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>New Hookah Craze Lights Up Students

>Neighborhooad Dining: Tiny & Tasty

>Smoking Ban: Life Without the Shisha

>Health: Hooked on Hookah

>Hookah use flares up at Yale

>A Hookah Bar in Radford!

>Purple Catepillar Hookah Bar Opens

>Hookah Tend is Puffing Along

>Egyptian Scenes

>The Daily Show-Hookah Video

Dotted Line

New Hookah Craze Lights Up Students
By Addie Curlis

In the past year, the hookah craze has risen to a whole new level. Students find it to be a relaxing and communal pastime.

For creative writing major Jacob Moore, he sees it as a very social activity.

"Everyone is drawing from the same source and with the passing of the pipe, it is very communal, which is something in this day and age that America has lost on a whole," Moore said.

He said he got into smoking hookahs this year with his roommate after buying his hookah in town.

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Health: Hooked on Hookah
By Current Magazine

Spring 2007 Issue - Megan Gardner sits with a group of friends, socializing in a smoke-filled room around a Middle Eastern water pipe. Mellow music plays in the background. Authentic artwork adorns the hookah café's walls. As a junior at the University of Miami, Gardner smokes hookah once a week and considers it a great way to relax and unwind and to bring people together.

The modern fad of smoking hookah derives from a 500-year-old Arabian tradition based on smoking flavored tobacco heated by coals and filtered through water. Today, hookah smoking is a growing phenomenon among American college students, with hundreds of hookah cafés, bars and lounges popping up near major universities, including Arizona State University and Boston University, in the last few years. In Pittsburgh, Penn, four hookah bars have opened since 2003, all within five miles of Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh.

Like many college students, Gardner believes shisha, the flavored tobacco smoked from a hookah, lacks the same nicotine potency and addictive puff as cigarettes. But a recent study labels the popular college pastime a dangerous one.

Surprised by the popularity of the smoking ritual and the lack of thorough study of its effects, Christopher Loffredo, director of the cancer genetics and epidemiology department at Georgetown University, led a study in which he and his colleagues compared the cheek cells of hookah and cigarette smokers to non-smokers. The results were startling. Loffredo found that both sets of smokers exhibited four times the mouth damage (including gum disease) as the non-smokers and that hookah, like cigarettes, could lead to more addictive behavior. Loffredo also found that the quick-lighting charcoal used by many hookah smokers may pose an additional hazard: it may produce greater levels of carbon monoxide than standard charcoal.

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Hookah use flares up at Yale
By Cari Tuna

Friends sat together in a small, dimly lit dorm room in Calhoun College last weekend, chatting softly and passing a nargile hose from person to person. Each one took his turn inhaling the flavored smoke from the pipe as the familiar murmur of bubbling water and a subtle, fruity scent filled the air.

Eset Akcilad '07 leaned back in his chair and released a series of carefully shaped smoke rings from his mouth.

For Akcilad and many other Yalies, the Middle Eastern tradition of smoking the Turkish water pipe (also known as hookah and hubble-bubble) has become a nightly ritual and social outlet. In residential colleges, in frats or at bars, nargiles are more and more frequently drawing friends together for relaxed conversation.

"It's nice to invite people over and smoke with them," said Akcilad, who bought his nargile in Turkey, where he lives. "It is a good way to meet people."

Amanda Elbogen '07, also a hookah owner, said she enjoys smoking the nargile because of it's social nature and because it is relaxing and pleasant tasting.

"It's exotic [and] a really good social activity," Elbogen said. "It's often associated with pot ... a common misconception. For people who don't smoke anything else, it's ideal."

The average nargile consists of a glass body connected to metal pipe device with a long hose. The top of the pipe has a bowl for holding a special type of frequently-flavored tobacco and a metal tray for catching stray ashes and embers. A liquid, usually water, is placed in the body and a special type of coal is placed over the tobacco.

"When you inhale, it draws air through the water which is connected to the part with the flavor," said Akcilad. "The coal burns the flavor, and you get the smoke inside."

The water inside the body cools and filters the smoke. Other liquids such as wine, milk and fruit juice can be used in place of water, each having a different effect on the smoke. The use of milk gives the smoke a smoother, milder taste, while wine has a much stronger affect on the head, Akcilad said.

While generally enjoyed in the privacy of one's dorm room, hookahs are now seen frequently at fraternities and larger parties.

AEPi member Ian Bishop '07 said his frat has a specially designated area for hookah smoking.

