On Saturday, I decided to go to a festival right on Route 66 in downtown Bristow, Okla.
At first glance, it looked like many small-town festivals in Oklahoma.
I saw a store offering cowboy hats.
I saw a Cowboys booth — the Oklahoma State University Cowboys, that is.
I saw a barbecue stand among the many food booths lining downtown.
I saw a young woman singing honky-tonk songs in cowboy boots, although the backdrop seemed a bit out of place.
I noticed one food booth that had longer lines than all of the others. So I joined it.
After I paid for my plate of food, that’s when I was reminded this wasn’t any Oklahoma small-town festival.
Instead of barbecue, I saw pita bread, hummus, cabbage rolls, a kafta patty and tabouleh.
Tabouleh? Lebanese food in Oklahoma?
Yep. I landed at Bristow’s annual Tabouleh Festival.
You see, Lebanese-Americans have established deep roots in northeastern Oklahoma. A bunch of Lebanese immigrants and their families arrived in the Sooner State during the initial Land Rush, and more came during the initial oil boom of the 1920s. These Lebanese folk brought their cuisine with them, or simply added a bit to the region’s usual cowboy dishes.
At many restaurants in Tulsa and the surrounding area, it’s common to serve tabouleh — a mix of cracked bulgar wheat, chopped parsley, tomatoes, cucumbers and perhaps a hint of mint, served cold — as an appetizer or a side dish. A number of steakhouses serve it, including longtime businesses Freddie’s Steakhouse & BBQ in Sapulpa and Jamil’s in Tulsa. I’ve seen tabouleh in the delis of mom-and-pop grocery stores and at church potlucks. It’s nearly as ubiquitous here as baked beans.
Many of these Lebanese-Americans settled in Tulsa generations ago. Some went to Mannford. Others stopped in Drumright. And a bunch put down roots in Bristow. If you look close at the top of several old downtown buildings, you’ll spot Lebanese names such as Abraham and Elias in stone. There’s even a cook-and-serve tabouleh factory here.
It just goes to show that even in the smallest of towns, ethnic cultures can pop up in unlikely places.
Oh man! I love Lebanese food. And your fab pics made me hungry.
I never knew there was a concentration of Lebanese-Americans in OK. And even a Tabouleh Festival – awesome! Wish there were more here in the Carolinas.
Just goes to show, EVERYONE is welcome on Route 66!
Here in Oklahoma City, there’s a lot of Vietnamese. Right on Route 66, specifically, at 23rd and Classen, is Little Saigon. My wife goes there to get some of her special, Asian food and ingrediants. Many of the resturants in that area give her a menu written in Chinese, no English. She says that food is more authentic.