Hummus from Kansas City

Sean and Cathy Cummings

Listeners to the   “Fired Up Kitchen” radio production which is aired on Sundays and is said to include much of the members of the emerging foodie scene in the Oklahoma City area,   have often heard the hosts of that show,  Sean and Cathy Cummings, who own and operate the adjoining Sean Cummings Irish Pub and Vito’s Ristorante on May Avenue respectively, reference the fact that they are natives of Kansas City, Missouri, and that both of their families were in the restaurant business there.  More recently, Sean Cummings has told of how his sister and brother in law operate a successful business making hummus in a variety of flavors that is sold there, and in response to a request from a listener who has also been a guest on their show, he brought back from Kansas City several containers filled with them. His sister, Jean Cummings,  and her husband, Mohamed Hamid, who is a native of Egypt, had operated a successful Kansas City restaurant that was destroyed in a fire, and that after that misfortune they started a new business packaging and selling the hummus that had formerly been offered at their eatery. That proved to be a wise decision, and their business, which is modestly known as “Mo’s World’s Greatest Hummus,”  has prospered, and their hummus is in great demand in the Kansas City area and comes in seven flavors that include Original, Indian Curry, Black Olive, Cucumber, Roasted Red Pepper, Spicy Pepper, and  Sun-Dried Tomato, and it is dispensed in containers that indicate that  it is handmade by Mo, and is gluten-free and  that it “Is the world’s greatest hummus.” And in a recent edition of their show, the Cummings and several of their guests sampled that hummus by dipping pita bread and chips into it and then devoured them,  and their enthusiasm for its flavorful and tangy taste was shared with their radio audience.  Both Cummings told of how they traditionally add ingredients to hummus and other concoctions that they receive from others, which is perhaps not surprising since they both are chefs as well as restaurateurs, and told of how feta cheese is a product that they often place in hummus and salsa that others have prepared for them, and suggest that others should do so as well. The website and Facebook Page maintained by the company indicate that it is available throughout the greater Kansas City area in Missouri and that expansions into other areas is contemplated as well. Unlike the hummus that is produced in the Oklahoma City area, the Kansas City samples that Sean Cummings brought with him do not have a relatively soft texture and its overall flavor does not indicate the presence of much olive oil, which seems to be a key component of the local variety. Histories of African American music in the Oklahoma City area document the influence that Kansas City musicians had on that local art form, and it may be possible that in time the version of hummus prepared there will influence how that concoction is prepared here.

Replenishment Of Supply Of Humus

 I have previously written about  two adult  members of an Oklahoma City family who engage in a monthly ritual that includes an expedition to a medical facility where one of them has  his blood drawn by a sympathetic nurse while the other reads magazines while she waits for the process to be completed. Afterwards, they retreat  to a residence where they eat pita chips  immersed in hummus and drink white wine and beer. Several months ago, their regular  supplier of hummus, Camilya’s Mediterranean Café on May Avenue, had abruptly closed,  but they managed to find another source for that commodity in Baba G Mediterranean Grill on Memorial Avenue.
While the staff of the medical facility in question  has previously reported that the patient is normally as punctual as an executioner, in the current month he materialized there approximately 45 minutes after the time scheduled for his appearance, and it was explained  that that tardiness was a consequence of vehicle keys being left  behind a locked door, which was remedied when a pretty young woman who was transporting a somewhat groggy  little child and a large dog suddenly appeared with what was apparently another key.
After the convalescent had his blood sampled by a young  woman in blue  scrubs with a tattooed neck,  he was advised that he would see the physician who is overseeing his care, which made him wonder if his  partially unpaid  tab at the facility had become a matter   of concern, but  he was advised by the doctor that  his blood would not be drawn due to the  improvement in it’s content that he attributed to the medicine he had previously  prescribed.  Buoyed by  that good news, the duo departed in a cheerful manner, and made their way to Baba G’s, which is in relatively close proximity to the medical facility, to replenish their stash of hummus, where they were told that it is now available in two varieties, regular and spicy.  The original version of humus that is offered their was based on a recipe that Ghassan Dabbour, the original owner of the eatery had bequeathed to the current proprietors along with the lease, and  it had been  popularized in  the Middle Eastern emirate of Kuwait  by Dabbour’s older brother, who had operated a place there, and a portrait of the elder Dabbour remains in place  on the wall at Baba G’s.  After some discussion, that included  a degree of  reflection on their mutual experience with  spicy versions of salsa, and their fondness for Ghassan Dabbour, they chose  the regular one, and made their way to the residence where the cache of beer and wine had been patiently awaiting their arrival and seemed to give the hummus and bagel chips a heightened flavor.

