Tahini Quest

The scene: A grocery store, 9 am on a Friday morning. Caroline approaches an employee of the store.

Caroline: Excuse me, sir, do you know where the tahini is in this store?

Employee: The what?

C: Tahini. Also known as tahinia. Or possibly tahina. It's a ground sesame paste.

E: Ah, of course, tahini. Have you checked the peanut butter aisle?

C: Yes. It's not there.

E: How do you spell tahini?

C: T-a-h-i-n-i, or possibly t-a-h-i-n-i-a.

E: (looks confused)

C: It's been transliterated from Arabic- there are multiple accepted spellings.

E: Oh, Arabic. You should have mentioned it- I thought you said you were looking for almond butter. It will be in the ethnic foods aisle.

C: That's the first place I looked. It's not there. You have hummus, you have taboule salad mix, you have baba ghanoush, you do not have tahini.

E: Well, what does this tahini look like?

C: I don't know- it's an off-white paste made with sesame. It's probably in a jar. Though I guess it can be dried too.

E: We have sesame seeds in a jar. And sesame-ginger salad dressing.

C: Yes, I found those.

E: We have halva!

C: I noticed that. But I want to use it to make hummus- I don't think halva would work. Or sesame seeds, or salad dressing.

E: Hummus! Why didn't you say that before! Our hummus is in the cheese section, just next to the deli!

C: But I don't want hummus! I want to make hummus, which requires tahini!

E: You can make hummus?

C: Sure. It's really easy, you just mix together chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, and some spices. Nothing to it.

E: We have chickpeas!

C: Yes... but where is your tahini?

E: The frozen food section?

C: That's it, I'm going to Shaw's.

E: (as Caroline leaves) We do have hummus! And almond butter! And lemons!