SUNDAY IN THE MARKET 2 GORGE: THE Shroom Where It Happens & BROS!

I am just getting a handle on this PATCH job...it's TV all over again, IMAGE IS THE LEAD... and THE STORY- no pictures, no news...but this is not a concession for stories I have waited a life time to tell... always fresh and organic to me...all green in a kaleidoscope of legally rendered colors...what I see you see...or follow me, if you please...

...at this SUNDAY AT THE MARKET TO GORGE ON PEOPLE....on Little Melrose Avenue, so close to the REAL, bigger Melrose and so less than so many feet make this stretch of green market- a forever out of towner, not a downer- this is the place for HEARTS of PALM AND SOLES OF WEHO...

I've been buying treats from Brothers for over 30 years, they say it's only been 3, I say, "time flies when you're having hummus." In truth, I'm not buying their brothers act because they seem too congenial a set of siblings, and either I'm the alien, or they hitched a ride as stowaways- a pair of Saturnite Twins, from the U2ALICE 2The Moon landing... like a lickity-split...SPLAT prat fall.

Could these be the new soul brothers the world's been waiting for, re-booted with shoes to fit, not to fill... more ego-friendly for pride, whether personal, a family of lions or from Lyonne...more at home with their own set of assets? From my POV, each brother seems to be a more effective part of the family's whole business, which is all natural products... a wide variety of condiments, dips and so many choices of hummus, I never felt so at home on the range.

My favorite, lebneh, is a type of Middle Eastern cream cheese made with non-fat milk, and both lebneh and hummus, are available in their no-nonsense, most basic brand of ingredients... or... with spices and flavorings that appeal to a wide array of tastebuds, that seem to account for the comparably larger crowd of customers at the Brothers stand compared to any other at this Farmer's Market, week after week, ever since I can remember over the course of 3 or 30 years.

In brands of all natural ingredients AND an all-in-the-family model of business... this band of brothers is a study in contrasts of varying heights, ages, fashion sense, gregariousness, ETC., no doubt with nuances and variations in DNA, but very much a brand of Brothers that demonstrated a united front of devotion to mom.

Neither wasted time to show they are Brothers who are more like sons, professing what their mom likes best of all....

One said, she likes 'Three Layer Dip'- a mash-up of feta cheese, pesto and sun-dried tomatoes. The other claimed her equal affection for the original brand of hummus- all the key ingredients that make their hummus, not the same, as the so many different brands sold by so many other vendors, all of which look scrumptious to me, and I am a decades long connoisseur of curb appeal. The Brothers hummus "original" has none of the extra ingredients and/or spices added later to appeal to more American tastes, such as avocado, spinach and cilantro, the latter, has such such a specific taste and a global pedigree, as if many have tried to disguise it in a variety of names, inclusive of these few: Coriander, Mexican and Chinese Parsley. When will people ever learn- if you insist on being yourself- there's no amount of hiding that will disguise you?

The Brothers' Products started out as a business in Jordan, with both brothers, their parents, and, at least, one uncle, until the whole family moved and re-located to Southern, CA , except for the uncle, who went to Dallas, and all have remained partners in one seemingly very functional family enterprise, as much a throwback to an American original, a "mom and pop" business- that evolved from the kitchen and, in their case, with more of a family premium, as it seems to celebrate the next branch of its tree, "BROTHERS," for these sons, for whom it seemingly is named.

I wondered if this might be the new and improved standard of family values, as so many of our best traditions originate in other countries, and this Jordanian American family seems especially well suited to California, where almonds flourish and the business of marketing a traditional Arabic delicacy, a forerunner of Jordan Almonds, even named EXACTLY the same, that reportedly had originated in Italy, then was exported to Jordan, given a Spanglish-sized version of the French word, jardin, for the "garden" meaning of Jordan, to indicate these were domesticated almonds, not the wild ones (Wild almonds? What a concept- way to go, Mother Nature!) Jordanian Almonds had been one of the most time honored taste treats in the Arab (mostly Muslim) Mideast World, then, imported to America, where it was adapted and marketed as "Jordan Almonds," to universal acclaim, by a company that also has its roots in California.

It never ceases to amaze me, how worldly this world was before going "global"- it's almost like it had been pre-viral...(NO diseased products, intended nor implied.)

The Brothers' show of affection for their mother seemed in such equal portions, as did their equanimity toward each other...THEY must have triggered the GHOUL in ME, as if I they had conjured a haunting ghost, like a pre-Halloween Sibling Provocateur, named Jason, but a J-name, all my own...no hockey mask, patent pending. It was as if this Jason of Halloween past, suddenly emerged from a deep seeded sleep...a sibling nightmare that threaded back in time to a TV series, called The Smothers Brothers, from which the syndrome known as "sibling rivalry" was born or went viral, pre-electronic invasive species of grape vine, or the old school TV network kind. These Smo-Bros scripted a weekly routine, in which it took virtually nothing to prompt one brother to pout, each time his older brother made a quip, the younger sibling felt outwitted, and routinely blamed an Oedipal complex rebooted as his Achilles heel:

Mom always liked you best.

