Experimental Pickle!

Monday evening, I will be at 18 Reasons in San Francisco, presenting an artist talk and pickling demonstration MASH UP!

I will show my video Oh I Limp Concise Sadism! and then give participants a lesson in home pickling. Here's how 18 Reasons describes our event:

18 Reasons and OPENrestaurant are teaming up to offer a 2-part curing workshop in preparation for OPENwater, OPENrestaurant's 2-day food and art exploration of water politics in the Bay Area.  In this first workshop, artist and chef Jen Smith will stimulate our brains with her recent video Oh I Limp Concise Sadism! After this short artistic foray, we will whet our appetites by making various pickles, including fennel, capers and salt cured lemons, that will be used during OPENwater.

OPEN is a fantastic artists/chefs project, that describe themselves thusly:

OPENrestaurant is the project of a collective of restaurant professionals who sought to move their environment to an art space as a way to experiment with the language of their daily activities. This displacement turns the restaurant, its codes and architecture, into a medium for artistic expression which is made available to cooks, farmers, artists and activists as a way to explore issues around food and society. Held for one night every few month it creates an informal forum by focusing on a specific issue. OPENrestaurant is the project of Stacie Pierce, Jerome Waag and Sam White, all part of the Chez Panisse restaurant staff. 

OPENwater will be a two day event that explores issues of water in the Bay Area.

http://18reasons.org/

http://openrestaurant.org/

Tickets here, should you like to come!

Harvest Moon Pickle Party!

Gentle Friends of the Pickle!

It's your ol'

JJ PICKLE here!

Lamenting!

I have been too long away from the Pickle Factory!

But my hands are brine deep now!

Ready to offer some pickles and jams,

at

Iko Iko!

1298 Sunset Blvd

Los Angeles, CA

Sunday, September 26

2:00pm - 5:00pm

I will have:

Curried Cauliflower

Spicy Okra

Dilly Beans

Nopales

&

lots of cucumbers~~

Bread and Butter

Dill Spears

Smokey Cucumbers

and some Thai Spiced numbers!

There will be some jams:

Peach, Plums, & whatever else is in the larder.

Kristen and Shin are also serving cold Sake!

People, I put it to you plainly,

DO YOU LIKE FUN?!

(Also, friendship circle, if there is something special you want me

to make, let me know, and I shall do my best to make it for you!)

Please won't you join us?

http://www.ikoikospace.com

Snapshots from Radical Citizenship: The Tutorials

Gathering the mobil kitchen

The ferry from Tiburon to Angel Island

Our campsite in the distance

Amanda talks to Sarah Jane
about cultivating Creme Fraiche,
Mary and Julia do some chopping

Watercress becomes salad

Back on the main land, Hong-An and Huong
problematizing the notion of allegiance to the
state

Radical Citizenship: The Tutorials or Back to the Garden

I am very excited to be in the Bay Area as a Tutor for this interesting artist's project by Mary Walling Blackburn, hosted through Southern Exposure.

Can knee-jerk nationalism be swapped for a wild love of the local or is patriotism always in collusion with Empire? Mary Walling Blackburn and Anhoek School present Radical Citizenship: The Tutorials, a series of one-on-one tutorials for participants with artists, activists, ecologists, and academics from various disciplines. Over the course of four days, at Southern Exposure and Angel Island, tutors will engage participants in individualized inquiries into the nature of citizenship and its enactment. Each tutor will offer their own lyrical and practical examples and investigations of radical citizenship and, as such, an unregulated form of belonging. Together both the tutor and the participant will deconstruct the terms of what it means to be a citizen, upset its definition as based on a principle of exclusion, and redefine it as practice rather than status. The length of each tutorial will be negotiated on site between each participant and tutor, ranging from five minutes to an hour.


I am here through the invitation of my fellow tutor and inspirational social practioner and best friend, Amanda Eicher. I had known Amanda for years socially, but really began to notice her as a kindred spirit about five years ago at an event at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. A potluck (i.e., no monetary support from the institution) in conjunction with a zine show, I expected to show up to bags of potato chips but instead, there was delicious, fortifying foods: french lentils, salads and breads. I knew immediately that it was Amanda's handiwork, and I made note to myself "Amanda Eicher is no joke! This is a class act!" We became fast friend and collaborators and over the years have made and eaten many, many meals together.