The Case of Julius Jones

“You can judge the vigor of a man by the venom of his enemies,” British Statesman Winston Churchill once observed, and the  venom currently being directed at Oklahoma County District Attorney David  Prater  would suggest that he is a man of exceptional vigor, with one group is currently circulating  a grand jury  petition asking that he  be investigated for alleged wrongdoings and the proponents of the supposed innocence  of Julius Jones  attacking him for having the temerity to state that Jones is actually guilty of the murder of  Edmond resident Paul Howell that an Oklahoma County jury found that he had committed. He was sentenced to death and is currently on Death Row at Oklahoma State Penitentiary  in McAlester  The Jones camp  has asserted many falsehoods regarding his case, including that a co-defendant had a secret deal with Prater’s office that resulted in him being released from the custody of the DOC early and that  the prosecutor had failed to disclose to Jones’ attorneys  the  relevant materials that were in his file.  Jones and his allies, who have had  a local  public relations firm assisting them, have also attracted supporters from the world of  professional sports  as well as the domain of the Celebrity Industrial Complex where that noted legal expert, Kim Kardashian West, has issued a barrage of tweets alleging that  the death row inmate is  innocent  of that murder. It has previously been reported that West  has seen fit to visit Jones in McAlester, and one wonders if she has conducted any further research on the actual record of the case.  In a recent submission to  the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board regarding the case, Prater enumerated the number of falsehoods that have been made regarding Jones, and further detailed how the Death Row inmate has engaged in numerous financial transactions and had discussions with others about the possibility of selling shirts and sneakers with his name on them. One of the assertions set forth in support of Jones is that he had a valid defense to the murder, in that he was not in Edmond at the time it was committed, but the attorneys who represented him at trial failed to present it to the jury, and that that omission constitutes ineffective assistance of counsel on their part. That allegation was rebutted by David McKenzie, who was one of Jones’ trial counsels, who in a written submission to the Board said that Jones did not have an alibi that would have placed him somewhere else, and that was one of the reasons they decided not to have him testify in his own defense, and  that Jones’ current legal representatives have lied to the Board in their previous statement regarding the case. Rudyard Kipling wrote in the poem “If’ that  “If you can bear to hear the truth you have spoken made a trap for fools by knaves……. You will be a man, my son,” and history will record that  Prater has spoken the truth regarding  Julius Jones and the supporters of Jones, however  well meaning they may be, have been fooled.

