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Think Globally, Party Locally

These Experts Make Ethnic Immersion Simple

     Do you hunger for an engaging cultural experience, but can’t spare the time or money for a trip abroad? Then prepare yourself for an evening in the food, music or dance of Spain, India, Thailand or Morocco. Have a chef teach you and your friends to prepare authentic Thai or Spanish dishes, dance up a storm with flashy Bollywood moves or entertain in style in a hidden Moroccan garden.

Paella Party

     Chef Raquel Hermosilla comes well prepared, her cart laden with all the ingredients for one of Spain’s gifts to the world — paella. Under Hermosilla’s guidance, you and your friends will transform rice, chicken, seafood and vegetables into a memorable dinner. After handing out festive polka-dotted aprons, the chef sets up the most crucial piece of equipment: the paellera (a large shallow pan). The concentric rings on its accompanying gas burner allow for even heating — essential to create the prized soccarat or crusty rice shell at the bottom of the pan.
     While party guests banter, Hermosilla keeps them on task so that the many elements of the dish will be ready to combine at the proper moment. She assigns partners to steam mussels, chop vegetables and de-vein shrimp. Squid duty requires the most dedication, but nothing builds camaraderie better than turning slippery squid inside out, pulling off their heads and squeezing out their innards with fellow party guests.
     Hermosilla grew up in Madrid and earned a degree in political economics from UC Berkeley. Like scores of foreign students, she was expected to bring a dish from her homeland to American potluck dinners. When her paella drew rave reviews, she had a vision for her own economic future and started Spain at Home in 2001, catering and teaching students to make paella and tapas.
     Once the chopping is done and the knives put away, the chef encourages the drinking of wine — especially Spanish wine. As aromas in the kitchen grow ever more enticing, students watch the chef expertly add all the ingredients to sizzling oil in the paellera.
     “When it comes to paella, I am a purist,” says Hermosilla. “I make from scratch my mother’s traditional recipe, using the freshest ingredients.” She also shares her mother’s advice: “If you want that wonderful  crust, never stir the rice once you pour it in.”
     Finally, Hermosilla guides guests in fashioning an artful arrangement of shrimp, mussels, clams and lemon wedges to ensure an impressive presentation.
     Paella party classes range from $40–$120 per person, depending on group size and menu; Catering is $40–$65 per guest. www.spainathome.net

Bollywood Dance Party

     Bhavana Mody enters in a sparkly outfit and immediately sets the merry mood by handing guests colorful scarves, bangles and bindis. The moment she turns on the spirited score from popular Indian movies, feet and hips start to move. Bollywood musicals, a media mainstay in India for decades, began to catch wider American attention with the 2005 release of Bride and Prejudice where throngs of dancers in popsicle-colored silks gyrate and shimmy to infectiously upbeat melodies.
     Mody begins the one-hour session with warm-up stretches (she is also a yoga instructor) then demonstrates some basic Bollywood dance moves, which besides incorporating feet, hips and arms, feature f distinctive facial expressions, eye movements and hand shapes.
     Growing up in rural Kentucky, Mody kept connected to her Indian roots through the steady stream of Indian movie videos her parents supplied. She studied dance in college, then lived in India for a year. Besides leading Bollywood classes, Mody also works as an elementary school teacher.
     After party guests are comfortable shaking their hips and darting their eyes, Mody teaches the group the choreography to a specific song while explaining its context. For instance, “You are members of the groom’s family welcoming the bride’s family to a wedding celebration.” With much laughter and good cheer, everyone practices the routine under Mody’s direction, until at last they are ready to perform.
     Bollywood dance parties range from a playful experience for two to a joyful wedding celebration for 200. $50–$150, depending on the number of people; $200 for a wedding party. www.abollywoodparty.com