That she would bring this long-time collaboration to a public symposium is a stroke of her particular genius and generosity. Our friendship has been so edifying, it makes so much sense that it might be cobbled into a strategic teaching point. Here's what she wrote to frame our investigative tutorial.

Consider the Gatherer: A Supper and a Conversation
What are the attributes of the gatherer—the short-range roamer who specializes in knowing what the ground (or grounds) have to offer? In a moment when the principles of the hunter are enjoying a resurgence of support and interest, what does it mean to invite the gatherer to the table? Gleaning, observing, waiting attitudes; knowledge of the seasons and the territory; coexistence with other consumers of the same goods/crops; dependence on the yield of the environment, or on range; cleverness in preservation vs allowing for change; as well as many shared characteristics with hunters, notably nomadism; will be explored in a tutorial meal.

Our first step was to go on a foraging journey to Marin with Christina Linden, a curator, writer and fantastic conversationalist! Lately, I have been more busy than I can remember being, out of my body berserk. It was so healing to walk in the woods and gather some food with these two brilliant women.


First stop, the 24 hour Farm Stand in Bolinas, where they use the old honor system to receive payments!

And then a five mile hike to Alamere Falls, via Bass Lake,

to lunch and gather watercress and nettles.

One of my most favorite places on Earth, Bass Lake

Our collaboration

Christina gathering cress

Gleaning from the nettle forest

A Careful Mobile

Oh, they sting alright!

A Vigorous Bouquet

Bags filled with nettles

Yesterday's Menu, Last Day! Sound of My Voice, Day 16! That's a wrap!

Chicken Schnitzel

Black Eyed Peas

Mac and Cheese

Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Peas, of course!

Cole Slaw

Cucumber, Pickled Onion and Dill

Green Salad!

Yesterday's Menu: Sound of My Voice, Day 15

This was a monster day! On five hours of sleep, I woke up and made my first "to go" order for a brunch and then I made lunch for the Sound of My Voice Crew.

Grilled Steak Larb

Grilled Chicken Larb

Glass Noodles with Wild Mushrooms

Fried Rice with Ginger, Peas and Scallions

Baby Bok Choi

Watermelon!

Simple Green Salad!

Afterwards, I whisked off to Heather Taylor's house to participate in a "webisode." I was brought on as an experienced canner to teach Heather how to make dilly beans and peach jam and mostly to not fear the water bath! I had very intense flash backs to myself as a child, performing a tutorial for an imaginary cooking show! Pretty fun! 

Heather is a mover and a shaker! And among her diverse projects, co-directs Taylor Cordoba Gallery and writes about food.

http://taylordecordoba.com/

http://lainbloom.blogspot.com/

And then finally! Off to Erika Vogt's very beautiful show:

http://www.overduinandkite.com/

http://www.overduinandkite.com/Vogt%20PR.pdf

What a day!

Today's Menu: Sound of My Voice, Day 14

Cranking it out over here!

And nearing the finish line!

Shish Taouk
as described by Seth Lorinczi!
This is quite good and quite easy.

Marinate the chicken
(today I used breast)
in
some tomato paste,
yogurt,
lemon juice,
garlic,
a LOT of sumac
(common spice in Middle Eastern cooking
and therefore, groceries),
cumin,
a dash of chili powder,
salt

for 2-12 hours before grilling.

The yogurt coats the chicken
in a flavorful fat,
keeping it from drying out.
The sumac has a delicious
savory tartness
and it takes the lead in
this recipe.

Do it!
SO SIMPLE!

Those Fancy Green Lentils,
again

Herbed Basmati

Roasted Broccoli

Piquant Purple Slaw

Red Onion, Cucumber and Feta
Salad

Green Salad with Dried Fruit
and Nuts!

In the evening, I went to these two excellent events:

http://www.artistcuratedprojects.com/www.artistcuratedprojects.com/ACP.html

http://www.steveturnercontemporary.com/artists/ore-giron/rtr/index.html

and then a really enlivening backyard party at Eamon and Gina's house! So many warm geniuses in one place! I was so seduced that I stayed until 3am! 

For some reason, as the job comes to a close, I have been acting out, little resistances to my own self as employer, going out and having a social life! It is lovely, lovely, lovely in the moment but oh! The burden of the following day!