Holiday Family Lunch At First Bite Cafe

 In 1928 author and historian Will Durant, who would later author the multi volume series “The Story of Civilization,”  covered the Democratic Party National Convention for the New York World.  He wrote of Franklin Delano Roosevelt who was still  recovering from the attack of polio  that he had previously suffered but managed to make a rousing speech on behalf of the eventual Democratic presidential nominee, New York Governor Al Smith,  and insightfully  described the future president as “A figure tall and proud even in suffering; a face of  classic profile, pale with years of  struggle against paralysis …. A man  softened and cleansed  and illumined with pain.” More recently, a historian has said that  the aristocratic  FDR’s bout with polio gave him “compassion forthose who had been crippled by circumstance.” And a recent sojourn in the  upscale and trendy Oklahoma City restaurant First Bite Café  that included a Muslim holiday luncheon with  the owner Ghassan Dabbour, who has endured personal tragedy and is recovering  from a encounter with a deadly disease, reveals a somewhat similar  figure whose visage bears the signs of great pain but also a resolution to go forward without self pity or bitterness. Dabbour’s continued path  forward  has been   strengthened by his current wife- his first wife past away several years ago-FouziaDayrek, who is a  cheerful native of Morocco and  fluent in French, English, and Arabic, and his daughter Noalle Attiyeh and the two grandchildren that she has borne. They, along with Noalle’s husband,  Jasim Attiyeh, and his  father and mother,  Mark  and Rebecca Attiyeh, were also at the luncheon.  The senior Attiyehs who have been married for more than four decades, exude the  contentment and personal satisfaction that is often found in those  who are in such happy unions. The two grandchildren were present as  was Nasser Attiyeh, one of the Attiyeh’s other sons. The two grandfather’s  smiled with pride as their grandchildren scampered around the restaurant and periodically offered them packets of sugar  from other tables that they graciously accepted.  The staffers at the eatery as well as some of the other patrons  displayed an affection for the children  that they reciprocated  in the way that only small children can. The  two men are said to shower those children  with toys and other presents and a recent visitor to the Dabbour residence in north Oklahoma City reported that the toys that were in place there reminded him of a visit to the famed  FAO Schwartz toy store in New York City during the holiday season.  The senior Attiyeh, who was  formerlya restaretuer and owned a profitable chain of IHOP restaurants,  now owns a farm where he raises  a variety of animals and also makes hummus, that Middle Eastern concoction that is increasingly popular in the Oklahoma City, and when a patron at an adjoining table confessed to an inordinate fondness for it, he generously agreed to supply him with a quantity of it.

Muslim Holiday Of Eid Celebrated in OKC

 In the recent  comedy film “Bridesmaids” several young woman crash a yoga session  that is presided over by an instructor in a park by placing their mats slightly outside of the park but close  enough  that they can hear and  follow the instructors directions.  And a somewhat similar occurrence was observed at the Islamic Center of Greater Oklahoma City  on the morning of Wednesday, June 28^th, 2023,where  since the mosque itself was so filled during the prayer session heard to commemorate the recent Muslim holy day that certain worshippers placed their prayer rugs adjacent to the facility’s entrance  where they could hear the rhythmic chanting of the imam and the worshippers inside and prayed there under  a cloudless blue sky. Shortly after the prayer service concluded, the doors opened and the departing faithful revealed the  color and diversity and warmth of the Muslim community of Oklahoma ‘s capital city in vivid  detail, as Pakistani and Indian families wearing glittering suits and African and Arabs in brightly colored robes and occasionally matching headwear began to  congregate on the grounds of the facility seemingly oblivious to the record morning heat. Lace less bright white slippers were the footwear of choice for many of the African men present, who spoke to one another in a number of different African languages as well as French on occasion. Their numbers grew to include robed  swarthy and bearded Afghan men,  some of whom had images of their homeland embossed on their attire and rear windows of their cars, as well as groups of shyly smiling Indonesian women in colorful hijabs. And the occasional sightings of men in medical scrubs who exchanged cheek kisses with many of the other attendees served as a reminder of the role that Muslim’s now play in the delivery of health care to the citizens of Oklahoma City. The attendees were not members of the Muslim community were joyously welcomed and were offered the refreshments that were available. Many of the parents who dressed their children in the traditional attire of their original homeland  may have done so as a way to acquaint their offspring’s with the  culture and sartorial traditions that they had grown up with, while  many of the second generation of immigrants saw fit to dress their children in the clothing that is traditionally worn at schools functions in Oklahoma  such as button down shirt and bow ties and suspenders. Several African attendees  brought a large ice chest  that was filled with bottled water and soft drinks, and they were soon dispensed to those present. A trio of Arab  women who were somewhat incongruously wearing  paper Krispy Kreme Donuts  hats were observed setting up a table  from which they  subsequently dispensed donuts of various types  from boxes that also bore that firm’s logo. Phone cameras were  soon being held  up to memorialize  cheerful images of friends and relatives and were being sent to distant parts of the world to individuals and groups that had not been forgotten.