That one line ensured their claim to fame like a gusher of oil, neither olive nor fossil fuel- both all-natural, theirs was the man-made kind that made them a mint! Imagine something as simple as what every kid says- a routine Valentine to the Anti-hero all moms truly are...expressed as a pithy message of passive aggression,

Thank you, for all that you did... it still wasn't enough, nor as much as you did for my Bro or Sis, and/or all my Sibs, except for me!

Assuming these brothers were un-schooled in the cash value of diminishment, I thought I would go trawling for signs of an inferiority complex of one or the other...I wasn't going to play favorites- I'm not their mother! I was unbiased, doing a preliminary search, as an undercover survey.....who would be ghoul-enough to mention a mulit-million dollar marketing campaign was there's for the taking, if there was no indication of any rift in the making, hay to be made, or an ongoing feud behind closed doors? I may be a troublemaker and MY Jason, even worse than that, but we know our brands, and we are all brothers when it comes to marketing ourselves. To suggest an artificial tag line for BROTHERS to promote all-natural products- could make their business go bust...and Jason could be sued. I'd never forgive myself, nor my mother, who, obviously, should have taught me better than that, and besides...no matter what- this cloak and dagger inquiry would serve as a precautionary measure, in advance of the "Big One," like a pop-up stress test to find pre-existing hairline cracks in their armor. Should they exist, they should know about them, and I was duty bound to be of service:

After a series of questions, their answers were exactly the same: here's the transcript:

1. Q: Who does Mom like Best?
2. Q: Do you really believe that?
3. Q: Him too?
4. Q: Is your brother always your mouthpiece?
5. Q: Why don't you ever talk about your dad?
6. Q: What did your uncle do, that your parents made him live in Dallas?
7. Q: He fell in love with the wrong person, right? Same old nightmare.
8. Q: What's his favorite hummus?
9. Q: What do you mean, you don't know? Is he really your Uncle?
10. Q: Is that YOUR story too?
11. Q: What's the DaVinci Code?

They both looked at me with such blank looks...the absence of even the slightest variation of testimony, had been wiped clean from the slate, some time before I could detect any signs of handwriting on the wall that disparaged one of the other... nothing. I felt like that attorney grilling Christine Ford- I know I could break them, I just needed more time...but there was this...this...this paying customer breathing down my neck.

I didn't blame her, I can't stand people who do that to me- I would have been frothing at the mouth, if I had been her, even if I had all the time in the world... she was amazingly polite and composed, waiting me out, when it was way past a given, I was not the Godot-type for whom people seem to wait forever, and who are you, way too patient people, anyway? Why must I always be the one to break the bad news?

Anyway, when I turned to say something to this woman, trust me, I know attitude, especially coming MY way, and I had held her up, then set her up, I did everything but burp her.

She handled me with the acumen of a Ginzu knife - sharp and clean, she went right for the jugular, with the acumen and expert timing, almost as good as Sarah Silverman's, when I asked,

"Can you believe they're brothers?"

She said, "Yeah- I read the sign."

Pretty cold for a warm and fuzzy Sunday at the Market to Gorge on people... all it seemed to be missing was a button, like a rim shot, but not the Catskill's kind, more Jersey cat- like a Soprano's whack.

I must have looked like a brother who needed another planet, when I said to my BROS-

"I guess you have to be a real schmo not to be able to read the fine print: "BROTHERS PRODUCTS."

Doesn't matter to me which one said it, so if you're expecting attribution at this point, one of us is in the wrong Galactica... they've been my brothers for 3 or 30 years in hummus time but I never expected them to make me their significant other when they added a footnote that wasn't a boot in MY butt, with this rejoinder to rejoin- HER. While pointing to the sign, Bro said this:

"But we're not THOSE brothers."

She and I needed the good laugh we enjoyed, as a foursome, and the Borthers let us know that the company is named after seven Brothers, six of whom are their uncles, the other, is dad, their dad: and are some of the most prized fruit of their family labor....

THE BROTHERS three top sellers:

1. Aforementioned, THREE LAYER DIP, one of TWO of Mom's favs

2. AVOCADO Hummus

3. SPINACH ARTICHOKE GARLIC DIP

In the shroom where it happens, I discovered a market within a market- thanks to Hassan, at Planet Shrooms, he showed me a list that takes more than twice a look, just to get the gist, and each morning he gets the trading prices and the price range doesn't seem to include penny stocks, but Hassan was so shrewdly honest, he couldn't even approximate the price of a white truffle he had last week, out of stock this time...it had been a specimen that cost $350 in total, or maybe, I'm confused, and it had been $500, in total, but no matter, it seemed Hassan couldn't cheat his way through a re-enactment on a scale of me to him, "Just do it," I asked him, please, for the all essential, aforementioned images my readers insist upon, he still couldn't do it, without the real thing- sorry, readers, our bad. He did have black truffles and an amazing one I've had before, tastes just like chicken- I swear, ask anyone. It's called "Chicken of the Woods," aka, "Hen of the Woods."

It isn't easy being green, you have to have a head for lettuce.