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June 1, 2009
Living and breathing the hookah culture
Standing outside his hookah station at a Middle Eastern restaurant in Glendale, Alfonso "Abou Salim" Ramirez grabbed a red apple and, using a sharp knife, sliced off the top. He flipped the apple over and made four quick incisions, creating a small square.
"This is my secret," Ramirez said, jabbing a finger into the square to pop out the core. He then stuffed red, apple-flavored tobacco into the hole and covered it with a piece of tin foil.
"I love when I'm doing this," he said as he carefully poked holes in the foil with a toothpick. "I forget my problems. I forget everything."
After lighting the tobacco, Ramirez, using a removable plastic mouthpiece, took several puffs off the hookah. Smoke streamed from his nose and mouth. Soon the air smelled of baked apples.
Having perfected his skills for making tobacco bowls out of fruit, Ramirez, 43, has made a name for himself as the go-to hookah guy in Los Angeles' Middle Eastern community. Hookahs, called nargilehs or argeelas in Arabic, are smoking pipes stuffed with flavored tobacco that have been used for centuries throughout the Middle East. Ramirez is the unlikeliest of hookah experts.
He came into the U.S. from Mexico in 1999. But he eventually obtained a work permit with the help of his employer, Phoenicia restaurant owner Ara Kalfayan. Now Ramirez is applying for an EB-3 visa reserved for "skilled workers."
On his application, under job description, Ramirez wrote: nargileh specialist. As his sponsor, Kalfayan wrote in the petition letter that Ramirez's "services are eminent for the success of our restaurant and the service provided to our patrons."
Immigration officials had never heard of such a job description, Ramirez said.
Soon after arriving in California, the former carpenter and factory worker found a job as a busboy at Alcazar, a Middle Eastern restaurant in Encino.
