2•
CULTURE
April 12-18, 2022
Preserving a family legacy Kebabish Bites to expand Normanites’ halal food options ALEXIA ASTON alexiaaston@ou.edu
A Pakistani immigrant brought a piece of home to Norman with a mix of spices, flavors and colorful dishes to expand halal options throughout the city and share the food of his culture. Waseem Ahmed bought Kebabish Bites in November 2019 from its previous owners who opened the business four months earlier. The restaurant began operations in early 2020 after Ahmed changed the entire menu to reflect the recipes of his mother, Shamim Akhtar. Though Ahmed was born in Pakistan, he grew up in Oman because of his father’s job as an engineer for Oman’s Ministry of Defense. As the oldest of six, Ahmed’s mother often called him to the kitchen to teach him how to cook. Now, Ahmed spends each day cooking Akhtar’s recipes in Kebabish Bites and serving them to Norman residents. Ahmed’s father died in 2013, and Akhtar moved to Oklahoma from Pakistan in 2014 to live with her son. The 64-year-old Akhtar can sometimes be seen teaching Ahmed in the kitchen or filling samosas. Ahmed said his mother often hovers over him while he cooks to ensure he’s preparing her recipes perfectly. Ahmed moved to Edmond in 2002 to attend the University of Central Oklahoma before moving to Norman in 2019. He reflected on the difficulties of finding halal and Pakistanistyle food in college, which inspired him to open his restaurant and share his culture with Norman. Even at OU, students like Sarah Altamimi, the OU Shia Student Association president and a psychology junior, described facing OU’s limited halal options each day.
SGA: continued from page 1
vote in (these) matters.” South said his research of other universities who have a student regent, like the University of Texas and University of California, has shown these universities take pride in placing student voices on the board. He also said all communications he has had with the state legislature have “positive feedback,” including from those who have been in contact with the governor’s office. “I have not received an official response back yet (from Gov. Stitt), but, from what I can tell so far, the vibes are good,” South said. South and Rep. Michael Williams spoke on an act which sought to have the Parking Appeals Board waive up to two parking citations by diverting payments to timely donations to the OU Food Pantry. Williams originally approached South with this act after finding a similar program at Wichita State University called Food for Fines. After talking with representatives of the OU Food Pantry and the Parking Appeals Board, Williams said they settled on a donation of 80 percent of the monetary value of a parking ticket up to two offenses per school term to be able to nullify it. “(This way, it’ll) increase the revenue of the food pantry and they’ll be able to order more food,” Williams said. “It’ll be beneficial to the community as well as any other students or anyone else who uses the pantry.” If passed by the Graduate Student Senate and signed by SGA President Zack Lissau, it will amend Title IV, Chapter 4 of the SGA Code Annotated
Kebabish Bites owner Waseem Ahmed smiling in front of the restaurant’s welcome sign March 30.
“There are international students who came from Arab countries (or) Middle Eastern countries (who) can’t find access to halal meat on campus,” Altamimi said. “They basically have deprived themselves of eating meat, or they have to go out of the way to another place to get that source of halal meat.” OU offers halal food options at Athens Café, Sooner Smokehouse and the grill station at the residential colleges, OU Housing and Food Services Director of Marketing and Communications Amy Buchanan wrote. Vegan and vegetarian options are also available at both dining halls. Halal meat options are not available in restaurants in the Oklahoma Memorial Union. The typical challenges of owning a business were soon exacerbated in 2020 when COVID-19 swept through the U.S., forcing Ahmed to alter typical business operations by closing the dining room and
adapting to the pandemic. Ahmed described running Kebabish Bites during the height of the pandemic as “painful,” reflecting on the employees who were too scared to come in, financial impacts and the increased prices of ingredients. “We were there like 14 hours a day because there was no help,” Ahmed said. “It was tough, but we never gave up. God has plans for everything.” According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index, the price of food increased by 7.9 percent in the last year. Even years into the pandemic, Ahmed said the price of food continues to be one of the hardest parts of owning his business. He said he has to adjust and increase his menu prices to keep the restaurant open — something his customers may not understand. Now, Ahmed hopes to reintroduce Kebabish Bites to the Norman community through