Village Fall Festival

Former Village Mayor Cathy Cummings and Village City Manager Bruce Stone

In the morning hours of Saturday, October 23, 2021, a collection of tents of various  bright colors began to appear in  Duffner Park in the Village on Hefner Road and soon different individuals began to place themselves under them and it was explained that they were manning those posts as part of the annual Village Fall Festival. Many of them were employees of the Village’s Police and Fire Departments. By mid morning throngs of people of different ages and ethnicities made their way there and many of them were accompanied by young children who were clad in Halloween costumes who participated in displays of their often imaginative attire on a stage that was in place there  that was emceed by former Village mayor Cathy Cummings who was  succeeded by several other women. In addition, the children were offered rides on a small train that was apparently free from the need for railroad tracks, and their laughter filled the air as they sat in  open cars of bright pastel colors. Two enormous structures that appeared to be beached Spanish galleons were, upon further examination,  revealed  to be bounce houses, and several other ones were also in place, one of which had the wording “Star Wars” on it that brought children who were dressed as characters from that film series to it where they  wielded  small  light sabers  in a joyous manner before entering it’s confines.
 At one of the tents overseen by volunteers  young people were afforded the opportunity to paint faces on live pumpkins and the resulting works often revealed an artistic talent that they may not have had the opportunity to publicly display previously.  One of the tents was operated by Aaron Hart, who was offering for sale his own creation of  Salsa as well as a spirited version of  a Bloody Mary concoction that he said could be mixed with different alcoholic beverages. His products were sold under the commercial name of “Silas Salsa” and he told of that Silas was his now deceased dog who he believed was the only other living creature who truly understood him. A portion of the proceeds from his sales  are given to a dog rescue operation. A pack of baying hounds who were confined to metal cages were also present at the gathering, and it was explained that they were eligible for immediate adoption to good and appropriate homes.  One of the volunteers present was Bruce Stone, who serves as the city manager for the Village, and he  is indicative of the increasing sophistication and worldliness that is increasingly  found in local government in Oklahoma. He  told of how he grew up in various Asian locales where his father served as a State Department official, and that he is fluent in Chinese and several other Asian tongues as a result. He further told of how his wife is a native of Laos and how he and his family had recently visited that nation. And the diversity that is increasingly found in Oklahoma was also evident in the number of  South Asian  immigrants who were in attendance and how frequently Spanish was spoken there.

Hummus Sampling That Is To Take Place At Sean Cumming’s Irish Pub In OKC

 Last week I penned a story about an illustrious family in Oklahoma City who has two members that engage in  monthly ritual that includes an expedition to a physician’s office where one of them has his blood drawn and after the extraction is completed they return to the home of the other one where they commemorate the event by drinking wine and consuming pita chips that are immersed in hummus. They had traditionally purchased the hummus at the Camilya’s Restaurant in Quail Plaza on May Avenue, but that establishment is no longer in operation, and they were compelled to locate an alternative source for that Middle Eastern concoction as a result. A friend had suggested that they go to Baba G Mediterranean Grill on West Memorial Avenue to establish a connection where they can acquire hummus and they subsequently did so, and I detailed how they concluded that Baba G ‘s hummus was among the best in the Oklahoma City area after they had sampled it. Subsequently, another member of that family contacted me, despite the fact that I did not identify the family by name, and advised me that “everyone knows that the best hummus in Oklahoma City is made at ZamZam Mediterranean Grill on MacArthur Avenue.” She further advised me that her siblings fondness for the hummus made at Baba G’s may have been influenced by the formidable  amount of wine that they had consumed, and suggested that  I should research that aspect of their experience to see if I could establish such a correlation. Another individual saw fit to contact me and said that the hummus at the appropriately named  Hummus Mediterranean Café on May Avenue would also serve as a new source for that family, and that at all costs they should avoid purchasing the  hummus that is sold  at  convenience  stores in the Oklahoma City area. The matter was further complicated when  Sean and Cathy Cummings invited me to be a guest on their  Sunday radio show, “The Fired Up Kitchen,” and Sean, who is the owner and operator of the  Irish pub that bears his name on May Avenue, said that he has a sister who makes hummus in a variety of different flavors in Kansas City, Missouri. With characteristic generosity, Sean told me  that he would be visiting her this week, and would bring back samples of her hummus concoctions  and  that I could sample them at his establishment. I promptly agreed to his proposal, and look forward to devouring the hummus  in all of its variety that is made by his sibling.

