Lunch At Gopuram Indian Restaurant In OKC

“A braying mantis” is how the acerbic film critic John Simon cruelly characterized actress Kathleen Turner, and he described Liza Minelli’s appearance in a film as “having the face of a beagle.” Perhaps not surprisingly, many of the performers that Simon savaged in print retaliated against him personally, and it was widely reported that actress Sylvia Miles dumped a plate of pasta on his head when she encountered him in a upscale New York City restaurant after he disparaged her in print as “One of New York City’s party girls and gate crashers.” And it has been said that many of those around film stars, including their agents and publicists, advise them to avoid their reviews since performers tend to be sensitive people who have needs for approval that may have been one of the reasons that they entered their profession. It is not surprising that restaurateurs are also thin skinned regarding their eateries, and are hurt when reviews of the places that they operate and spend most of their time in are disparaged in the restaurant reviews that have proliferated in social media, including Facebook, Instagram, and others, particularly at a time that may family owned eateries are struggling to survive as a result of the coronavirus and the resulting somewhat moribund U S economy and the national media reports on the numbers of such places have closed as a consequence. Gopuram Indian Restaurant was one of the first places in the Oklahoma City to serve the unique food that originated in the Indian subcontinent, and it has developed a loyal following of patrons who savor it’s diverse and spicy offerings. It currently has two locations, one at 412 S. Meridian just off of Interstate 40 and another one located at 4401 Memorial Avenue across from Mercy Hospital But recently an online review by an apparently disgruntled customer seems to have personally wounded it’s operators. Its warm and personable wait staff was alleged to be inattentive to customers, an assertion that would surely be challenged by those who have had their glasses refilled without prompting even when the establishment is busy during the lunch and dinner time. The critic is also said to have complained that the fish that she was served was not cooked, despite the fact that it had ample time in the oven to be adequately warmed. The Indian bread known as “naan” that is one of the offerings of Gopuram remains popular, particularly in the take out orders that appear to be an increasing part of it’s business, as does the Chicken Tikki Masala, that patrons often wait in line on the buffet to partake of.
While the Gopuram staff may have been disconcerted by the censorious review, they have indicated that they will continue to serve their clientele with the dedication and professionalism that they have been known for.

Birth Of Restaurateur Abdallah Sarsour’s Son

Hussain Sarsour

 The emergence of the sun this weekend seemed to have breathed new life into the Quail Plaza Shopping Center on May Avenue in Oklahoma City, where  collections of snow stood in lifeless piles that resembled small dirtied icebergs and formerly treacherous patches of ice were reduced to water as people made their way into the various establishments that are located there.  An even row of sunbeams shined discreetly through a window in the Camilya’s Mediterranean Restaurant there and lit up the faces of a table of smiling young children who were eating with their father  as adult patrons at other tables enjoyed their Mediterranean fare and expressed joy at being out of their homes. The normally reserved chef Abdullah Sarsour, who was ably presiding at the grill smiled with pride when he told one long term patron of the birth of his son Hussain on February 11^th of this year. That child weighed in at a hefty 8 pound and several ounces, and Sarsour reported that both his wife Lena and his son are doing well. The chef has previously explained how he and his business partner, Tarek Mustafa, fled the snowdrifts and frigid temperatures and frequent gang violence of Chicago, Illinois, several years ago and subsequently purchased Camilya’s that was one of the first eateries in the Oklahoma City area to serve the Mediterranean food that is now popular here. While the heat of summer in Oklahoma was a new experience for him, Sarsour has indicated that the return of warmer weather here was a welcome event that usually does not occur in Chicago until much later in the year.
The chef and his wife also have a daughter, Zaina, who is slightly over one year in age, and he told of how she has joyously welcomed the new addition to their family. Lena Sarsour, who was formerly a teacher of English in the couple’s former home in the Kingdom of Jordan, is prepared to take on the responsibility of a new child and he is prepared to be part of that process as well. By all accounts, Zaina is a precocious child, and has a notable fondness for the popular children’s song “Baby Shark,” and likes to dance to it. Apparently the usually reserved Sarsour told a regular customer of his daughter’s partiality to that ditty, and that patron is said to come into the place and sing the lyrics to him which has prompted other patrons to question the degree of sobriety that is enjoyed by that individual. And Sarsour has said that he looks forward to raising his family in Oklahoma City , where he has been welcomed by virtually everyone he has encountered.
 