The Golden Phoenix Restaurant In The Asian District OF OKC

In  1975, when Vietnamese refugees who had fled their country to escape the  reprisals  that  the Communist North Vietnamese was directing at them began to arrive at a military base in Arkansas, several  foresighted individuals, including Ellis Edwards, a veteran of the  US Armed Forces who had served in Vietnam, began to travel to that facility and began to bring  back refugees. And their actions would in time transform Oklahoma’s capital city into a place with a vibrant Asian culture that is seen in   night markets of the type that are found in Asian quarters around the world are held in South Oklahoma City  and what is now the Asian District on Classen Boulevard  where many Asian restaurants and stores are located. An Asian Chamber of Commerce  formally came into existence several months ago as well. It is possible that the successful  integration of those refugees into Oklahoma is what prompted a more recent decision of  the federal government to place refugees from Afghanistan in the state. One of those restaurants is the Golden Phoenix that is located at 2728 Classen Boulevard where patrons are greeted with the fragrances of Asia and rows of fish who appear to be waiting patiently to make their way onto the cooking pans, and the eatery has been a destination for several different tours of the Asian District that have been offered.  Enid native Roberts Stevens, who has been traveling through parts of Asia for more than three decades,  and  could be  described as an “Old Asia Hand,”   a term that is used to describe reporters  and government officials who have developed a love of Asia after having served there. Recently,  Stevens’  saw fit to a take a friend to the  Golden Phoenix, where he  perused the multi page menu much in the manner of   the late Anthony Bourdain’s   enthusiastic studying  of  the offerings  in the Asian restaurants that he visited in the course of his televised travels there. Stevens had previously  taken a friend to what was then  a  new Laotian place in the Plaza District of Oklahoma City, the Mer Da Lao Kitchen, whose  chef, Jeff Chanchaleune, was later  the finalist for a nomination for the prestigious  James Beard  award.  When then President Richard Nixon went to China in 1972 it was said that  Chinese restaurants in our nation’s capital began to add duck to their menus in response to the requests of the members of the press corps who had accompanied him on that historical expedition,   and Stevens who also acquired a fondness for that fowl prepared in the Chinese manner reported   that the duck dishes that he  taken  home with him from the Golden Phoenix  were of the highest quality. The majority of the other patrons were primarily of Asian descent of various ages who used their chopsticks with admirable dexterity, and Stevens observed that an adjacent table of attractive young women were of Vietnamese heritage due to the fact that they each had two cell phones before them as they ate.

Enid Native Robert Stevens Continues To Travel The World

The Golden Phoenix Restaurant that is in the heart of the Asian District in Oklahoma City was an appropriate locale for a dinner rendezvous with Enid native  Robert Stevens, a peripatetic  car dealer  whose passport stampings are indicative  of a world traveler  of the first order who will soon be boarding a flight  that will take him to Mexico City for a time. Enid, which is the county seat of Garfield County, has produced other noteworthy individuals, including the late Sherman Billingsley, a former bootlegger who was convicted of that offense in federal court in Oklahoma City who subsequently make his way to New York City and opened the Stork Club that became a famous place where a variety of celebrities  from various fields would  gather to see and be seen  including gossip columnist and radio personality Walter Winchell who often referenced the club  and its famous patrons in his column and radio presentations. Winchell and the Stork Club would serve as the inspiration for the now classic film “The Sweet Smell Of Success” with Burt Lancaster as a thinly disguised  Winchell and Tony Curtis as a  conniving publicist who is willing to go to great lengths  to cultivate him. But Billingsley and his establishment  gradually began to lose their collective luster in the Post War era, and he subsequently  came to grief after he refused admission to Josephine Baker, the African-American dancer who had become a star in France.
But Stevens’ travels have served to endow him  with an appreciation of cultures and food from throughout the world, and he indicates that after a sojourn in Mexico City he is planning  a journey to the city state of Singapore  where he hopes to meet with his lady friend Pisi from Cambodia, and from their the couple may make their way to Malaysia to explore first hand the mining towns that are located there around the third largest  Malaysian city,  Ipoh,  that hosts a museum that tells of the history of  the tin mining that took place. From there the two  plan to   fly to   Phnom Penh, the capitol of Cambodia, where  Pisi is overseeing the construction of a  building there that Stevens’ has shared images of to friends on social media. And while  it has been suggested to Stevens many times that he needs to bring a camera crew  or at least   a high powered  i-phone with him to record his journeys and the insights that he has gathered from them he has resisted all such entreaties to date,  despite the fact that many of the traveling shows  that are featured on social media are of a markedly modest quality. But he  has on occasion referenced  journals  that are still extant that he has kept on previous expeditions, and it is possible that the writings contained within them will eventually be made public and acquaint others what he has seen and experienced in foreign lands.

