jimi's fxhash beta dinner
written by Jimi Wen
Eligibility
Since I am not a restaurant, I didn't want charge patron some X amount and work the budget of produce and labor efforts of my cooking buddies. So I decide to make a simple eligibility, holders of each of my first 7 collection is eligible for 1 booking during the summer for the fxhash menu, buy the art and stay for dinner. I understand this extra utility offered is restricted by the geolocation of collectors. But I believe there was only 4 collectors eligible outside of Taipei. The other 7 eligibility of bookings, were 1 anon irl friend, gungun who had two sets, one dinner for mom's birthday, one dinner for work partners. For some of my earlier work, I had to buyback at premium price on secondary, so I could have 3 complete sets, which I lent 1 to my dad and 2 to my mom. And I gave a set of collection to my cooking buddies, so they can invite their family and friends, and who I believed is destined to bright future in the culinary world.
Mapping art to menu to recipe
As I discussed menu with my cooking buddies, I first needed to show them my art, plus explanations. Since generative art, by nature does not have fixed visual output, so trivial imitation of the artwork will not do. By explaining the generative nature of each artwork, not down to code details, but as a collection as a whole, my buddies were able to understand my work better. So now we will get into menu. We will see the dish and discuss the recipe than the relevant artwork.
Nothing Comes From Nothing
In nothing comes from nothing. We explore where the tofu comes from. Goma tofu is not actually a tofu. Goma tofu is made by extract milk from sesame seeds, unroasted in this case, filtered, and cured with starch. Freshly goma tofu evolves in different stages of life. In the first 30 second of its life, it as softness and elasticity of something like warm mozzarella. Which was also performed and served on arrival. Then after few hour in the fridge the goma tofu takes its shape with a little firmness but still retains some of the elasticity. We serve the 6 hour goma tofu with over budget sea urchin i.e. uni. The umami and richness of the uni is further accentuate in the medium of the goma tofu. That is the taste reverberates in your mouth. That is something always comes from something.
(un)//void//ble
A very simple dish with only two ingredient, lily root and air. We mash and sieve the lily root, and form them into dumplings with non-uniform air pockets, which when steam, the moisture in the air pockets will try to burst through the non-void. This create an inconsistency in each bite of the dumpling. The dish is finished with friends and steam lily root peel for visual completeness. For extra hint, I print the series of (un)//void//ble on aluminum bottom plates to go with Japanese lacquerware. As I try to experiment in (un)//void//ble, between void and non-void, the density of lines black or white, the density of dumpling is what links the course to the artwork.
Tai-an Tea House
In the third course, we serve a small portion of humble porridge topped with plum sauce. In the theme of Tai-an tea house, I made 8 unique chawan i.e. tea bowls from clay I begged for from nearby construction site. There were no instruction on how to fire these clay after sifting through human civilization. Their contents were not known. At cone 5 reduction, I was able to make the chawan bloat below the density of water. With reference to Hideyoshi's relationship with Rikyu some gold leaves were also provided, luxury optional. The spoon made to go with bowl, has the visual resemblance of bauhaus architecture, but where the form does not follow function. Or the function is to force guest to eat without convenience, paying attention to each grain of rice.
4'33"'
The color of grilled lobster well done is white, medium rare translucent white. Around the golden batter of the richness of the uni and yolk. If the lobster is like a Robert Rauschenberg white painting. The stained glass piece we pass over the spotlight on the counter, imprints full spectrums of color onto the lobster. That is my take of 4'33"'
無山不似山
Spiky sea cucumber 刺參 from Hokkaido, a delicacy of the sea is dried artisianly for storage and flavor purposes. The rehydration process is a testament of skill and patience of the cook. There is fine line between the size and flavour and texture one aims for during the rehydration phase. Here we aim for flavour intensity of what is a subtle flavour remaining in the sea cucumber. We then air dry the top of the sea cucumber, before flash frying only the top for that crispness. Now that is the flavour of the sea, for flavor of the mountains we turn to bamboo shoots. We use fresh bamboo with the stuffing fishcake. The sauce is we braised the sea cucumber is a combination of fresh bamboo, dried month old bamboo, and aged 2 years bamboo. One could not tell if we are in the mountains or at sea.
人山人海,人生海海。
No mountain is not like a mountain.
生成畫荷
A lotus may bloom or it might not depending on how the I-Ching chance operation is "drawn". But at my dinner, a lotus is guaranteed to bloom in the form of a cup vase. Simple somen serve with 100% claim broth to cleanse our palette from the previous course. Next comes the two main course. Rice and abalone.
Rice is often an afterthought in many restaurant establishments. Something at the surface looks so simple is with depth when you search for perfection. Washing technique, soaking time, firing schedule, pot, are all variables that a proper chef should be able to control. And rice is served, one do not stir and mix, instead you cut through and pull out the rice from the spatula without disturbing its formation.
Next we search the utmost luxury ingredient in rustic plate. There are 15 larger rocks in the stone garden of Ryoanji. I think if you count the number of abalone and the rocks fired into the plate, you'll roughly get 15 rocks. Some edible, some not. When I made these plates, I haven't finished my Ryoanji generative art.
Teardrop
Dessert with mitsu-yokan. Too good, a little boy cannot get enough. Food ultimately like art need not be too competitive nor philosophical. For such a little cannot tell the difference, but only that he likes or not.