One of my favorite dishes, Ful is not only difficult to find, it is also difficult to get accurate information about the beans and is difficult to spell, owing to transliteration from the Arabic. You will see Ful, Foul, Fool, and Fuul in combination with Mudammas, Medames, Medammas, Moudammas, and Medammis. Wikipedia is just as confused – it has two separate entries with no cross reference: Ful Medames and Foul Madammas (update 2/17/12: these two keywords now link to the same article). Commonly called fava bean salad or Egyptian bean salad, the dish is known as one of the national dishes of Egypt -“the rich man’s breakfast, the shopkeeper’s lunch, the poor man’s supper.” It is also made in many other parts of the Arab world with a myriad of variations. Keep in mind that although it is frequently called fava bean salad, there are three types of fava beans (ful hammam, ful rumi, and ful baladi). The broad beans commonly available in super markets (ful rumi) are NOT the ones used. The smallest (ful hammam) are the ones used for this dish. For the best synopsis of the history, ingredients, and regional variations, click here.

Even with its popularity in the Arab world and all the restaurants in NYC, there are only a handful of places in all of NYC that make this dish – most Middle Eastern restaurants do not even offer it on their menu. The photo was taken at First Oasis restaurant in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, where I travel to get ful. The owner, Said Albahari, previously owned Magic Carpet Restaurant on Carmine Street in Manhattan, where I first became acquainted with this delicious meal. This version is Lebanese style – prepared like a stew with olive oil, tahini, tomatoes, garlic, and other spices and served warm. Perhaps its lack of popularity is due to two popular spellings: Foul and Fool 🙂