Kebabish Restaurant in Norman OK

 

A cable channel has seen fit to run episodes of Anthony Bourdain’s first television series that was known as  “A Cook’s Tour,” and was set in a time when he was still employed as a cook in  the upscale Les Halles Restaurant in  New York City, and apparently did not use the title of chef that he would use in his subsequent   shows. On one episode  from that series a  Bourdain  who’s clad in  a cook’s  white attire,  enters a crowded restaurant kitchen and asks the cooks there to show him the burns that they have on   their hands and arms from exposure to the stove and oven, and he tells of  the ones that he has himself acquired and references some scars that still linger from them. And restaurateur Waseem Ahmed of the Kebabish Bites  Restaurant of Norman recently told of the number of burns he bore years ago when he first ventured into the hospitality industry  as a cook in a chicken fast food place in the Oklahoma City area. And while Ahmad, who is an immigrant from the South Asian state of Pakistan, who  began   to study business administration at Central State University in  Edmond Oklahoma in 2002, and later had   a successful career in business, reports that he,  like Bourdain, was not deterred by the burns he had endured, and decided to return  to work in the hospitality business.  When Ahmed  first came to the US  he missed the food prepared in Pakistan when he first came to the US and when he moved to Norman in 2019 he decided to  take over the operations  of a South Asian  eatery, Kebabish Bites, a  tastefully decorated place that is now situated in a strip shopping center off of Interstate 35 that opened  when Norman was in the grip of the coronavirus. Oklahoma City native and historian William Manchester wrote in ‘The Glory And the Dream”  that detailed America history after the onset of the Great Depression, wrote of how the newly elected Franklin  Roosevelt realized after he made his way into the Oval Office in the White House that he could not doing anything by himself, so  picked up the telephone and began to call others to assist him.  Ahmed recently told of how he had a similar realization when  he sat on the floor of his new location during that difficult time and called upon others, including    his mother, Shamim  Akhtar,  who  assisted him in putting a new floor in place  there and also used  recipes from her family in Pakistan to construct the detailed menu that  features several items that are now popular with the people of Norman. It has been reported that she has often  been observed   in the establishment’s kitchen providing affectionate guidance to  him and his brother Hamza, who assists him in the preparation of food and the operation of the place.  In addition to being a successful restaurateur, Ahmad, is also  involved in the food scene of both Oklahoma City and Norman, and recently hosted a gathering at his place that was attended by other chefs, including recent  James Beard award recipient and Oklahoma City native   Andrew Black, whom he has a close friendship with. He told of how Black, who is African- American heritage, had an Indian grandmother,and that the future  award winning chef grew up cooking Indian and Pakistani food under her tutelage, and that their shared love of that cuisine has served in part as the basis of their friendship.   Over a large plate of  aloo paratha,  that is composed of  bread, potatoes, and cilantro and  strong Pakistani tea, Ahmed told of how his chicken and beef  dishes  have developed a following among his diverse clientele as  has his naan bread. He further detailed  how  a teacher in the  neighboring  community of Noble  brought a class of forty students to his  place where he told them  of the history of his native Pakistan and his Islamic faith, and that his presentation was well received and that another teacher has requested he deliver  his presentation to one of her classes. And Waseem Ahmed said that he is grateful to the people of Norman  for the success his restaurant has enjoyed.

