Singapore water (it tastes all the same to me). They told me they supply a lot of Restaurants in the city.

This was my haul.
Jenny asked me to buy Black Olive Spread and some Tahini too
(thinking you could spread it on bread - oops!).

Since there are a lot of recipes online with similar ingredients but different proportions, I went with the recipe with an option for making it by hand! Hahaha...

Here's a step by step easy to follow tutorial of the recipe I adjusted to taste (removing the garlic since I'm too lazy to handle raw garlic).

The ingredients.

Thanks to Tran,
I used Unilever Food Solutions Lime Powder instead of Lemon Juice.

You need to drain the chickpeas.

I divided it in two because I got the big can.
Also so I could make another batch for insurance.
My favorite tip is that you can microwave the chickpeas for 30seconds so they're easier to mash.

I brought out my electric mixer because I figured that's easier than using a fork.
Start with a low speed or beware of flying garbanzos!

As long as you have patience, it will turn into this.

Then you add 2 Tablespoons of Tahini.
Oooops, I thought it would be like the tahini dip in Egypt.
That's why Jenny wanted to buy some too. heeeheee...

I mixed in the tahini first before adding the other ingredients.

Save the water from the canned chickpeas so you can add 1/4 cup
for every 16oz can of chickpeas.

The recipe calls for 3-5 Tablespoons of lemon juice (to taste).
I started with the equivalent of 1 lemon.

Just add 3 teaspoons water.

voila! juice of one lemon.

Then you need to add 2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil.

and half a teaspoon of salt.

I tried it and I decided it needed more lemon.
I added the equivalent of half a lemon.

Perfect! You don't even miss the garlic, or at least I didn't.

Since I am desperately trying to shake off the extra kg or two that I gained from all the forms of rice noodles that I ate and enjoyed for close to a month, I have decided I am going on a hummus diet, and I will only eat it with veggie sticks... since carbs is the enemy!

I decided to use child labor to peel my veggies.

It wasn't really a good move since 10minutes after we started we were still on the first cucumber.

We even peeled the carrots yaya said don't need peeling.

This is the best snack ever!!!

Yaya says all our knives are not sharp because I was too cheap to buy good knives.
I'm sure her thought bubble when I whipped out my camera was
"on no, she might get judged!"

I only got a portion to snack on so I could keep the rest for when I need more snacks.

I'm not a fan of carrot sticks but this was surprisingly good.

I've always been "Bilib Sa Sarili" (it makes self-confident seem like an understatement)... Hahaha. But I guess if you just put your mind to something, you can do it! 

I will live in Paris some day. Just Saying.


STRAITS MARINE SUPPLY PTE LTD
OFFICE: 8 SHENTON WAY #3802
SINGAPORE 068811 
TEL: (65) 6248 3108 / 6248 3107
WAREHOUSE: 100G PASIR PANJANG ROAD
TEL: (65) 6472 1241
FAX: (65) 6221 3975
EMAIL: info@straitsmarinesupply.com / ship@straitsmarinesupply.com
For a detailed price list, you can visit Asia Singapore's blog here.