Summertime – and fakus are in season. Fakus are like a downy, zucchini-skinned cucumber but tangier, crunchier and more refreshing than your average cuke. They are eaten raw, without peeling – their fuzz is as inoffensive as that of a peach.
I first encountered fakus in the “baal” vegetable field of friends – who grow summer vegetables for small-scale commerce in the local Arab market – without watering. The fakus were scattered here and there among the tomatoes, okra and zucchini – pale green and snaky.
On a recent visit to Kfar Manda, Um Malek gave me a bag of fakus from her “hakura” (vegetable garden). With some of them, I made a cold yoghurt-fakus soup, and with the others I scooped out the seeds, mixed them with labaneh, crushed garlic, and chopped mint leaves – then spread the mixture into the emptied insides, like the peanut butter filled celery-stick boats I ate as a child. This is actually a childhood recipe from Balkees, whose mother used to prepare fakus boats for her and her siblings.
Dr. Harry Paris, who is a scientist at Neve Yaar, our nearby agricultural research station, just published an article about fakus, where he asserts that they are, in fact, the squash that the Israelites so pined for during their desert wanderings. He draws evidence from Egyptian illustrations, among others, and a description from Yehuda Hanassi, of the process of removing the little hairs from the squash – calling it “fikus”. The eventual evolution to the Arabic “fakus” is not such a long shot.
The zucchini’s now on the market, he explained, are a variety imported from the Americas, and cucumbers do not have the stripey exterior depicted by the Egyptians.
Life as a “locavore” is always a challenge, but when “local” is the Galilee, there is a special satisfaction of eating a local food with such a distinguished provenance.
i think some call it armenian cucumber..?