“Welcome to the family.” With this traditional greeting in Arabic, Mr. Daniel Aviolat, former Swiss Consul General, introduced an evening of stories on Sunday, March 25th.  Lebanese storyteller Theresa Amoon, our very own Scheherezade, charmed the audience of more than 80 guests by spinning tales from The Arabian Nights. From a cold winter’s night in Kobe, Theresa transported us, as if on a magic carpet, to a land of sensual delights where exotic spices and costly Arabic oils perfumed the balmy air.
　　We learned of the poor merchant’s son Ali Shah, his love, the beautiful slave girl Zumurrud, and the hapless porter with his three lady taskmasters.  Accompanying herself on the frame drum and gakokake (Togolese finger drum), Ms Amoon whet our appetites by describing lavish feasts, brimming marketplaces and aromatic spices.  

　　In the final story, we participated with the beggar Schacabac in ‘Barmecide’, an imaginary feast, to such an extent that our mouths were watering and our stomachs rumbling. It would have been cruel indeed, had we not, like Schacabac, been rewarded with a true feast of middle eastern dishes of tabbouleh salad, hummous and baba ganoush with pita bread, lamb stew, kibbeh (meatballs stuffed with pine nuts), steamed potatoes with cheese sauce, white fish with clams, and shishtaouk (chicken in yoghurt sauce). To sweeten the evening, the banquet ended with sticky baklava. After a story relating the sad fate of those who eat rice pudding, perhaps a few guests were reluctant to try the other dessert on offer –  riz be halib (rice with milk pudding) – but it was too enticing to resist! With advice from President Imad Ramadan’s wife, Rola, Chef Kamiki’s recreation of these exotic dishes had the taste of authenticity.
　　As Theresa Amoon kept telling us in her tales, “it was a night like no other.”  Many thanks to all involved for giving the Kobe Club our own story to add to Scheherezade’s 1,001 Nights.

-Heather Mallett