New Jamaican Food Truck In OKC

 

A new addition to the Oklahoma food truck scene  made it’s initial appearance  at 1726 NW 23^rd Street in Oklahoma City on the evening of  Thursday, June 22^nd,2023.  The vehicle, that bore the name “Who Cooks Food,”  dispensed the spicy  and flavorful  culinary fare of Jamaica, and is operated by  Oklahoma City attorney Bryan Clarke, who is a native of that Caribbean isle, and his partner Avalyn Green, who is also from Jamaica.  Clarke and Green tell of how they have long thought that the expanding Oklahoma City area food scene warranted  more of a Caribbean flavor, and were inspired in part by the number of American chefs, such as the late Anthony Bourdain and Andrew Zimmern who had visited Jamaica and other Caribbean isles and praised the local cuisines there. In the  bright red truck’s kitchen   was found a chef, Omar  Shaw, who is also a native of Jamaica, who has had a successful career in various kitchens in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, who saw fit to fly to Oklahoma City  to participate in the maiden culinary voyage of  the vehicle. Clarke and Green explained that the truck was the property of a former deputy sheriff of Oklahoma County,  Terence Whitehorn, and he has agreed to let them operate  the vehicle for a time, and they may later open a brick and mortar establishment in the Oklahoma City area. The truck was strategically tethered  near  the Kindred Spirits Bar, which was hosting an event sponsored by the Black Chamber of Commerce of Oklahoma City  and several other organizations, and the vast majority of the attendees who made their  way to that gathering were well dressed young men and women  of African American heritage  who  made their way to the  truck to sample it’s offerings, that included  jerk chicken, curry goat, curry chicken, and curry shrimp,  that  served as a  reminder of the Indian influence on Jamaican cuisine as a result of the  laborers from the Indian subcontinent  that England brought to the Caribbean  more than a century ago to toil in the sugar cane fields.  There was also a side dish,  described as being “rice and peas” on the handwritten menu, but was immediately recognizable as the red beans and rice that is a mainstay of the New Orleans and South Louisiana diet. The guests, the majority of whom carried themselves with the confidence  and  seeming obliviousness to the sweat inducing humidity  that filled the area that suggested   a successful prior career in  high school or college athletics, seemed to go out of their way to make the few White guests present feel welcome. And the public spirited Clarke, who had previously worked with underprivileged  children at the Oklahoma Office of Juvenile Affairs before he went to law school, has indicated that he intends to tether the truck at that location on Thursday late afternoon and evenings and to reach out to the various faith leaders  in the area to see if his truck could be used to provide training in the culinary arts  to at risk young people.

Breakfast At First Bite Cafe With Ronald Swadley

“ The Lion in Winter” is a now classic movie  that was set  in  England  and released in 1968  with an all star cast that tells the tale of an aging British monarch, Henry II who is  celebrating Christmas in 1183 with his wife, Queen Eleanor,  and his three sons who all want to be appointed his successor, and  the king confronts a variety of intrigues  initiated by his ambitious sons as well as his wife. But the King  remains strong and steadfast despite the machinations of his power seeking heirs, and remains serene despite the  increasing physical infirmities that he must deal with.  And the Oklahoma City area may have  a modern day  Lion  in winter in the person of octogenarian   Ronald  Swadley, the visionary founder of the Swadley Barbeque chain of restaurants that are now  found throughout the Oklahoma City area and the state of Oklahoma. Like King  Henry, Ronald Swadley is facing health challenges, and in recent months he has had to use a wheelchair and is dependent on an oxygen cord to maintain his breathing at an adequate level. He also undergoes  kidney dialysis on a frequent basis. The author Lillian Hellman once wrote of how she attended a gathering  at the White House in Washington DC that was hosted by then President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who also had to use a wheelchair, and she wrote of how when he entered the room his radiant  dynamism and charm was such that  she and the  other guests hardly noticed his wheelchair. A somewhat similar observation could be made about the senior Mr. Swadley, who radiates a personal warmth and  kindness  and  his deep concern for others, particularly  for his numerous employees, is legendary. He further resembles FDR in his courageous refusal to allow illness to restrict his life, and on a recent breakfast at First Bite Café on Memorial Avenue in Oklahoma City he exuded a warmth and self assurance of the type that Hellman witnessed in  FDR in the White House decades ago. The restaurateur reports that he takes a particular pride in the number of immigrants that he has hired over the years, and  tells of how the vast majority of them have gone on to become productive members of  the community, and smiles as he details how a young woman from Guatemala who began her employment with him  as a  non –English speaking dishwasher years ago, now serves as the manager of one of his flagship  restaurants  that is located in Midwest City.
In recent days, trucks bearing the Swadley’s logo have been seen  on May Avenue at the site of a former cafeteria adjacent to Britton Road, and Swadley reports that his firm is  transforming that site into a large pizza place for Gatti’s Pizza of Texas, and will be constructing additional sites for them in many  locations in different states in the future. And Ronald Swadley  is  Justifiably proud of how his restaurants have impacted the food scene of Oklahoma  and the employment it has offered to the people of the state.