Senator Ted Cruz’s Flight To Cancun.

“The millionaires special” is how one British tabloid characterized the life boat that carried  White Star  Line executive  J. Bruce Ismay and several women away from the doomed Titanic in 1912 as that ship  began to descend into the icy North Atlantic waters after its fatal collision with an iceberg.   That vessel was on its maiden voyage  from the United Kingdom to New York City and was the property of the White Star Line which apparently allowed Ismay to commandeer a coveted seat in a life boat as other passengers prepared to meet their death as the cold ocean  water began to engulf the upper decks of the Titanic an the vessel’s  band began to play “Nearer My God To Thee.”
And Texas Senator Ted Cruz’s flight from Houston to Cancun,  Mexico has resulted in similar words of derision from a variety of sources in both print and social media as has his inept  response to the initial criticism of his flight.  The lawmaker said that it was done at the request of his two  daughters, who are students at an exclusive private school in Houston, but the New York Times subsequently published emails written by his wife in which she invited some of their affluent friends and neighbors to accompany them to that destination at an exclusive and expensive  hotel  in Cancun  as a way to escape the devastation  of Houston which suggested it was more of a way for the well connected and affluent to escape Houston where the temperature hovered around 30 degrees. “The insolence of office” along with  “The laws delay” were two of the things that  Prince Hamlet lamented in the Shakespeare play that bears his name, and the fact that Cruz had a contingent of Houston police officers escort him and his family  from their home to the airport when they surely had more important  things to do in order to  assist the beleaguered citizens of their city is  an example of such official insolence. Senator Cruz further said that he intended to return immediately after leaving his family in Cancun, but his plane reservations indicated otherwise as did the size of the luggage that he was carrying when he was at the airport preparing to board his flight. Images of him with his baggage were also  widely circulated on social media.   Several prominent Democrats in the Lone  Star State, including the individual  who Cruz narrowly defeated in his  recent reelection race, former Congressman Beto O’Rourke, who has been working tirelessly to assist those impacted by the cold and resulting adverse conditions, have called on him to resign his post, but  the current state of our tribal politics will probably allow  the lawmaker to survive this mishap due to the GOP’s strength in Texas. But his expedition to Mexico  may  complicate his efforts to seek the presidency again   in 2024, and  the nicknames that it has earned him on social media,  “Cancun Cruz” and “Flying Ted,”  will surely be part of his political baggage  from now on.
 

Amir Samour Feeds The Homeless In OKC

Amir Samour

 It was reported in the Oklahoma City media that Governor Stitt saw fit to escape the bitter cold and ice that recently descended on Oklahoma by taking his family on an out of state skiing trip  while most Oklahomans  huddled in their homes and suffered from occasional  power outages that sent many of them scurrying to locate flashlights and generators. Many  citizens  who did venture out found themselves   literally spinning their wheels  in the accumulated snow and  relying on the kindness of strangers to assist them  by pushing their stationary vehicles to where they could get traction, and still others had to abandon their cars in snowdrifts and wait for friends or family members to rescue them. But one group of Oklahomans  saw fit to brave the cold and treacherous ice and snow to supply food to homeless people who inhabit a series of tents that are found in Downtown Oklahoma City.
  Their numbers included a personable and engaging  young man,  Amir Samour, who is currently a student at Santa Fe High School in Edmond, who joined a group of other young people from the  Muslim  community  in Edmond  to distribute fresh food   that was prepared by the Cous Cous Restaurant on May Avenue  in Oklahoma City. Those items, that included meat bread, and other fare,  were placed in fifty to go boxes that  generated steam in the cold Oklahoma air as they were carried by the young volunteers  to their destination in  the   tent community downtown. He further told of how he and his companions announced their presence outside of the tents, and how many of the occupants  visibly shivered when they were admitted and handed the food containers to them,  but some of them shed tears of gratitude when they actually saw the food that they were being given. The group’s efforts are part of a national Muslim service organization, and are a result of the followers of the  faith of Islam’s duty to provide assistance  to  the less fortunate among us.  Samour told of how  provide such direct assistance two times a month, and on occasion provide clothing to those that  they encounter. The young man spoke with feeling about  how his  work with those poverty stricken individuals   have made him grateful for the comfortable life that he and his siblings enjoy to the success of his father who is a Syrian immigrant who has prospered in the car business. Samour, who is 17 years old and is fluent in both Arabic and English, explained that he  plans to continues  his public service by attending medical school after he completes his undergraduate university education and looks forward to joining the estimated fifty practicing  physicians in the Oklahoma City area  that share his Syrian heritage. He also said that he plans to continue distributing food to the homeless for the foreseeable future.