Thai Cooking Party

     Preparing a seven-course Thai meal may sound like a recipe for an anxiety attack. But not when your guide is Siriporn Thakhunthod, better known as “Pon,” who has been cooking Thai food all her life. Pon began working at a restaurant in her native Thailand when she was 14. Ever since she moved to California three years ago, she has been sharing her knowledge of this popular cuisine.
     Arrayed in a cornucopia of bowls (in your kitchen or hers), Pon’s mise en place of ingredients include the familiar (golden mangoes, snowy tofu and pungent basil) plus lesser-known items: round green eggplants, nubbly skinned kaffir limes, dainty pointed red chili peppers (large bunches of them — this should tell you something), coral colored dried shrimp, blackened roasted peanuts, ghostly pale pickled garlic heads and sliced galangal (a relative of ginger).
     Pon calmly doles out tasks to her students: chop the herbs and let them simmer in the chicken broth, slice the eggplant and soak in water, cut the pale green papaya into shreds for the salad. Ah, here’s where we learn a new technique. Cradling the firm papaya half in her left hand, Pon deftly slices it into shreds with a large knife held in her right, so that the skinny strips fall directly into the bowl beneath. She challenges students to try this traditional Thai cooking skill. It is surprisingly efficient.
     The sticky rice for dessert requires another singular skill. The rice steams in a conical basket over a pan on the stove. Halfway through cooking, it needs to be flipped. This movement, Pon demonstrates, is all in the wrist. Everyone attempts to reverse the entire mound of rice inside the basket with one firm flip, without breaking the rice kernels or spilling them on the floor.
     Meanwhile, the green chicken curry is bubbling and the basil, eggplant and tofu dish fills the kitchen with tempting smells. Pon adds the shrimp and straw mushrooms to the tom yum goong soup, sprinkles on cilantro and green onions and we are ready to dine.
     At the table, she demonstrates one more technique: rolling a small ball of sticky rice in one hand and using it to scoop up the green papaya salad, which thanks to a generous helping of chili slivers delivers quite a punch.
     Pon is happy to accommodate guests’ preferences, vegetarian or otherwise. Just remember to specify the amount of chili you prefer — Pon has been known to put 20 in one dish.
     Classes run $35–$50 per guest. She also cooks for small dinner parties or caters a variety of appetizers. Contact Pon at (510) 864-9936.

Moroccan Feast

     Instead of entertaining at home, why not hold an exotic celebration in the lovely Moroccan garden hiding behind Sahara Home Décor, a Moroccan import store on Berkeley’s Ashby Avenue?
     As guests arrive, they walk through a shop filled with striking pieces of Moroccan decorative art: mosaic tables, hand-carved brass trays and intricately embroidered wall hangings. Stepping into the backyard garden feels like entering another world: brightly colored tents, low cushioned seats and hand-woven Berber carpets set against a mural of sand dunes and palm trees. The soulful strains of North African music emanating from an Algerian mandol set the mood for a relaxed fete, while bowls of hummus, olives and pita bread are temptingly arrayed and tantalizing spices floating on the air hint of gustatory delights ahead.
     Gracious party host and store-owner, Mostafa Raiss El Fenni, a former Cal student and research chemist, transformed his homesickness for Morocco into a cultural center. He can accommodate a range of parties — from mint tea and Moroccan pastries with a henna artist drawing intricate patterns on your guests’ hands to an all-out feast with live music and belly dancers.
     If you are serving lunch or dinner, main dishes can include couscous with seven vegetables, bastilla (an irresistible warm filled filo pastry with chicken, onions cinnamon and almonds), lamb with prunes or chicken with preserved lemons. Vegetarian menus are a breeze with traditional dishes such as creamy lentils and onions, robust roasted peppers and eggplant with tomatoes.
     “My goal is to share my culture and traditions and give people the feeling of being in Morocco through the food, art and music,” he says.
Moroccan celebrations typically end with a dramatic pour of sweetened mint tea into delicately gilded glasses from a height that produces a foamy surface and a delicious gurgle.
     The basic price for garden set with tents is $600; lunch or dinner for up to 50 people is $50–$85 per person; live musicians, belly dancers or henna artist are extra. www.saharaimport.com

Read more from Anna Mindess at eastbayethniceats.com