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Brunch At First Bite Cafe In OKC

    “The Imperial Guard dies; it does not surrender,” General  Etienne Cambronne , who commanded the  Imperial Guard that protected the French  Emperor Napoleon himself on the field of battle said at the Battle of Waterloo  in reply when a British officer asked him to surrender  his troops after it was clear that the British were winning that military engagement. As a result of his heroism a street in New Orleans, Louisiana, bears his name  just as other thoroughfares there  have  Napoleon’s name   as well as  his three great  military victories  that took place in Jena, Austerlitz, and Marengo. The Old Guard of the Grand Armee’ that was led by Napoleon was composed of many soldiers who had served under him when he had attained his greatest victories and had great loyalty to him. And a visit to the First Bite Café on Memorial  Avenue  that is open from 6:30 AM until  2:00 PM on most days in Oklahoma City,   reveals a somewhat smaller contingent of individuals who have served under restaurateur Ghassan  Dabbour, who is of Palestinian heritage, in his previous eatery, the First Watch Restaurant,  which was also located on Memorial Avenue in Oklahoma City, and their loyalty to him  has prompted them to continue in his service just as the soldiers in the Imperial Guard continued to march under  Napoleon’s banner. And one of them is Fouzia Dayrek, a gracious and competent  woman who is a native of Morocco and is fluent in French, Arabic, and English, who became the restaurateurs spouse after his first wife passed away. Like General Cambronne,  who saw fit to  personally lead his soldiers into  battle, she is a constant  and enthusiastic  presence with those she leads, and her personal warmth  and concern with both the staff and the loyal  customers of the popular First Bite  has made her an esteemed figure there.  That upscale establishment has developed an  customer base of seemingly affluent individuals and families   on account of its diverse breakfast and lunch menu that offers healthy alternatives  to the calories conscious  as well as fresh fruit juices that are  freshly prepared on a daily basis. A large blackboard that is in place there  offers under the heading “Seasonal Specials” fare such as Roasted Vegetable  Frittata, Shrimp Taco, and Smoked Salmon Frittita. But on a recent sun drenched morning  most of the patrons seemed to be availing themselves of the large brown pancakes  and the  various omelets  that contain a dizzying array of ingredients.  the menu also offers imaginative  fare such as a “Two Citrus Rocitta Griddle Cakes” and “breakfast burritos.”  And  Fouzia Dayreck  and the  staffers at First Bite Café  will surely continue to serve Ghassan Dabbour just as Napoleon’s Imperial Guard continued to serve him.

Dr. Iqbal Hussain From Pakistan In OKC As Exchange Fellow

The  Community Engagement Exchange Program   is an entity sponsored by the US Department of State that is funded by the  federal government that brings  more than 140 individual fellows   from over 100 nations who occupy roles of leadership in  foreign countries to the US to allow them to interact with their counterparts here. And one such  fellow is a  29 year old physician, Dr. Iqbal Hussain, who is a native of Pakistan, who has been in Oklahoma City  for 3 months time, and will be departing for Washington DC  in July and will then return to Pakistan. While he has been here the  Association of Pakistan Physicians in North America, which is known by the he acronym “APPNA,” has assisted him  in studying the health care system currently in place in the US, as well as ways that the care that is provided to minority communities here can be improved.  He has also worked with the Oklahoma chapter of the  Council on American Islamic Relations, and produced  podcasts in the  English   language as well as Pashtu, a tongue spoken by many of the Afghan immigrants  who came to Oklahoma, on subjects such as maternal health care, nutrition, and the legal requirement for  vaccinations and praises Adam Soltani and Ruslan Ahasan of Oklahoma CAIR for the assistance that they gave to him. He also will  be working  with  the SPERO Project of Oklahoma that also   assists those refugees, and will give in person presentations to them on those and other health related subjects. The physician reports that he  has personally  visited  a  health care  office in Oklahoma City  where care is  provided to low income children  at modest cost, and concluded that such establishments are doing a good job in assisting the less fortunate among us. Dr. Iqbal Hussain further details how he has been inspired by the dedication he has witnessed first hand   on the part of several  physicians originally from Pakistan, including Dr. Naeem K. Tahirkheli, who is affiliated with the Oklahoma Heart Hospital in South Oklahoma City  who practices a unique form of cardiology that he describes as “interventional cardiology” that also entails  research in the field.   His  experience here has resulted in him planning to emigrate to the US to join many other Pakistani physicians before him  to practice medicine in the US.
   The doctor is a graduate of  Khyber Medical University in  Peshawar, Pakistan, and achieved that distinction in   2019.   After completing a one year internship,  he entered into a medical residency in the field of internal medicine that he’s currently completing, and hopes to complete next year after he returns to Pakistan.  He recently explained  over a breakfast meeting that he is from an area in Pakistan,  Dir  Lower, that borders Afghanistan, and how  his sister was among the first girls to be admitted to a school there  that is now co-educational as a result of her efforts, and  smiles with pride when he tells of her accomplishment in that regard.  He  played a role in  her enrolling in  that  formerly all male school, and it may have been the trust that the local community had in him that allowed her admission without disruption. There are now more than 150 girls attending that  institution at this time, and his sister is  currently  enrolled in the pre-medical program  of the neighboring school of Islamia  College.  Dr. Iqbal  Hussain  said that he has been touched by the warmth of the welcome that he has received from the  people of Oklahoma City, and he looks forward to possibly  joining many other Pakistani physicians here  and  returning  to practice medicine in Oklahoma’s capital city.