Mardi Gras Float Houses In New Orleans

 

“It has been said that a Scotsman has not seen the world until he has seen Edinburgh and I think that I may say that an American has not seen the United States  until he has seen Mardi Gras in New Orleans,” Mark Twain wrote in the Nineteenth Century, and Mardi Gras in that city is has long been part of the nation’s cultural heritage.   But as a result of the super spreader event that had occurred   in a previous public event  in New Orleans, that city’s mayor, LaToya Cantrell, saw fit to   ban the  parades  that are traditionally held  during the Mardi Gras season. Mardi Gras Day is on February 16^th this year.  While that decision  may have been warranted due to the lethality of the coronavirus, it dealt a harsh blow to the city’s economic well being , and it had previously been estimated that the Mardi Gras season brought $500 million into the economy of  New Orleans. Much of that revenue resulted from the tourists who came there and filled it’s hotels and inns and restaurants and bars,  but it also included the parade floats that were decorated by local artists with various themes that often  slyly and subtly  commented on social and political issues. Those floats were manned by private groups known as “krewes” and their members  traditionally threw  beads and doubloons to those who stood on sidewalks as the parade  went by.  The local media there  has  detailed how many of those artists  were  struggling  economically as a result, but with characteristic resourcefulness , a group of  them  and their supporters  came together several months ago  and decided to transform homes into the equivalent of floats by decorating them in a similar manner. As a  consequence, many homes throughout that colorful city are   now festooned with   bright decorations  that include flowers, dinosaurs, and other creations and their has already been a picture book titled “Porches On Parade,”  that features many of them. There is also a private Facebook Page,  “Krewe of House Floats” that includes pictures of many of  house floats  and currently has over  15,000 members.  It also provides advise  and training to those who wish to decorate their homes.  During the recent holiday season the Town Square of Altus, Oklahoma, was lit up by colorful Christmas lights of various colors in an artistic manner, and were widely circulated on social media, and similar color arrangements are visible on many houses in New Orleans  once the sun sets which has resulted in convoys of vehicles making their way through that city’s thoroughfares and making frequent stops to take  pictures of various lit up houses.  And it is possible that the tradition of house decorating in New Orleans during the Mardi Gras season will continue even after the  ravages of the coronavirus are a thing of the past and the parades return.
 

The White Radicals In Our Midst

 “The Southern African  Freedom Trail” is located in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia in Southern Africa, and consists in part  of the buildings that served as the offices of the African National Congress of South Africa, a political party that was banned in its home country until 1994.   Before it was legalized by the South African government, the Congress would on occasion send clandestine  representatives into that nation who would  engage in acts of sabotage against the  White minority  government that ruled there at that time, and some of the activist  who were involved in those  dangerous undertakings would later   describe  how they were told in Lusaka by their superiors  in the organization of how they could locate the safe house that had been designated for them to meet their contacts  by signs such as  a front door that has a milk bottle adjacent to it or a house  with a bike wheel  leaning against it.  The effectiveness of those sabotage operations is reflected in the fact that on several occasions the South African Army staged daring  raids on the buildings in Lusaka from which their intelligence indicated that they were planned.  
And one wonders if the marauders who invaded our  Capital Building on January 6^th  of this year  coordinated their arrival in Washington in the days before the assault in a somewhat similar coordinated manner, and since they are not under any legal restriction that would prohibit them from doing so.  Several months ago, a similar group of radicalized white men and some women had plotted to kidnap  the Democratic  chief executive of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, and while that undertaking was foiled by state and local authorities,  the law enforcement agents who investigated that  plot expressed surprise and concern about how well organized and disciplined those conspirators proved to be, and it is possible that  as the cases against those who are facing criminal charges as a result  of that assault begin to make their way through the court system similar   troubling aspects of planning  and coordination  will be revealed. The brazenness displayed by those  radicalized White supremacists is possibly of a confidence born of a belief that their numbers are growing and they will ultimately be victorious.   It is possible that future historians of our time will conclude that  the true  significance of the rioters erecting a  makeshift  gallows on the Capital  grounds  and their efforts to locate Vice  President Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was not truly appreciated by the rest of the citizenry. Henry Kissinger once observed that one of the advantages that revolutionaries have is that their opponents in the existing regime really don’t grasp what their true intentions are, and when  former Trump associate and pardon recipient  Steve Bannon described himself as a “Leninist” intent on destroying the “administrative state,’ it was dismissed by many as just public posturing in his part. African American novelist Maya Angelou once said “ That  when someone shows you their true self believe them,” and the American people should heed her advice when dealing with the white radicals in our nation.