and become effective on the first day of the fall 2022 semester. Congress also saw the Shared Governance Council Establishment Act, which would establish a council composed of students, faculty and staff that will meet regularly, discuss campus issues and make recommendations on university governance and policies. “This is going to be a really great way for (SGA and the faculty and staff senates) to all coordinate our advocacy efforts,” South said. “If there are really big issues that affect the whole campus community, the shared governance council is going to be a great method for students, faculty and staff to be able to have the leadership all together in the same place.” If passed by GSS and signed by Lissau, it will create a new law to be added to Title IX of the SGA Code Annotated and will go into effect the first day of the fall 2022 semester. Election Commissioner Isaac Kabrick sought to fill the three vacancies in the election commission staff he had with nominees finance and economics freshman Nathan Nguyen, political science freshman Kyle Mershon and political science sophomore Cameron Decker. Kabrick said, when looking for candidates, he looked for people who were willing and able to debate effectively, or willing and able to disagree in respectful manner, and reach logical conclusions. Each nominee, he said, has demonstrated a record of being able to understand complex policy issues and deliberate effectively. “The work of the election commission staff is largely deliberation,” Kabrick said. “It’s looking at a set of facts, looking at statements from people who were there and trying to figure out what actually happened and what needs to
happen as a result to ensure fairness, efficiency and integrity of the elections.” Ways and Means Committee Chair Lauren Patton presented a primary bill and an auxiliary bill, which both seek to appropriate the funds of the University of Oklahoma Student Government Association to the organizations mentioned. Parliamentarian Abby Halsey-Kraus said the difference between primary and a regular auxiliary bill is that primary is seen once a year and funds student organizations for the next fiscal year, which deposits into their accounts in August. All bills presented during the meeting were passed unanimously and will move to the Graduate Student Senate for further assessment. As session 107 will end in two weeks, University Policy Committee Chair Graeson Lynskey announced he will not be returning to his position in the next session. He said he was looking for a way to help students through the pandemic and he is thankful for all those he has met in his time in the body. “It has been my pleasure to come in here every Tuesday night … and do everything I could to serve the student body,” Lynskey said. “I’m hopeful that, going forward, Congress will continue to be an organization that fights and advocates for students on campus, that tries to make real tangible change, that continues to have actual accomplishments that we can celebrate and defeats that can fire us back up and bring us back to the plate when we need to be there.” Lynskey has served in congress since fall 2020 and succeeded South as University Policy Committee chair on Feb. 2, 2021.
its new location at 283 34th Ave SW. After looking into about 13 locations across Norman, Ahmed found Kebabish Bites’ new home among surrounding restaurants like Gaberino’s Homestyle Italian and Charleston’s. The new location features additional seating, an updated interior and two fish tanks containing clownfish, angelfish, blue hippo tang and many others. The move was assisted by a former customer and current public relations consultant Jake Hewett. Kebabish Bites’ chicken tikka masala sparked a friendship between Hewett, Ahmed and Ahmed’s brother Hamza Naseem and readily assisted their transition into the restaurant’s new location. Ahmed opened the restaurant to various media outlets
KALY PHAN/THE DAILY
on April 4 to try different menu items. Starting with appetizers, Ahmed served chana masala, a chickpea-based dish with tomatoes, spices, and onions, dates sliced and filled with cream cheese and veggie pakoray, a combination of deep-fried potatoes and onions. The appetizers were accompanied by a tamarind sauce and a mint chutney sauce. For the main courses, Ahmed served seekh kebab, shrimp biryani, a seasoned rice dish with shrimp, herbs and spices, butter chicken curry and chicken tikka masala curry. The evening concluded with a Kebabish Bites original — a dessert called pineapple halwa. Dur ing the tasting, a
middle-aged couple walked through the doors as they assumed the restaurant was open, but after finding out it was closed for the event, they offered kind words through a joke to Ahmed and his food. “Did you make them sign the waiver?” the customer asked Ahmed. When Ahmed expressed confusion, the customer answered, “The one that says, ‘You will be addicted to this food.’” The evening of tasting represented the homemade, cook-to-order style of food Ahmed serves his customers. He said he keeps multiple plastic spoons near him when he cooks to try the food he serves and ensure customers are receiving exactly what they order. Ahmed tries to locally source his ingredients, but the limited number of halal suppliers in the area forces him to drive to Dallas at least once a week. Though it’d be easier and cheaper to serve non-halal food, he said the lack of halal options in Norman prevents him from making the switch. Ahmed said he hopes to serve more students at Kebabish Bites through the restaurant’s new location. “Once people know they can depend on us for fresh food and halal food, I think we will get that traffic,” Ahmed said. “That was the initial plan.” Ahmed said his favorite part of owning Kebabish Bites is meeting new people every day. The sign in the front of the restaurant reads, “Welcome to Kebabish Bites” in big letters surrounded by a smaller font reading the same in 54 different languages. “We open the door for everybody,” Ahmed said. “I was raised this way.”