Persian Culture

Chef Akbar will teach delicious, authentic Tajik dishes followed by a sit-down meal. Warm and easy, like being with family! Course fee (£54.88).

ABOUT THE CUISINE

Tajik cuisine, with its roots in the ancient Silk Road city of Samarkand, is a beautiful blend of flavours and traditions from across Central Asia. Influenced by Persian, Turkish, and Russian cooking, it celebrates fresh ingredients, aromatic herbs, and gentle spices. From fragrant rice dishes like Palav to soft, hand-folded dumplings and vibrant salads, every meal is a reflection of generosity, hospitality, and the joy of sharing food together. Tajik cooking is colourful, comforting, and deeply tied to family and community—food made to be enjoyed with love.

ON THE MENU (subject to change):

• Shee (Lamb Broth with Pickled Sorrel and Root Vegetables) | Meat (Lamb); Milk
• Tuy Kabob (Wedding Kebab) | Meat (Lamb); None
• Moshkichiri (Mung Bean and Rice with Yoghurt and Onions) | Vegetarian; Milk
• Bichak-i Kadugi (Butternut Squash-filled Pastries) | Vegetarian; Eggs, Gluten (Wheat), Milk
• Chalpak (Semolina Flatbread) | Vegan; Gluten (Wheat)
• Salati Bahor (Spring Salad) | Vegetarian; Milk, Mustard

This menu contains meat (lamb). Allergens include: eggs, gluten, milk, mustard.

Chetori,

This fresh prose translation by Maryam Mafi of 105 short teaching stories by Rumi, which form the core of the six-volume Masnavi, explores the hidden spiritual aspects of everyday experience. Rumi transforms the seemingly mundane events of daily life into profound Sufi teaching moments. These prose gems open the mystical portal to the world of the ancient mystic.

Loneliness and the experience of being orphaned, yet yearning for care and connection, lie at the heart of these two powerful films from Bahram Beyzaie and Abbas Kiarostami.

In Journey (Safar), two teenagers from the shanty towns of southern Tehran travel to the newly built suburbs, searching for one of the boy's parents. The journey itself transcends the boy’s personal aims. Journey masterfully weaves in a reflection on the history of cinema through allusions and visual citations.

A Wedding Suit (Lebasi Bara-ye Arousi) also presents a disillusionment with the world, through the eyes of young boys. The suit becomes a lens that shows the the loneliness and anxieties of youth, in a society indifferent to them, where their sexual, vocational, and social aspirations are stifled.

These films offer lessons in cinematic modernity from two leading figures of the Iranian New Wave, Bahram Beyzaie and Abbas Kiarostami.

We will have a discussion about the films at Barbican’s café after the screening.

Chetori!

Come and join us for drinks and at our get together in February for our Shab-e Shanbeh. Persian speakers and non-Persian speakers are welcome.

We are gathering at The Bar in Montcalm hotel, ground floor.

Mibinamet,

مونیکا

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