Panda Express

Trashbin #11, 2006, Kaz Oshiro

"What are you eating?" is the community feedback zone set up at the exit of the Banquet show. Visitors are asked to respond to questions about what food means to them, what it says about who they are. The essays, photographs and recipes submitted will be put up on boards along the corridor and there will be a monthly prize drawing for selected entries.

The first batch of contributions came from a class of 9th graders at Duarte High School, as part of a writing assignment on the idea of the banquet. Among them, an essay titled "My Friendship Table" by Lara Guiragossian (read here), offers a lively description of going to Panda Express with friends on the last day of school. It adds another dimension to the show's closing piece Trashbin # 11, 2006, Kaz Oshiro, which critiques the assimilation of Asian cuisines to American fast food culture.

Other essays included: "Family togetherness" by Corey Cheraz; "Uniting Again" by Jonathan Graham; "Dinner Occasions" by Chris Granillo; "My 14th Birthday Party!" by Irene Haro; "My Special Holiday" by Jeanette Haro; "Family togetherness" by Judith Munoz; "Family Banquets" by Eduardo Ramirez; "Being around the People and the Food you Love" by Alyssa Reyes; "How Dinner Affects Me" by Justin Robles; "The Necessities of Food" by Marisa Sadek; "What is a Banquet?" by Patricia Sierra; "The family table" by Sean Sparks; "Food on Holidays" by Ken Truong; "My Christmas Banquet" by Candy Vargas. All essays are on view in the corridor.

opening night

Jung Eun Park, in front of Paper Menagerie Series, 2006

New York-based Jung Eun Park (born 1979, Seoul) was one of the artists who had flown in for the opening of Banquet: A Feast for the Senses. The above photo shows her standing in front of her work Paper Menagerie Series. Scattered across a wall painted sea-foam green, it's one of the most radiant areas in the show. Although the individual pieces are untitled, the delicate works of paper present organic forms that suggest vegetable peels seen under a microscope. Here are some of her reponses to "What are you eating?":

What foods do you love?
I like every kind of food but especially foods from the sea, except sea cucumber.

What do you like to eat with family and friends?
Spicy crab soup and dwenjang jjigae (traditional Korean soup)

What do you like to eat when you are alone?
Kimchi jjigae and Korean style beef curry.

What is the first thing you remember eating as a child?
One thing I can definitely remember is, I really didn't like to eat spinach. (Now I love it!)

What are three things you would like to eat before dying?
1. Toro sushi 2. Caviar with bread (I love it but it's too expensive) 3. My mother's dwenjang jjigae

Ramen noodle girl

Detail, Sublime Grave Dweller Shinko, 2004, Chiho Aoshima, chromogenic print
(30 x 118 inches). Courtesy of Blum & Poe, Los Angeles / Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris & Miami ©2004 Chiho Aoshima/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

In Itami Juzo's cult "noodle Western" Tampopo, there is a wonderful scene where an old man expounds his views on the art of eating ramen. First, one must contemplate the contents of the bowl: the beads of fat glistening across the soup's surface, the noodles nestled below, three succulent slices of braise pork next to small piles of chopped scallion and shinachiku, or preserved baby bamboo. After solemnly inhaling the rising steam you may finally take up your chopsticks. But before plunging in one must pause to gently pat the soup and noodles in a gesture of affection and gratitude.

The film's title refers to its heroine, a frumpy middle-aged widow struggling with a run-down noodle joint. The place is a dump and quite frankly so are her noodles. Through circumstances she is adopted by five men who initiate her to the ramen universe -- the silence and economy of movements behind the counter, secrets to preparing the soup, the science of making noodles. In addition her shop is redesigned and Tampopo herself is given a makeover.

At the final test tasting, Tampopo anxiously watches the men slurp away at their bowls (making noise is obligatory when eating any type of noodles in Japan.) Simultaneously, all five lift up their bowls to gulp down the soup to its last drop, then put them down with a deep collective sigh. It is a transcendental moment and a ray of divine light shines into the shop.

Ramen is never just a bowl of noodles; rather it represents a whole worldview. So when that gets unceremoniously dumped on the head of one of Chiho Aoshima's hapless, cute-sexy waifs, it raises some interesting questions...

"Banquet: A Feast for the Senses" opens next Friday.