Pop-Up Aperitivo: Where my roots meet my soul
An invitation to an italo-iranian soirée in LA on August 6
If you’re in Los Angeles, you’re invited to my next pop-up event.
Zabooneh Fresca is taking place on August 6, in a backyard in Silver Lake, from 5-8pm (it’s an aperiitvo, so a light drink, a light snack, before dinner).
This is where my Persian roots meet the part of my soul that belongs to Apulia.
I’ve been lucky to be so constantly connected to my roots since I was born. I never questioned my Persianness, and even now as I’ve started going less often for less time, I am secure in my relationship with it. It is in my blood, in my parents’ blood, in my family’s blood no matter how far they are or how often I see them. That will never change.
Italy is a different story. I’d been torn apart between LA and Italy since I left the first time I lived there in 2012, and my 2.5 months living in Apulia in 2017/18 anchored me in even deeper. So deep that I think about it every day, so deep that every 12 months since then I’ve felt this inexplicable pull to go back. Until Covid, I would listen to that to pull. Grasping for any thread that would connect me to it. I couldn’t explain it, but I felt like no one understood it even when I tried. It was such an intense pull on one end and disconnection on the other that eventually the thread between us broke, and I decided to flip the switch and move to Europe last year (rash? impulsive? or natural? It was the path of least and most resistance all at once, vabbè, whatever.)
Food helped me find solace. One pizza tutorial video to the next got me through the disconnection, and though it wasn’t enough in the end, it was better than nothing. And now, once again 6000 miles away until I head back to the EU for another stint in 6 weeks, I’m using food to work through it all.
Placing my roots on a plate and pouring my soul out into a glass, for you, but mostly for me.
Hope to see you there.
xx
Shab
This sounds awesome and I wish I were free that evening!