Hookah smoke swirls with tradition
Posted: Nov. 14, 2005

Tony Barakat says the ornate brass table in the corner of Shahrazad, the Middle Eastern restaurant he owns on Oakland Ave., once belonged to an Egyptian king, or so claimed the Egyptian merchant who sold the table to Barakat a few years ago.

Whatever its pedigree, it's a beauty, and it's where Barakat prefers to sit when he drinks his black tea spiced with cardamom and smokes his hookah, which is twice a day, once in the morning, once at night.

Barakat, who is 47, grew up in a mountain village a few miles northeast of Jerusalem. It was his grandfather, Abdul Jabbar, who introduced Barakat to the hookah when Barakat was 12.

Barakat's grandfather grew his own tobacco. He would lay the leaves in the shade to dry, flavoring them with apple and honey.

The first time Barakat smoked, he was sitting with his grandfather beneath an olive tree that might have been 1,000 years old.

Tony Barakat owns a couple hundred hookahs. Some he uses, some are for sale. Customers of Shahrazad can order the use of a hookah; its on the menu: $10 for a bowl of tobacco mix, which lasts about 90 minutes.

It takes more than a warning from the surgeon general to shake off a memory like that.

When Barakat came to the United States - he studied civil engineering at the University of New Orleans - he smoked cigars if he smoked at all. In time, he drifted back to the hookah.

Barakat lives in Brookfield with his wife and four children. He is not allowed to smoke in the house. Five years ago, when he and his family moved to Brookfield, he placed his hookah on a tray in the backyard, set out some tea and a few pillows, and smoked. Neighbors peeked through their curtains, but didn't say anything. Now they don't bother to peek.

Flavors come in banana, cappuccino, coconut, grape, mint, rose, strawberry and Barakat's favorite: double apple. You must be 18 years or older. Barakat checks IDs.

Some of his hookahs are several feet tall and intricately decorated, with serpent-like hoses, but the hookah Barakat prefers to use is relatively simple.

At the top is a ceramic bowl, which is loosely packed with a moist tobacco mixture. The bowl is fastened to a shaft that extends into a reservoir of water at the base of the pipe. The bowl is covered tightly with perforated foil, on which is placed a burning coal.

When Barakat inhales from the hose, smoke is drawn down the shaft and into the water.

It bubbles to the surface, filling a chamber to which the hose is attached. Sometimes Barakat adds a couple of ice cubes to the water, to make the smoke cool in his mouth.

You can walk into Shahrazad on some evenings and find as many as 30 people smoking hookahs, though of course, not his wife or children.

"They don't like smoking," he says with a sigh (no detectable wheeze).

"Everyone over here is anti-smoking."