Middle Eastern dips and spreads to bump hummus off your summer menu

Around the Middle East, people of all nationalities relax during the long, languorous summer afternoons. Conversation slows and becomes softer, and attention turns to the mezze, or appetizer, plates. Like tapas, mezze offer little bites of something intriguing. The shared plates encourage conviviality around the table.

It's a great tradition, and suited especially to summer, when humidity and high temperatures can drive appetite into hiding. A lunch or supper of small plates may be just the ticket on a torpid day. If that day includes the appearance of guests, all the better.

Hummus is the most famous mezze, of course, but it has become a sad cliche in this country. Chocolate hummus? Hummus made from white beans? Those aren't hummus - they may be good, but they're their own thing.

Baba ghanoush, the smoky, garlicky eggplant puree which Middle