"Upstairs there's like a social room ... with three or four hookahs ... if you want to get away from the hustle and bustle," Bishop said.

Those students in the market for a nargile often search far and wide for moderately priced, aesthetically pleasing hookahs. Some students obtain their hookahs while living or traveling abroad, while others purchase them, as well as flavored tobacco and hookah accessories, from Web sites such as tulumba.com and onepercent.com. Hookah prices on these sites range from $65-$140.

Elbogen found her hookah, which has a green glass bowl decorated with a colorful floral pattern, during a trip to Jerusalem. She paid 150 shekels for it, which was about $40 at the time -- a relative bargain compared to online prices.

"Last year I was in Israel in the back streets of Jerusalem [when] I came across an oasis of hookah vendors," she said. "You have to find the hookah that fits your personality."

While Akcilad said he usually purchases his tobacco in Turkey, a small grocery near College Wine sells a variety of flavors. He said his favorite flavor is banana mixed with apricot, while Elbogen said she and her friends prefer double apple.

Nargiles appeal to many non-smokers because most people believe smoking nargile tobacco is less harmful and addictive than smoking cigarettes, Akcilad said.

"I don't smoke cigarettes, [but] I like the way smoke looks ... it's a really charming thing," he said. "[A nargile] has more smoke and the same aesthetic value."

According to Columbia University's Health Services, few studies have been done on the difference in the health risks associated with cigarettes and nargile because the water pipe is a relatively new trend in the United States.

The flavored tobacco smoked by hookah users is approximately one-third tobacco and two-thirds fruit pulp, molasses, and sometimes honey, although the exact composition varies from brand to brand. The same toxins associated with the tobacco in cigarettes -- including tar and carcinogens -- are present in nargile tobacco.

According to the Columbia publication, "passing the smoke through water, as is done in a hookah pipe, may remove some compounds, but existing research documents that many toxins remain in water-filtered smoke."

In addition, the effects of inhaling smoke from the burning fruit and molasses are currently unknown, the Web site said.

Although most recreational nargile users smoke less frequently than cigarette users, the threat of nicotine addiction nevertheless remains. The addictive compound in tobacco smoke is not fully filtered by the water, according to the site.

Despite health risks, Akcilad said he has noticed a significant increase in nargile usage on campus over the past year.

"Last year my room was a place where people would come and chill and smoke," he said. "Now lots of my friends have bought their own."

Although hookahs are often used in student rooms, smoking of any kind in Yale dorms is against Undergraduate Regulations.

A student who sets off a fire alarm using a hookah is subject to discipline, Branford Master Steven Smith said.

"The penalty for smoking a hookah is the standard fifty lashes with a wet noodle," he said. "Setting off a smoke alarm, however, costs a trip to Ex-Comm."

But dormitory regulations have not put a damper on the on-campus popularity of hookahs, which has coincided with the growing presence of nargile cafes, also known as hookah bars, in many American cities and abroad.

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Hookah Articles & News

Hookah Bar Directory

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Neighborhood Dining: Tiny & Tasty
By Bob Townsend

Critics sometimes diss them. But small plates remain a popular part of Atlanta dining and nightlife. Whether you call them tapas or mezze or even plain old appetizers, the appeal of choosing and sharing a variety of dishes usually means more flavors, and sometimes more fun. Here are five restaurants where good things come on small plates.

BUCKHEAD: Eclipse di Luna
A decade on, the place that introduced Atlanta to the pleasures of Spanish tapas is still going strong. Weekends can be wickedly busy. But that crowded energy, along with the grunge-meets-bordello decor and Latin music are what makes the dark end of Miami Circle feel like a special destination. Original dishes —- crispy fried calamari, monster ribs in balsamic reduction, patatas bravas with romesco sauce —- are still on the menu, and as good as ever. But newer, lighter dishes —- such as frisee, fennel, pear salad with Valdeon blue cheese and creamy almond dressing —- add to the mix of 20-plus small plates. And don't forget the mojitos, sangria and bargain wine list.

DECATUR: Mezza
Mezza —- or more traditionally, mezze —- are staples of Lebanese cuisine, and the hot and cold appetizer-size dishes served here are great fun to sample and share. Among the favorites: crispy falafel; savory stuffed grape leaves (either vegetarian or beef); lemony tabbouleh; garlic-and tahini-rich hummus. There are more than 20 vegan offerings, with lots of bright and spicy fresh veggies. Standouts include fried cauliflower with tahini and zesty cilantro-garlic fries. For omnivores, there's beef shawarma and lamb kebabs. Be sure to sample some Lebanese wine. And top off the meal with a taste of sweet homemade ice cream and a jolt of bitter Turkish coffee.

