Hey, I see that the hookah bar has been open for a few weeks now. We haven't gone in but have looked at the menu taped in the window, and it looks like it's got some real potential...I don't think they're trying to be a sit-down dinner spot, but they're offering lots of middle-eastern snacks and sandwiches. Has anyone tried it out yet? We're thinking of doing carryout sometime soon. Thanks.

Where is it?

i was thinking about hitting that up on friday... i'll let you know.

It's in the first block of S. Potomac St., across from those new Bowman buildings that seem like they're never going to be completed

Can I smoke a cigar there?

Nevermind.

Wonder if you can bring your own hookah. I have a handmade hookah from India that hasn't been smoked in and I've always wanted to try it.

What a coincidence -- we have our own hookah too! My mother-in-law bought it for us in Turkey. It also has never been smoked.

BYOH

We went to a hookah bar in Las Vegas several years back. It was fun (and, unlike the place here, they did serve alcohol). We lounged back on pillows and smoked for about 1/2 hour -- our tobacco was banana-flavored, and it was delicious. Tasted exactly like a banana! (A real banana, not artificial banana flavoring -- which baffled us)

poser...BWHAHAHAHA

There's a hookah bar in Frederick that my son has been to with some friends. He says it's great, great food and they have belly dancers that come up to your table. He enjoyed the hookah so much that he bought his own and some Turkish tobacco. He made me try it and I actually liked it...very fruity, wasn't banana but some other fruit.

I think it is the same owner.

No offense, you all, but I think I'd rather EAT the fruit instead of smoking it. That pic of the girl smoking and all the smoke going in her lungs just makes me..... ugh...


Oh well, been a bad day and my cynicism is showing!

Ok, I guess I'm dumb.

What is the difference between a hookah and a BONG (other than the legal ramifications of owning one).

There are a few differences. First, on the top of a hookah there's a little compartment which holds a hot coal, and then the tobacco is packed over top of it, and it takes about a half hour or so to smolder, during time you inhale the smoke through a tube and mouthpiece. The smoke goes through the water in the bottom of the hookah first. They often have more than one tube/mouthpiece attached, so if you're smoking with other people you don't have to hand the mouthpiece around. I'm no expert by far, but I don't think hookahs are used all that often in place of a bong to smoke pot -- they take a pretty big chunk of tobacco to work. And I think another difference is that you usually put your mouth over the top of the bong to inhale; you don't have the flexible tube and the mouthpiece. Also, you can have a nice pretty hookah sitting on your fireplace mantle and nobody's going to think you're a big pothead!

A shame... I love mediterranean food but wouldn't want to eat it amid a cloud of smoke. Even though I consider myself a smoker (currently in a non-smoking stage... but once a smoker, always a smoker), I still prefer to dine in non-smoking restaurants.

Hookah



Bong




Although both can be used for legal substances, a bong is generally used for illegal substances.

And hookahs are more expensive... lol

peacefrog, I'm with you there...smoke certainly doesn't improve a meal. for what it's worth, i read that the Oasis lounge installed a ventilation system just for this, so it's not supposed to be smoky at all. i haven't been in yet, though. CD, you still going on Friday?

p.s. Yoss, maybe it's me, but that bong picture you found is soooo phallic. I think it's the base that does it. Very very scrotal!

As Sigmund Freud once said... sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.... (or maybe it wasn't Siggy)

Yep it was Freud because he had a 20 Cigar a day habit. This habit was what caused his own death due to cancer of his soft palate.

You had me at 'belly dancers'.

Belly dancer in Frederick : belly dancer in Hagerstown -- stripper in DC : stripper in Ranson WV

(just speculating, of course)

BWAHAHAHA. i love me some quality dc strippers.

flipper? that you?

I was thinking Coma.

HA!!!! Okay, you win.

omg. bwhahahaha. dude sorry but that was hilarious.

I kinda figured that for e-z, but now that you mention it... the shiney pants gives it away...

HAHAHA

I'll post my pic if you really want to see it...would make a nice thread "post your real pic here"
i have big balls...

a picture of your face would be fine! ::runs::

second thought i probably wouldn't do it...too many lame ass people with too much spare time on their hands would trace my IP track my internet accounts stalk me and would end up in the ASSHAT thread...

BWHAHHAHAHAHA
that's not what i meant...

word.

and some probably other lamer loser chit like PMin' people to PM me and i would probably just end up telling them they are a Fugly creepy sleazebag or something...

on that note...HOOOOOKAH!!!!!!!!!!!!

