Topic: TROPICS

Utilizing its showroom setting of teak wood furniture, hand-woven baskets and banana leaf fabrics, Warisan Asian Antiques and Furniture at 7470 Beverly Blvd. in Los Angeles has launched a monthly series of “Bali Dinner Parties.”

“The idea is to experience the music, food and culture of Indonesia, and the ambience that can be created,” said Liza Robinson Vidal, the store’s director of marketing.

The guests, limited to 20, are seated for an authentic feast at three tables in the middle of the showroom’s display of elegant furniture, lighting and accessories

The menu includes rijstaffel (rice table), an elaborate meal of traditional delicacies such as ikan pepes (spicy fish fillets) and beef rendang (beef curry flavored with coconut, cumin and ginger). Wine, beer or iced tea is served as well as Indonesian coffee. The cost of the dinner is $75 a person.

“Everyone who comes gets a sarong, and we have a musical performance of gamelan and traditional legong dance,” said Vidal, an Australian who owned a restaurant on Bali before moving to Los Angeles five years ago.

She got the idea for the dinners after entertaining some friends in the store and finding that the combination clicked. “I did the cooking that night, but now I have a caterer,” she said. “We explain all the different dishes, the dance and the music. We also offer a discount on any furniture they might buy, but there’s no hard sell. The idea is to give people a taste of Bali culture.”

The dinners, on the first Monday of each month, continue Dec. 6. --CONNIE KOENENN

Information: (323) 938-3960.