INMAN PARK: Rathbun's
Kevin Rathbun's modern American cooking is something like savvy comfort food. His big plates, especially the fish specials, are seriously good stuff. But his small plates are so tasty and playful that often it's hard to get past the left side of the menu. That's where you'll find favorites such as thick-cut eggplant steak fries covered in confectioner's sugar and Thai rare beef and red onion salad. Recent seasonal offerings have included sublime pan-seared soft shell crab with pancetta and flash-fried oysters with Vidalia onion relish. But save room for pastry chef Kirk Parks' innovative small plate-style desserts —- especially the addictive peanut butter-banana cream pie.

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Hookah Trend is Puffing Along
By Wendy Koch

At the Prince Cafe near Georgetown University, Nadine Cheaib jokes with friends as she sips tea and smokes melon-flavored tobacco through a water pipe.

"It's something I grew up with," she says of the Middle Eastern custom known as hookah. Cheaib, 26, a Lebanese-born American and Georgetown graduate, doesn't smoke cigarettes and goes weeks without a pipe, but she likes the flavors, especially the mint-rose mixture, and the socializing. "When we meet for hookah, it's sort of our way of picking up where we left off," she says. She passes the pipe, more than 3 feet tall, to a fellow graduate while an Egyptian movie plays on a big screen.

In hundreds of bars and cafes nationwide — from Fresno to Ames, Iowa, to Raleigh, N.C. — Americans are inhaling fruit-flavored tobacco through water pipes as Arab and Indian men have done for centuries.

This tradition is posing a new challenge to the anti-tobacco movement in the USA, which has helped pass more than 2,000 smoke-free laws.

The smoking rate in the USA has been cut almost in half in the past 40 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 1965, about 42% of U.S. adults smoked; by 2003, that was down to about 22%, CDC says.

The health risks

The popularity of hookah, also known as shisha and narghile, runs against the anti-tobacco trend, partly because it appeals to teens and young adults. Water pipes also are exempted from some smoke-free laws and enjoy a mystique of being a more cultural and safer alternative to cigarettes.

"There's a myth that the smoke is filtered by the water," says Thomas Eissenberg, a psychology professor at Virginia Commonwealth University and co-author of a hookah study. The smoke passes through gurgling water before the user inhales it, but, he says, "Every risk of cigarette smoking is also associated with water pipes."

Eissenberg says he understands hookah's allure. "The first time I ordered one, it smelled like cherry cough drops," he says. He's concerned it may introduce young people to the addictive nature of nicotine.

Cheaib and Brian Wood, a Georgetown student, say they don't worry about the risks because they smoke infrequently. Wood, who says he doesn't smoke cigarettes, says hookahs have a smoother taste and don't leave a smell on clothes.

Qaiys Barak, manager of Maanjri Lounge in Raleigh, near North Carolina State University, says his customers are mostly American college students or young professionals. "It's a very young crowd," he says.

"It's different, unique," says Brennan Appel, director of Southsmoke.com, which sells hookah pipes and tobacco. He says sales have tripled in the past three years after hookah emerged in California and swept east.

He says it's now offered in about 1,000 bars, cafes or restaurants nationwide, many of which feature Middle Eastern food, Arab music videos or belly dancing. Smoking a hookah typically costs $7 to $15.

Despite its rising popularity, hookah is running afoul of some anti-smoking laws, including the one enacted this month in Washington state. It bans smoking inside all public facilities and workplaces and outside within 25 feet of doors, windows and vents.

Last month in Anaheim, Calif., the City Council approved restrictions on the city's 11 hookah venues after receiving complaints about rowdiness. It forbade live entertainment, alcohol, cover charges and patrons younger than 18.

Exceptions elsewhere

In other areas, including Columbus, Ohio, hookah venues are getting a pass. Like tobacconists and cigar bars, they qualify for exemptions under smoke-free laws because a sizable share of their sales comes from tobacco. In California, some hookah lounges have bypassed smoking bans meant to protect workers by making employees co-owners.