Roughtail Brewing Company on Memorial Ave. In OKC

In “Our Towns, A 100,000- Mile Journey Into the Heart of America,” authors and co-pilots Deborah and James Fallows write of their findings of the state of the US after traveling through it via airplane, and they conclude that while our national government has been in gridlock for several years, at the state and local level there are examples of bipartisan cooperation that are currently transforming the country.
One on their more intriguing conclusions is the response that they received in communities when they asked who their local leaders where, and they assert that if they did not receive several names immediately in response there was a good possibility that that particular place was not in the process of rebuilding, but if they were given such names the locale was often undergoing renovation and possibly renaissance.  They also document how the opening of a local brewery often heralded a rebirth for a  community. And while the authors did not make it to Oklahoma’s capital city, there are an increasing number of local breweries here that are indicative of rebirth and renovation. One of the more recent ones is located at 320 West Memorial Road  and is known as “Roughtail Brewing Company” and on a recent fall evening Michael Stanley, who was manning the bar there offered a tour of it’s brewing area, that is filled with large white containers that resembled the tanks that were formerly  found in  the abandoned oil refineries in Cushing, Oklahoma as well as a refrigerated area  where rows of metal kegs and cans of beer appear to be waiting patiently to be called into service. Upon further examination, those cans were revealed to be embossed with colorful art work  and many of them are seasonal in nature and are brewed for a specific season, and it is said on the website maintained by the establishment  that each of those brews started as a “fan favorite in the taproom.”   There are also rows of wooden barrels that serve to give the brew placed there a desired flavor. Behind the bar is found the  names of the numerous beers that are brewed there as well as their respective alcohol content. Amanda Zoey is an Oklahoma artist of some renown, and one of her lively murals is found on one of the walls that is in close proximity to the bar. The establishment is   following a trend that is  found in the Granny’s Kitchen that is also located on Memorial Road by offering for sale tee shirts and other items that bear it’s logo, and some of those shirts were worn by attendees at the Oktoberfest that was held there recently in which food trucks were tethered in close proximity to the outside area that consists of rows of benches and live music was performed. Many of the attendees purchased the beer steins that were offered as souvenirs of the gathering and could be seen carrying them as they departed.

Hunt For Hummus In OKC Ends At Baba G Mediterranean Grill

 A story has been recently told of how two adult  members of a  prominent local   family have a tradition of visiting a physician on a monthly basis  for the purpose of having  one them of  submitting to having  a portion of his blood drawn, and after that ritual is concluded they return to the home of the other  family member  where they drink several glasses of wine and consume pita chips that they cover with hummus. The hummus that they traditionally purchased was from Camilya’s Mediterranean Café  in Quail Plaza on May Avenue,  and they usually had a sufficient supply of that commodity so  that they did not need  to acquire more of it prior to the visit to the physician’s office. But on their most recent expedition they discovered that their supply was dangerously low, so they went to Camilya’s before their scheduled visit to the doctor only to find the  door to that  establishment grimly  shuttered. A moment of  deep concern   was said to have ensued, which while less frenzied than the  panic expressed in the movie “ The Panic In Needle Park”-which was the breakout film for a very young Al Pacino in 1971- when a pair of heroin addicts could not find their supplier of that illegal  narcotic, but the duo quickly regained their composure and set out to find another place where they could acquire hummus. The family  has deep  ties of friendship with the local Arab immigrant community, and after several hurried phone calls,  they were directed to the Baba G Mediterranean Grill  on Memorial Road  as an alternative source of supply  that is across from Mercy Hospital that had the advantage of being in close proximity to the office maintained by the treating physician, where they  acquired an adequate amount of  fresh hummus, which proved to be of the quality of the commodity that they had previously enjoyed from Camilya’s. And when  they subsequently  sipped their wine and enjoyed the pita chips drenched in hummus  after the scheduled  bloodletting  they took comfort in the knowledge that they had acquired a new source for it that was not in danger of closing.
 Upon further examination, it was revealed that Baba G had previously been owned and operated by Ghassan Dabbour, a local restaurateur of some renown whose preparation of hummus was based on a recipe and procedure that he had brought with him from his native Syria decades ago, and that he had entrusted it to  Hugues and Stenie Oke when he conveyed the establishment to them several years ago . The Okes are   young African immigrants from Benin and the isle of Mauritius respectively, and they recently told of how they  concluded that that  the process for hummus preparation could not be improved upon and decided to keep it in place. They further reported that many of the customers had developed a fondness for that humus which also influenced their decision to maintain it.

