Hummus Shop Spices It Up

Lauren BonneyTHE SANTA CLARAOctober 3, 2013School is in full swing and it is often easy to fall into a pattern, especially when it comes to food. While Benson Memorial Center, Safeway and Ike’s Place are convenient and close, sometimes looking for spots to eat a little farther from campus offers a great, unique treat.If you are looking for a new adventure in ethnic fare, check out Oren’s Hummus Shop in Palo Alto. Oren’s is a fantastic Israeli restaurant with the best hummus around. Owner Oren Dobronsky, a technologist in the Silcon Valley, realized that he missed the hummus, pita and Mediterranean salad from his native Tel-Aviv. Thus, he and his wife, Nancy, opened Oren’s Hummus Shop in the hopes of bringing together hummus lovers from all over the Bay Area.The restaurant follows five principles for its cuisine: authentic, fresh, healthy, convenient and sustainable. The shop strives to be as culturally pure as possible by importing ingredients from Israel in order to create the traditional tastes found in Tel-Aviv. New batches of hummus and pita are prepared many times throughout the day, keeping things fresh. Oren’s believes that it is their duty to be as environmentally friendly as possible by recycling everything from oil to paper, and composting organic waste.Oren’s Hummus Shop offers a unique selection of Israeli cuisine ranging from entrées focused entirely on hummus, grilled meat, fresh salads and some Israeli cuisine classics. Almost everything on the menu is gluten-free and there are plenty of vegan choices. You absolutely cannot leave the restaurant without trying the house-made hummus. This is no ordinary hummus — its creamy consistency is simply perfect with some fresh pita. So go try something new and take a bite out of Oren’s Hummus Shop, a delicious taste of Israeli food.Contact Lauren Bonney at lbonney@scu.edu.