Like every foodie who grew up in the middle east – l love tahini.  It has one ingredient – sesame. Ground to a paste it is used for making a dip called Tahini, it is added to hummus for a distinguish flavor and it can be used for cold dressings, hot sauces and mixed with honey or sugar – dessert. It is also considered healthy because of the high content of calcium and iron.

My favorite brand is Al Arz, made in Nazareth, by a small family owned compnay.  It’s not easy to find Al Arz tahini in North America and I often buy other brands.  Recently I purchased a jar of sesame paste off the Kosher shelf in the local supermarket. I also got a jar at Phoenician, a middle eastern grocery store knows as ‘The Lebanese’.

Here are the two jars:

Although they contain different amount the containers are identical except for the color of the lid and the label.

And here is the back side of both jars:

It may be hard to see the labels, so let me help you – one says ‘Product of Canada’ the other ‘Produced in Canada’.  I couldn’t find much information about the Canadian source of sesame products, but I don’t think there are very many sesame paste manufactures in Canada. Is it possible that the Tahini with Arabic name, marketed to the American Arab population and the Kosher Tahini marketed to the Jewish population are one and the same?   Politics may separate these two people, but united we eat.  Sharing meals may lead to world peace. Amen.