Thread 006: A Table Set For Dreams

On midnight feasts, philosophical wine, and the evolution of Casa Saqi...

Issue 006: The Ghosts of Gatherings Past

My love affair with gathering people around food began long before I crossed oceans and borders. In Pakistan, I learned the language of hospitality through observation – watching hands knead dough with practiced precision, absorbing the alchemy of spices that transformed ordinary ingredients into sensory memories, witnessing how our home would shift into something more vibrant, more alive, when guests crossed our threshold. Even before I had words for it, I understood that a meal shared was never merely sustenance but a bridge between worlds, between hearts.

My earliest lessons in the art of gathering came from my parents' dinner parties, but it was in the aftermath that the seeds for Casa Saqi were truly planted. As a child in Pakistan, I would wait until my parents' dinner parties concluded, then sneak downstairs for what I came to think of as midnight feasts of imagination. The drawing room would hold the ghosts of the evening's conversations …