shisha

• 16 comments •

shisa

During our meal at Abou El Sid, we noticed several other Egyptians, in the restaurant, smoking shisha. The extensive list was filled with fruit flavoured tobacco - green apple, mango, pineapple, to name a few. After our meal, we decided to partake in the old Egyptian tradition, while the waiters laughed at us.


We had briefly tried shisha during an 'Arabian Safari' we took in 2009, and it is available in Canada, but it just seemed like an appropriate way to end our delicious Egyptian dinner experience. Since we're not smokers, and think that it's a pretty disgusting habit, it is not something we would do often, but the strawberry flavour that we ended up choosing almost makes you forget how terrible it is.


The novelty of two foreigners trying shisha was too much for the waitstaff and busboys to ignore and they requested to take photos with us while giggling. After a few minutes of smoking in front of the captive audience, we settled our bill and left the restaurant a little lightheaded.

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16 comments

  1. I don't know much about shisha but is it regular tobacco that they use? Without all the hundreds of chemicals that cigarettes have?

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  2. Anonymous21.6.10

    what neat thing to try!

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  3. I did this the other day, although I assume sitting in my backyard in Winnipeg doesn't quite have the same impact as being in Egypt.

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  4. This is so cool! What a place!

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  5. a smoking menu, how crazy. how long did it last?

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  6. Oooh, I want to try that! I'm not a smoker either, but it sounds fun!

    Is it like hookah?

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  7. so much fun! good for you non-smokers partaking in the Egyptian traditions!!

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  8. I'm not a smoker, either, but I've always wanted to try this. When I used to live in D.C. it was pretty popular at lots of the restaurants around the city, but I never got the chance to join in.

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  9. I love a good shisha from time to time. Btw, in Arab cultures they don't inhale. It's a bit like smoking a cigar, but in Turkey and most of the west people do inhale and smoke it like a cigarette.

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  10. haha how fun! It's part of the experience I guess :)

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  11. I like shisha too.. especially mint and apple flavours...

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  12. wallflower - i think there may be less chemicals, but it's still bad for you.

    Space astronomy - i'm sure it had the same impact. we just thought it would be neat to try one of the flavors there (even though you can get them anywhere)

    Holly - about 15 minutes, we shared one! i think it would have kept going but we had enough.

    Daisy - probably not good for us!

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  13. I tried the Sisha in Istanbul, in Turkey it is actually called Nagile. They mainly use apple flavor and the tabocco is really light, so even if you inhale (what the turks certainly do)you do not feel it directly in your head :) but for sure, tobacco is still tobacco even if it tastes like apple. viele grüsse, kristina

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  14. I have the same question as everyone...is shisha like hookah?

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  15. Sara-Jane Elizabeth & Maddy - I think shisha is the name of the tobacco and the hookah is the actual thing you smoke it from. I could be wrong though...

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  16. Yeah, the hookah is the pipe.

    I actually prefer the tobacco-free stuff, which is mainly fruit-flavouring and molasses (and available all over the place for fairly cheap). Much smoother than the actual tobacco, which gets kind of gross after a while.

    That's probably not the authentic way to smoke, though.

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