A Visit to Main Street Admore

On  Main Street in Ardmore in southern Oklahoma stand two sentries on   both  sides  of that thoroughfare that appear to be scarecrows situated on square bales of hay,  but on a recent morning  that had a hint of  fall in the air they apparently did  not see fit  to challenge any of the vehicles and pedestrians who made their way past them. Additional creatures can be seen standing on the sidewalks there that include a witch, who certain local young males  confidentially report is known for her hex appeal, and a large bloodshot eye  clad in a bloody blue shirt who is situated on a hay bale with a large pair of eye glasses,  as well as other scarecrows who are sitting  sloppily   on metal benches and do not seem to be a matter of concern to those who traverse the street. An adjacent structure features a plaque that tell of how it was occupied at one time by the Noble  family  as a retail store and how their descendants would go on to prosper in the oil industry in the Ardmore area and  one of them would later create the Noble Foundation that   is a agricultural research nonprofit entity that works to improve agriculture production.  
Visitors to the Cuban capital of Havana are warned  of the possibility of building there suddenly collapsing and  descending  on people, and the Communist government  attributes those occurrences  to the continuing U.S. economic embargo of that island nation rather than a failure to adequately maintain those structures and the force of gravity.  And a long standing building on Main Street in Ardmore collapsed without warning as a result of the work that was done on it’s foundation, and it’s location is now  protected by a wooden fence that features wording that encourages passersby to “create art” in large colorful letters  and also  has a mural of a large bird inscribed on it. Directly across the street is found the “Casa Roma” that is a Mexican restaurant owned and operated by an industrious immigrant  family, the Romas, who have made that place one of the most popular eateries in Ardmore and it features a small buffet. A small plaque that is in place there  list  “Jose Romo Family and  Staff, Tony Romo, Pancho Villa” as “Our heroes,” and bears the name of the two patrons who apparently put it in place in 2015. The listing of Pancho Villa on that   plaque maybe a matter of concern to a family of car dealers in Oklahoma City, the Gandaras,  whose  founding father, Felix Gandara,   who was from Juarez, Mexico  and later El Paso, Texas, was pursued by Pancho  Villa, and barely escaped capture by him on a perilous train ride in Mexico. The establishment also has in place ribbons that discourage people from sitting on the benches behind it’s front door that may indicate a concern about the coronavirus and all of the staffers wear surgical masks,  or possibly to discourage the lounging  and idle scarecrows on Main Street from entering the place.  A Christmas tree with  what appeared to be the heads of sunflowers on it as ornaments is already found in the lobby of the Casa Roma. Further down Main Street are found two formidable bank building that appear to be waiting patiently to be called back into service as part of the rebirth of the thoroughfare and across the way from them is yet another bank building with the  seemingly redundant name of “ Bankers Bank Building.” The rebirth of Main Street in Ardmore is largely the result of the work done by the Ardmore Main Street Authority   which  was headed by Jeff DiMiceli  until his recent retirement, but his legacy lives on in the number of  ongoing improvement projects that are listed on a board in the office maintained by Ardmore Main Street on that thoroughfare.

