ARLIS/NA Society Circle Dinner at Lala Rokh

 

Donations to the ARLIS Society Circle help fund conference speakers, internships, and support whatever need is greatest throughout the year. This year we are fortunate to have an extraordinary Society Circle event, hosted by Ars Libri, Ltd., www.arslibri.com, who have been long-time members and sponsors of ARLIS/NA. Thanks to Elmar W. Seibel, President of Ars Libri, and colleagues of Society Circle, members will be dining at Lala Rokh on Beacon Hill, 97 Mount Vernon Street, www.lalarokh.com.

 

Named after the heroine of the 19^th-century Orientalist fantasy Lalla Rookh [“Tulip-cheeked”] by the Irish poet Sir Thomas Moore (1779-1852; first edition: London 1817), Lala Rokh is a unique restaurant serving classical Persian dishes grounded in the cuisine of Azerbaijan which has been the basis of royal Persian cooking since the 12^th century. The restaurant, owned by siblings Azita Bina-Seibel and Babak Bina, is decorated with Islamic calligraphy from the 8^th-10^th centuries, Persian miniatures from the 15^th-17^th centuries, original 19^th-century photographs, Qajar paintings, and European prints of Persia from the 16^th-18^th centuries.

 

For the ARLIS/NA function their mother, Mrs. Fatehmeh Aghdas Zoka-Bina, on whose recipes the menu is based, will prepare a series of dishes centered around “Jeweled Rice,” a dish first documented 800 years ago at the court of the Ilkhanid shah Hulagu Khan.

 

 

The evening will include 2 performances by “Saba,”

among the leading performers of Classical Persian music

 

Manoucher Madanipour – santur

Mitra Ahi – daf

Soorena Farboodmanesh – tombak

Shadi Ebrahimi – vocals

 

If you have yet to join the Society Circle, you may do so at http://www.arlisna.org/about/supporting.html.

 

contact person:

Darin Murphy

SMFA Librarian

617 369 3651

[log in to unmask]