There are Haxxz0rs among us...

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Bringing this thread back around to topic...

We finally ordered carry-out from Oasis yesterday, and it was VERY good. We got an assortment of their appetizers. Stuffed grape leaves were excellent, as were their meat pies and spinach pies and their hummus. We even got some of their spicy pickled vegetables and weren't disappointed, though they're somewhat of an acquired taste if you've never eaten at a Middle Eastern restaurant before. The owner was extremely friendly and even offered to help me carry the food to my office down the street. Prices were very fair too. And the pita bread tasted freshly made. We will definitely be getting food from there on a regular basis.

When you say "spicy" do you mean spicy as in HOT, or spicy as in more SAVORY/PUNGENT?
The food has intrigued me for some time but I never really knew much about it and what it contained.

the pickled vegetables -- there were cauliflower chunks, carrot slices, pepper slices, and cucumbers -- are kind of hard to describe. they're definitely tangy and vinegary, but they also taste a little hot, like a marinated hot pepper. in some middle-eastern restaurants they're purplish like a pickled egg, but the Oasis ones were just their normal color.

as far as the other foods we tried, the stuffed grape leaves were filled with rice and spices and were served warm. the spinach pies and the meat pies were a soft fluffy dough like really good pastry dough crossed with good pizza dough, and they were probably spiced with onions, mint, cinnamon, pepper, salt, and other things i couldn't pick out, taste-wise. hummus was much creamier and more lemony than the store-bought stuff, and they drizzle olive oil on the top of it; then you dunk pita bread into it.

basically, if you are adventurous at all with ethnic cuisines, i'd suggest you give middle-eastern food a try; especially if you've had greek or afghani food and liked it. most of the ingredients are common to "american food". they use lots of lemon, olive oil, chick peas, parsley, pine nuts, sesame, tomatoes, garlic -- and meat is chicken or lamb, with some beef (i think the stuffed meat pies from the hookah lounge were beef).

That sounds awesome--looks like I'm gonna be heading to SoPo for some take-out! Thanks for the review, Clever!

You're quite welcome, wild woman! Don't forget to come back and put in your two cents. I'm having leftovers right this second -- the pickles are even better now that they've sat around for two days.

Below are two excerpts from an MSN news story, with a link to the full article. I'm not one of those fanatics who are terrified that everything you come in contact with is going to give you a deadly disease, but I doubt that I'll be stopping by to take a toke from the hookah bong. Neither am I some militant "smoker-hater," but I wonder if the new place is strict about keeping kids from partaking, since it's illegal for minors to smoke tobacco?

http://health.msn.com/health-topics/addict...6795>1=10799

THURSDAY, Jan. 3 (HealthDay News) -- A leisurely hour of puffs from a hookah -- a kind of tobacco water pipe that's popular among college students -- packs the same carbon monoxide punch as a pack-a-day cigarette habit, a new report claims.The research only looks at a single toxic gas, making it impossible to directly compare hookah use to the well-known hazards of cigarette smoking. Still, the findings suggest that hookah fans should think twice before lighting that pipe, said study co-author S. Katharine Hammond, chairwoman of the division of environmental health sciences at the University of California, Berkeley."This is not the risk-free activity they think it is," Hammond said. "This really isn't safe.

Hookahs "may not give you lung cancer but may compromise your health in other ways," she said. Thomas Eissenberg, an associate professor of psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University who studies hookah use, said research has suggested that smoking a water pipe for 45 minutes produces 36 times more tar than smoking a cigarette for five minutes.

and ya don't even get a buzz off of it. bummer man.

actually, the one time we smoked a hookah several years ago, we both got MAJOR head rushes. neither of us are smokers, so maybe that had something to do with it. in my opinion, if you enjoy relaxing with a hookah, and don't partake very often, then it's no big deal. there are so many other things to worry about, and just about anything enjoyable's gonna kill you if you indulge too frequently (ice cream, chicken wings, booze, skydiving).

honestly, i kind of assumed that everyone realized that smoking a hookah has to do SOMETHING to you. you're smoking. you inhale, then smoke comes out of your lungs when you exhale. you know?

i have no idea what Oasis Hookah Lounge's policy is on carding people who want to smoke...unfortunately the place is always dead when we walk by. i would guess that they're obeying the laws, esp. since they have big glass storefront windows, and a city cop on foot patrol could see right in and would notice young whipper-snappers sucking on the hookah pipe.