A Simple Paradise on PCH [restaurant review]
Barsha owners Adnen and Lenora Marouani with their children Sura and Pash at the table. Photo by Brad Jacobsen (CivicConch.com) My favorite poem is “The Rubiyat of Omar Khayyam,” an extended meditation on life and death, pleasure and destiny, that was penned in 16th century Persia. The nineteenth century translator Edward FitzGerald brilliantly condensed the sprawling manuscript of more than 1,000 verses into a mere 101 quatrains, of which the most famous is A book of verses beneath the bough, A jug of wine, a loaf of bread, and thou, Beside me singing in the wilderness, Oh, wilderness is paradise enow. That vision of how beloved company could turn a picnic into a paradise inspired a craze for Khayyam dinner clubs in the 1890s. Here, usually staid Victorians gathered to celebrate literature, food, and wine and live in the moment, as the poet bid them to do. Those bohemian meals were a novel idea in an era of elaborate courses and neckties at the table for family suppers. While modern Californians like to think of themselves as open to all manner of dining experiences, we often dine at places that are joyless, without the human contact and sensuality that suffuses Khayyam’s verses…
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