 

The Okes To Be Featured On “Fired Up Kitchen” On Sunday, February 20th, 2021

Hugues and Stenie Oke.

Cathy and Sean Cummings.

The Riverwalk in New Orleans, Louisiana is a series of stores and restaurants that stand adjacent to the Mississippi River and were constructed on what had formerly been an abandoned and moribund wharf   where ships had their good unloaded by dockworkers. It includes a walkway where attendees can view that mighty waterway and the ships and barges that make their way on it, and it includes a series of plaques on the metal fence that is in place there that tell of the colorful history of both the Mississippi and the city of New Orleans, and one of them details how the word “Creole” is derived from the Spanish word “ Criollo” that originally denoted those who were born in France or Spain when New Orleans was a French and Spanish colony, but in time it grew to include the food and culture that those immigrants brought to New Orleans. Also, those traditional foods  and culture    received contributions from the African slaves who were brought there and   subsequent contributions from later arrivals from Italy, Ireland, and other places. And the term “Creole” is also used in the African island nation of Mauritius, where it denotes   a somewhat similar combination of French and Spanish culture  resulting from   colonial rule, as well as contributions from African and Indian immigrants who were brought there by colonial officials. One person who is intimately familiar with the Creole food of Mauritius is in the Oklahoma City area, Stenie Oke. She has been living in Oklahoma for over a decade, and along with her husband has recently purchased the Baba G Mediterranean Grill on Memorial Avenue in Oklahoma City. She recently told  of how she began cooking that fare when she was a young girl. And like the Creole food prepared in restaurants in New Orleans and other places in southern Louisiana, the variety found in Mauritius relies upon rice for  many dishes and French items that were favored by the Gallic officials who once ruled the island. The restaurateur is herself of mixed  African, Indian, and Australian ancestry. Her husband is originally from the African nation of Benin.
While Stenie Oke is fond of the Mediterranean fare that accounts for the current popularity and success  of Baba G’s,  and will maintain the menu that brings many patrons from the adjacent Mercy Hospital and physician’s offices to it during the lunch and dinner hours, she intends to convert a currently unused section of the place that formerly served as a hookah bar into a dining area where she can serve Creole food from her native Mauritius. Her plans have attracted interest from the Oklahoma City media, including a visit from television reporters from a local station, and she reports that on Sunday, February 20^th of this year she will be the guests of the notable foody couple  Sean and Cathy Cummings, who are the owners and operators of Sean Cummings Irish Pub and Vito’s Italian Ristorante respectively. Sean and Cathy Cummings are also host of a popular weekly radio show titled Fired Up Kitchen that is broadcast on   KOKC radio station on Sunday’s at noon. Cathy Cummings, who is known for the large sunglasses and her radiant good looks that give her a marked resemblance to Jackie Kennedy Onassis,  in addition serves as mayor of the Village, and her husband is a very active in civic affairs as well. And  Oke said  she and her husband  look forward to meeting them and explaining what their  plans are the  for Baba G Mediterranean Grill.

