Mouthful: Aloha dinner benefit

Aloha Friday Benefit: Next Friday, March 27, Santa Rosa Junior Colleges hosts a special to-go dinner benefit, along with a Hawaiian Jam Session. It’s all a benefit for the May Day Aloha Festival activities taking place at Day Under the Oaks May 3.

Here’s how it works. If you want dinner, you must place your order by Wednesday, March 25, by emailing info@huipulamamau.org or calling 536-1044. Plate lunch, which includes kalua pig, cabbage, rice and mac salad is $9. If you want just or more kalua pig, it’s $12 a pound.

On Friday between 5:30 and 8:30 p.m., you pick up dinner in the main dining room of Bertolini Student Center on the main campus. If you’re just picking up your food, you can park free in the loading zone on Elliott Ave. If you want to stick around for music, you’ll need to pay the $4 parking fee.

This is not a sit-down dinner event, but you can take your to-go meal and enjoy it as you listen to music. Guests are invited to bring their ukulele or other instruments, including voices, and join in.

The event is presented by Hui Pulama Mau, SRJC’s Hawai’i Community Organization, which includes staff, faculty, students and local community members. For more information, visit huipulamamau.org.

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Happy New Year! If you need to reboot 2015, you have one more opportunity. Next Tuesday and Wednesday, March 24 and 25, Baci Cafe and Wine Bar (336 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg) celebrates Persian New Year.

The sweet little restaurant, a favorite of locals, is normally closed on Tuesday and Wednesday but they will open for this special fete, which features a family-style pre-fixe dinner. Menu highlights include a selection of Persian appetizers, kebab, stew, lamb shanks and a selection of rice dishes, include tahdig, crispy rice. The meal wraps up with a selection of traditional New Year’s sweets.

Cost is $55 per person, plus beverages, tax and gratuity. Reservations are recommended; make yours by calling 433-8111.

Baci is owned by Lisbeth Holmefjord, who operates the front of the house, and her husband, chef Shari Sarabi, who is at the helm in the kitchen. The regular menu is firmly rooted in Italy but every now and then there is a delicious Persian twist. For more information, visit bacicafeandwinebar.com

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Garlic Lovers, Heads Up: The 8th Annual Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival, taking place from Thursday, March 26, through Sunday, March 29, includes “A Well-Spent Life,” a tribute to filmmaker Les Blank, who died in the spring of 2013.

On Friday, March 27, Blank’s final film, completed after his death by collaborator Gina Leibrecht will be screened at Rialto Cinemas (6868 McKinley St.). The film’s title has not yet been revealed but the film is an exploration of documentary film, how it is made and how it has evolved.

Throughout the festival, several of Blank’s films will be shown. On Saturday evening, “Burden of Dreams,” which documents the making of Werner Herzog’s “Fitzcarraldo,” and “Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe” will be shown at the Rialto at 6:45 p.m. On Sunday, “J’ai été au Bal,” an exploration of Cajun and Zydeco music, and “Marc & Ann” will be shown at 3:45 p.m.

Garlic lovers will not want to miss Saturday afternoon’s screening of “Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers,” presented by Slow Food Russian River and Laguna Farm, at Sebastopol Center for the Arts Little Red Hen (282 South High St.), with “Gap-Toothed Women” showing first. It is as delicious an exploration of the world’s most beloved bulb as you can imagine. Eat before you go so you don’t end up chewing on your chair.

Les Blank had a long connection with Sonoma County. Shortly after the garlic film was released, it was screened at Sonoma State University, with Blank and his collaborator Maureen Gosling on hand. During the screening, they cooked garlic in two toaster ovens on either side of the stage so that its aromas teased viewers and, following the film, there was a garlic feast in the student union. Blank appeared at several garlic festivals in the 1990s, was a special guest on KRCB FM radio several times and was celebrated with a film festival, live interview and garlic dinner in Healdsburg.

Ms. Mouthful says don’t miss this opportunity, especially if you’ve never seen his films.

Tickets range in price from $10 for regular screenings and programs to $35 for opening night and its gala reception. For complete details, including the full 2015 program, visit sebastopolfilmfestival.org.

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Everything Old is New Again: You’ve probably been wine tasting, likely had a flight or two of craft beer and probably sampled some hard cider. But have you tried local mead yet? Yes, mead, a honey-based beverage more evocative of a 19th-century British novel than Northern California in the 21st century.

But mead there is and you can give it a try at Heidrun Meadery, which was founded in Arcata in 1997 but moved to its new location in Marin County in 2011.

Using both purchased honey and honey from the farm that produced by bees that feed, in part, on nectar from flowers planted specifically for them, the meadery specializes in sparkling meads made in the style of classic Champagne.

Among their current selections are Point Reyes 2014 Wildflower Estate, the first release made with 100 percent estate honey; Oregon Radish Blossom mead and Hawaiian Macadamia Nut Blossom mead.

Tasting is available by reservation from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday and same-day reservations are accepted whenever possible. A tour and tasting, which takes about an hour, is $15 per person. A tasting of four sparkling meads without a tour is $10 per person. There is a patio where you can linger with a glass or bottle of mead, as well.

Heidrun Meadery is located at 11925 Highway 1 in Point Reyes Station. For reservations, call (415)663-9122 or email info@heidrunmeadery.com. For more information, visit heidrunmeadery.com.