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.
Against the Grain 