In New York City, which has about 20 hookah venues, there's tension, says City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. When the city passed its smoke-free law three years ago, it exempted cigar bars and tobacco stores. Since hookah lounges were relatively new and not politically connected, they weren't exempted, and because few serve alcohol, they don't qualify as bars.

At times, the city has looked the other way and not issued fines. But Vallone, who favors a hookah waiver, has also received complaints from residents about the smoke and noise near these lounges.

Washington, D.C., faces a similar quandary. This month in a first vote, the city approved an indoor smoking ban but exempted cigar bars and tobacconists. Councilman Jim Graham wants to add a hookah exemption to the final law. "This smoke-free bill is not about prohibition," he says. "That's what we would do if we included hookahs."

Smoking an apple-flavored pipe at lunchtime at Prince Cafe, Saudi diplomat Saud Albalawi says he's not happy that hookah may get a waiver. Because it's so readily available in the nation's capital, he's smoking every day. Before he came to the USA three months ago, he was planning to quit.

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Purple Catepillar Hookah Bar opens in city
By Howard Greninger

TERRE HAUTE -- Michael J. Egy wanted a unique name for his new business -- the first of its kind in Terre Haute.

His inspiration for the "Purple Caterpillar Hookah Bar" came from the story "Alice in Wonderland."

"Remember when [Alice] meets the caterpillar smoking the hookah? Well, caterpillar by itself didn't sound right for a name and I thought purple was a neat color, so purple caterpillar sounded great. That's how we got our logo," Egy said.

The new business at 10 N. Sixth St. opened Friday with a planned grand opening to be staged in about a month. The smoking bar offers 39 different flavors of "Shisha" tobacco and 15 non-tobacco flavors which can be smoked through a tall, ornate pipe, called a hookah. . . .

Most of the tobacco is imported from the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia; as a way of catering to Western tastes..

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Smoking Ban: Life Without the Shisha
By Rasha Abu Baker

Imagine denying a Brit a pint or banning a Swede from a sauna. Hard to contemplate. Yet many Middle Easterners in England are trying to come to terms with a new reality -- life without the shisha.

The shisha, also known as a hookah, is a stand-up water pipe device often used to smoke flavored shisha. It is one of the most favorite pastimes of Middle Easterners.

But it will all go up in smoke when a public ban on smoking comes into effect in June 2007.

Although people would still be able to enjoy the ancient habit at home, many feel it will never be the same.

"You are not meant to smoke the shisha by yourself," says Yasmin Ahmed, 23.

"It's a social thing. You come to a shisha cafe with a group of friends and enjoy the atmosphere," she adds, taking a drag from a long, multi-colored shisha pipe.

Yasmin and her friend Nadia are regulars at Palms Palace, one of some 20 shisha cafes around Edgware Road, a popular piece of Arabia in central London.

Like most shisha lovers, they are bewildered why the ban should include shisha smoking.

"It takes away people's choice. Shishas are not like cigarettes, people come here to specifically smoke the shisha and know what to expect. It's like banning a pub from selling alcohol. This is their business and this is what they sell," Nadia says.

Shisha cafe owners are feeling helpless. Many are starting to reflect on the loss they would suffer once the ban comes into force. "It will break my business," says Qais Siza, owner of Palms Palace. "This is the only business I have, how would it survive?"

Siza says the Edgware Road area would be dead without its vibrant and appealing shisha culture. "This area is famous for its shisha and Arabic food and that's what many tourists come here to enjoy," he says.

The ban will not only affect shisha businesses across the country, it will seriously alter the social habits of the Middle Eastern community.

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Egyptian Scenes: Pharaohs and Queens of the Nile
By Seth Kugel

THERE are two Egyptian New Yorks: the living and the dead. It’s a big divide. The dead have been dead for thousands of years, and though the ancient Egyptians were skilled at preserving the deceased, New York’s modern Egyptians are much more fun to hang out with at night.

But you can mix and match, combining the city’s unbeatable museum collections with the traditions and cuisine brought here courtesy of immigrants from Egypt.

First, the museums. You can get lost roaming the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s labyrinth of friezes, statues, stellae and sarcophagi, one of the world’s most famous collections. The models of funeral and pleasure boats discovered by the Met’s own Herbert Winlock in the Tomb of Meketre from 1990 B.C. are all too easy to pass by but definitely worth a look.