New Venezuelan Restaurant And Market On Memorial Avenue In OKC

    The late Jonathan Gold, who covered the food scene in L A  for the Los Angeles Times, wrote on occasion about the small  strip shopping centers that abound in that sprawling metropolis whose humble exteriors  often concealed ethnic   restaurants  operated by  immigrant families that featured the  different flavored foods that had been brought there by  them from their countries of origin.  Gold, who was the only food writer to have  been awarded a Pulitzer Prize,  was eulogized after his untimely passing for his writings that  introduced his readers to the contributions that  those newcomers were bringing to the nation’s evolving culinary traditions. And the Oklahoma City area also has such shopping centers, and one of them that  is located on Memorial Road   across from Mercy Hospital, the Quail Brook Shopping Center, features  a trio of eateries, Pei Wei, Baba G, and Gopuram, that offer East Asian, Mediterranean ,and Indian foods respectively. And earlier this month, a new restaurant and store opened there, La Taguarita Market, that brings the flavorful   and often spicy cuisine of Venezuela to that locale. That place is under the supervision of an attractive young woman, Lisad Alvarado, who explained  in impeccable and unaccented  English that the Venezuelan population in the Oklahoma City metro area has been expanding in recent years, and that she and her boyfriend, who is also of Venezuelan origin and operates a  successful local construction company, wisely concluded, as have many  other immigrants to the U S, that a place that offered them the food and flavor of their native land would   be welcome  by them. Visitors to that establishment  are greeted with a bright mural in bold colors that pay tribute to that South American nation, and also lists the names of several of the soccer stars that came from there, as well as a large screen television that  brings popular Latin performers  to  lively life for the benefit of it’s patrons. Earlier in the week, Gloria Estefan was the first Latina to be  inducted into the Songwriters  Hall of Fame, and the female performers who serenade the customers of  La Taguarita Market from that screen sing and dance in a manner that appears to have been inspired in significant part  by her. The surprisingly  lengthy and detailed menu that patrons access through social media offers a wide variety of   dishes with Spanish names such  as pastelitos, that are said to be popular in Miami, Florida, due to a previous influx of Venezuelan immigrants to the Sunshine State, that come in a standard size as well as one labeled “mini” presumably for the calorie conscious. Another item that a Spanish speaking couple could be heard ordering, empanadas, resemble the meat pies  that are found on the menu of the Mama Z’s African Restaurant and Market that is located on Meridian Avenue in Oklahoma City that is said to have been brought to West Africa by British colonials when the British Empire expanded into that region.  The plantains that are also offered  in abundant supply at Mama Z’s are featured on the La  Taguarita Market menu under the title of “mandocas” that’s ingredients include “plantains , corn flour, cheese, and papelon.” The newly opened place also  features two rows of refrigerated goods that include soft drinks with Spanish names, cheeses  and  bread and other items that are found in Venezuela as well as some whose labels indicate that they are from the neighboring nation of Columbia. It is possible that decades from now students of the Oklahoma City culinary scene will tell of how La Taguarita  Market was the first place  of many  that offered Venezuelan  food in Oklahoma’s capital city.