Rock And Rumble Car Show And Cruise In Altus, OK

  It has long been said that one of the harbingers of Spring in the British capital of   London in the United Kingdom  is the sweet  singing of nightingales in the trees that surround Berkley Square in the affluent  Belgrave section of that city. And one of the heralds of Spring in the community of Altus in Southwest Oklahoma is the  arrival there  of a platoon  of late model motor vehicles  that are participants in the “Rock and Rumble Car Show and Cruise”  that will be  held there on  April 30^th   and May  1^st this year.  Those vehicles begin amassing in close proximity to the Jackson County Courthouse- Altus is the county seat of Jackson County-   on the morning of April 30^th ,and the presence of some large vehicles that were manufactured in the U S in  early 1960’s gives the area a flavor of Havana Cuba, where such land yachts are still in circulation due to the American embargo of goods to that island nation. The cars include elderly  Oldsmobiles   and finned Cadillacs   of the type that protrude from the landscape at the famed “Cadillac Ranch” in Amarillo, Texas,   that was celebrated in a song on a Bruce Springsteen album. There is also somewhat of a generation gap in that some younger participants arrive with brightly painted muscle cars of the genre  that were featured in popular television shows in the 1970’s when many of their drivers were teenagers.
 While the gathering has been ongoing for years, Lynna Wilmes, the  energetic  director of the Altus Main Street Program that is one of the sponsors of it, reports that it has  recently grown to include  a  “Battle of the Bands” gathering  on the Courthouse Square on the evening of April 30^th, food and craft shows on both days, a poker run, and an event sponsored by the  Altus  Fire Department, as well as motorcycle and   car show. Refrehments will be provided by food trucks and local restaurants.
In recent years, a pair of Africans   artists who create works in metal, Wengai and Ruth Kahuni, have participated  in events in Altus and sold their creative work there  that included  African animals under a pale blue sky while  people  studied their art.  Ruth Kahuni travelled from her native Zimbabwe in Southern Africa to sell her art  in Johannesburg, South Africa, years ago, and after her most recent participation at an event in Altus she said that “The people of Altus are much nicer than the people in Johannesburg.” And it is probable that many more people will reach a similar conclusion after the Rock and Rumble Car Show and Cruise there is held.
 

“Casablanca” To Be Shown In Ponca City On Valentine’s Day

“We’ll always have Paris,” Humphrey Bogart consoles  Ingrid Bergman with those words  in the classic film “Casablanca” after he  tells her that he will not leave that place with her and that  she must accompany her husband, anti-Nazi leader Victor Lazlo, because he needs  her support and presence  to continue his struggle against the Nazis. The two had previously been lovers, and had spent time in Paris before it fell to the Germans during the Second World War,  and  like most couples,   they   had fond memories of their time together in the City of Light. And the recently installed New York Times Paris Bureau chief,  Roger Cohen, has recently written an evocative article  in which he wrote “perhaps the most famous line in a movie was wrong”  as  the coronavirus  lockdown  has resulted   in  empty chairs and tables  that he encounters  in abandoned boulevards  and  blank small chalkboards that previously advised cheerful Parisians of the tasty fare that awaited them at the numerous cafes that grace that  romantic  city. Bogart plays a seemingly cynical American expatriate, Rick Blaine, who operates Rick’s Bar in Casablanca, a city in a French colony in North Africa  that has swelled with thousands of refugees who have fled the Nazi advance through Europe who are now stateless and have nowhere else to go. “ I don’t stick my neck out for anybody,” Blaine states on several occasions, but when an arrogant Nazi colonel arrives in Casablanca and puts pressure on the French colonial officials there to arrest the recently arrived Victor Lazlo, who had previously escaped from  German captivity, he  reveals his true colors. The film is known for  its witty dialogue , and one of its more memorable lines, “round up the unusual suspects,” served as a title for a   film.
   The iconic Poncan Theatre in Ponca City  has hosted a variety of events, both live and on film  after its opening in 1927,  and in the early decades of the last century vaudeville acts that included actors such as Will Rogers and the formidable Ethel Barrymore performed on its stage. Perhaps the most intriguing performers  who have graced it’s floor boards  are the ghost hunters who  have gone there in pursuit of long dead spirits and  it may be that some of their findings may have much in common with the techniques used by the  magicians and illusionists who appeared there decades ago  as part of the vaudeville circuit. And the Poncan Theatre will show “Casablanca” on its screen on Valentines Day this year, and the community of Ponca City and neighboring communities romantics  will be in attendance and many of them will be dressed in attire from that era in accordance with the suggestion of the theatre’s managers. It is probable that many of the classic lines from that movie will be repeated in Ponca City after the showing and that people there will be viewing more of Humphrey Bogart’s films.