“Sweet Pickins Pumpkin Patch” In Altus

 The community of Altus in southwest Oklahoma paid homage to it’s agricultural heritage recently in a weekend event sponsored by the Altus Main Street organization that brought people to the Altus Town Square where bales of wheat and pumpkins were displayed artfully  on metal benches. And the  commemoration  of  that  heritage continues in a sense there on weekends at a location  known as the “Sweet  Pickins Pumpkin Patch” that is operated by husband and wife Tyler and Destinie Cobb who have amassed an impressive number of pumpkins of various sizes and complexions that are sold to smiling customers for modest sums based on their weight.  There is a five dollar admission fee and children under the age of two are admitted without charge .In addition to the sale of pumpkins, patrons can avail themselves of a petting zoo where pigs and goats interact with smiling children  and have reminded some visitors of the creatures found in  British author George Orwell’s classic political satire “Animal Farm.” Many of those young people have been dressed in Halloween costumes, and it is expected that that trend will continue throughout the month and that some of those costumed creatures will find their way onto  social media for the enjoyment of others.   There is also   an impressive work of art found there that is titled “The Pumpkin Wall” that  consists of a  heroic collection of pumpkins in place on a wall that is said to be the creation of Tyler Cobb that has also made its way onto social media just as the public work of the mysterious British artist Banksie do  and may in time become a symbol of fall in Altus.  How the artist  managed to place all of them there is not known, but the height of the wall suggests the use of a sturdy ladder and an infinite patience. The location is also filled with an intriguing collection of  diverse items that appear to be antiques, and the gracious and enthusiastic Destinie Cobb recently explained that that many of them came from the two story home that her parents had in Quanah, Texas, that they used to construct  large fall arrangements in their front lawn. She and her husband acquired those objects when the home was  sold recently and the Cobbs enjoy going to junk  sales  and some of the items  are now in place at their establishment. As anticipated, many of them are serving as photo ops for the young people that have been in attendance , and  Cobb reports that she enjoys seeing some of the antiques that were in her parent’s home making their way onto Instagram and other parts of social media.

The Quest For Justice For Paul Howell

“ A conversation with a wise man is always worthwhile,”  was a quote from Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky that the late federal court Judge Lee West of Oklahoma City  was known to cite on occasion,  and it can be said that a conversation with a wise woman is of equal value. And the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board recently had the advantage of a conversation with a wise woman in the person of Sandra Elliott, who is a now retired prosecutor who previously served as an assistant district attorney in Oklahoma County. But it seems that the wisdom that Ms. Elliott sought to impart to that body fell on deaf ears.
Elliott served as the chief prosecutor in the murder trial of Julius Jones, who was charged with the murder of Edmond resident Paul Howell in 1999, and  the jury determined was responsible for the crime and imposed a sentence of death on him as a result in 2002.  Since his conviction, the case has been reviewed by both  state and federal appellate courts and none  of them have seen fit to overturn that verdict.Jones, who was 19 years of age at the time when  the crime took place,  has been on death row since that time. But instead of seeking mercy on the grounds of his relative youth at the time of the offense, Elliott pointed out that he and his numerous supporters have resorted to a  public campaign  supported in part by a local public relations firm, based on blatant  falsehoods asserting that he  is actually innocent of that crime, and her assertions were subsequently affirmed by Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater, who was not in office at the time of the trial. But the Board voted to commute his sentence to that of life imprisonment. Both Elliott and Prater pointed out that many of the individuals who are making statements in support of Jones’ claim of innocence have never viewed the actual record of his trial which they have the legal right to do, and instead are relying  on unfounded allegations given to them by Jones’  other supporters.  Both Elliot and Prater have been assailed by those in Jones’ camp who have alleged that they withhold relevant documents from his defense team, but  they turned over all documents to his defense team. The relevant rules of the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board mandate that an applicant for commutation of sentence can not have been found to have tested positive for a controlled dangerous substance   in a stipulated time before their appearance, and that the records of the Department of Corrections indicate that Jones had in fact tested positive and his appearance  before the board was not lawful as a result. Board member Richard Smotherman expressed concerned that the board members  had set a precedent by doing so that may come back to haunt them when other inmates who test positive for illegal narcotics and are denied their right to appeal and point out that Jones was allowed to come before them despite his positive drug tests. Paul Howell was murdered in front of his then two young daughters and his sisters in the driveway of his parent’s Edmond home, and the fabricated statements about Jones’s supposed innocence of the crime have been a source of pain and frustration do his now adult daughters, and they have created a website titled “Justice For Paul Howell” that successfully rebuts much of the misinformation that has been peddled by Jones and his supporters. It should be required reading for all of those who claim that Julius Jones did not murder Paul Howell in cold blood.