Join me for Argileh

We call it Argileh in Lebanon; you may know it as Hookah, water pipe, or any of its other dozen names across the world (see wikipedia - Hookah).

I brought back this specific Argileh from home in Lebanon over three years ago, but used it for the first time this week. The barrier to usage has been finding the right tobacco.

While herbal-based products used as proxy for tobacco are abundant, my view is if you are to smoke this, you may as well use tobacco to get the full effect. Finding its tobacco in Vancouver was not easy, but I did locate the following box of apple-flavoured tobacco.

I am not going to say where I found it in case (which I suspect) it is not sold legally there. But I bluntly asked if they had it, and the package appeared from the back. This is as authentic as you can get, and includes tobacco.



Just take a quarter cup from the package, turn it into a firm ball and put on top of the Argileh. Light a little round piece of coal (sold at most Persian, Greek or Lebanese stores) to go on the tobacco, fill the water jar with water, and smoke away.

I think this is going to be a standard feature in le jardin this summer - join me for a puff if you are in the neighbourhood.