You can’t possibly miss the Temple of Dendur, built around 15 B.C. under the Roman emperor Augustus, in a room flooded with sun from the wall of windows looking out on Central Park. While many New Yorkers’ first reaction upon entering is “I wish my apartment got this much light,” yours may be one of considerably more cultural value. A new exhibition, “Discovering Tutankhamen: The Photographs of Harry Burton,” is scheduled to open on Dec. 19.

The Brooklyn Museum is also known worldwide for its collection of ancient Egyptian art and objects, on the third floor; it has also been sending its own archaeologists to Egypt for a century. One way to prepare for a visit to the museum is to read the online diary on the museum’s Web site from its dig at the Temple Precinct of the Goddess Mut. It provides blow-by-blow details of the last two years of the excavation (which has been going on since 1976). Warning: this narrative may discourage those budding archaeologists who imagine digging up a mummy a day.

The Brooklyn Museum’s exhibition “Egypt Through Other Eyes: The Popularization of Ancient Egypt,” which ends on Nov. 12, focuses on documents and books from the 19th and early 20th centuries that reflect the West’s long obsession with Egypt. You may also want to stop by what Roberta Smith, an art critic for The New York Times, called “an engrossing exhibition” at the Dahesh Museum of Art in Midtown. “Napoleon on the Nile,” centered around almost 90 engravings from the “Description de l’Égypte,” 23 outsize volumes assembled by Napoleon’s “savants” during the French occupation there, runs through Dec. 31.

Now, for the living. There were 54,652 Egyptians in the metropolitan area in 2005, an 18 percent rise from 2000, according to the Department of City Planning. Though a large number actually live in Jersey City, and the best Egyptian strip in New York City is in Astoria, Queens, there are several spots in Manhattan worth checking. On the high end is Casa la Femme North, which the restaurant critic for The Times, Frank Bruni, reviewed in December 2004 and found the ingredients its chefs use “as fresh as I could desire” and the spicing “clear and well calibrated.” He was less enamored of its “facile exoticism, built around such obvious props as palm fronds and shisha (a k a hookah) pipes.” But there’s nothing wrong with a little facile exoticism now and again, especially for fans of belly dancing.

You’ll find several other shisha spots catering to the non-Egyptian crowd in the East Village, including Horus Cafe, where the music can get so loud — ah, Arabic groove — it’s almost clublike, and the outdoor seating at Sahara East, which is heated in winter.

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A Hookah Bar in Radford!
By Zoe Brown

Recently, the news around Radford concerns the new hookah lounge opening up in the area. This is good news indeed; Radford is aching for a nice, new location to hang out that isn't a bar or a pizza place. I don't have just one reason why this is a great thing for Radford; I have four.

1. She-Sha, the hookah bar in Blacksburg, makes excellent business...or if it doesn't, it seems to. Every time I've been in there, it's been packed. Setting up a hookah bar in Radford is a practical move for any prospector looking for a smart way to make a buck, and students will also save a bundle in gas instead of driving 20 minutes out of their way to Blacksburg. In short, everybody wins.

2. Radford can do with a little diversity. For some reason, the city feels that there is a need to have a multitude of virtually the same restaurant (BT's, Macado's, etc.) and more pizza places than you can count on one hand, but hardly anything diverse, interesting or exotic. It's nice to have an option outside of the standard.

3. Hookah is an excellent, legal way to socialize, meet friends and keep people out of mischief. It offers an option besides bar-hopping or other illegal activities. When's the last time you heard of someone getting arrested when leaving a hookah lounge?

4. The Middle Eastern culture itself is wonderful and fascinating. Perhaps this will be a way, outside of picking up a book, for people to learn something about another culture. Speaking for myself, I've definitely learned a lot from my occasional hookah lounge hop. Besides, the music is terrific.

Despite all of the reasons why I think a hookah lounge is a great idea, I have my worries. Hopefully this will be an outlet for social and cultural prospects different from those offered by the average bar or dance club. Hopefully it won't be a bar in hookah's clothing.

The Tartan recently printed an article about the hookah lounge, stating that it hopes to be "a mix between a Middle Eastern hookah bar and a modern dance club" in addition. This is intriguing, but also a bit confusing and even a little frightening. Most people go to a hookah lounge to...lounge. The addition of a dance floor is a little out of place. If done right (which, in my opinion, means either completely or for the most part Middle Eastern dance music), it could be fun, but if I hear Lil Jon while i'm sucking down flavored smoke I think i'll be a little perturbed, and I don't think i'm the only one who feels that way.

This could be a wonderful thing for Radford...if it's done right. Here's hoping it will be.

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