A Day’s Work
I’ve been in a really intimate relationship with my food lately. Between my partner and I participating in Cedilo’s Fresh Produce Community Supported Agriculture program, and the large garden we’ve created in our backyard with a handful of neighbors and friends. Most of what I eat is from the farm or the garden. When I’m sad or anxious, I go out and pick herbs for tea. When I want to relax in the twilight, I sit by the raspberry bush, and pet the cat while my partner relaxes near the tomatoes while the windchimes kinda plunkle in the quiet buzz of the city.
When The Syndicate opened up the possibility of completing A Day’s Work for them, it made sense to explore this intimacy more, and to encounter the intimacies people I care for have for their foods. I wanted to maybe learn to cook a recipe or recipes, to practice sharing that kind of creative and storytelling in advance of a creative residency I had planned for the Month of August. One month in Oaxaca with my creative partner Anna to create, cook, grow, heal, eat, and imagine. My friend Carolina suggested cooking rice; an Italian woman, she has a strong cultural relationship to rice, and offered to share her risotto recipes with me! That was a great idea. Because I can think of several people I love who grew up eating rice for many meals and occasions, who could cook their rice without thinking, without measuring, just by sight, touch and heart. What kind of memories do we associate with the rices of our ethnic histories, our childhoods, or cross-cultural encounters? How close are our ingredient lists, how far apart are our flavors? What do we remember of weathered hands in hot kitchens with canciones drifting out of la radio?
For my Day’s Work, I cooked rice with friends in different places, from different places, and shared memories and musings with them as the sensory experience influenced our creative conversation. I wanted to teach someone the rice I always make, and be taught other methods. I picked fresh ingredients from my garden, and set out to spend 8 hours on 5 different rices.
They were, in order,
Saffron Rissoto, via Carolina’s online cooking course Easy Medeterranean Cooking.
Fried Rice, via whatsapp video chat with Earl T Kim
Mexican/Tejano Rice, via whatsapp video chat with Earl T Kim
Rice Pilaf, in person, with Sara Dickett
Garlic Fried Rice, in person, with Jonathan Kline
The rices used a lot of the same ingredients, sometimes with just one ingredient different, sometimes with a particular way of browning or heating the rice. Always fragrant as fuck, and delicious.
True to my typical day’s work, there were meetings, obligations, commutes, and even a day between this rice and that. So, 8 hours of Rice, but like many folks with careers like mine, there’s often a lot of details in the fabric.
WED 28 JULY 21
5-7 AM, email admin for a longtime client
7-8 AM, Cermak for Jasmine Rice, a watermelon, veg broth, and some sundries
8-9 AM, I watched Carolina’s (at the time, un-released) EMC episode, learning about risotto, La Mondina, and texting her on Whatsapp (she was by the seaside).
9-10 AM, cafecito, risotto with eggs, and a bit of rest and prep for the rest of the day
10-11 AM, work in the garden, then a shower.
11:15-12:30, commute to Rivendell Theatre, where I am the new Associate Artistic Director
12:30-1:45, time with Rivendell’s summer interns, on their last day, to talk about how it went, their future plans, answer questions about my practice, or chicago, etc.
1:45-3:00pm, commute back to the south side
3:00- 5:00pm, a whatsapp call with Earl, where I first taught him to make my rice, and then he taught me to make his. An interesting term came up in this conversation, in regards to the experiences I had had thus far in the day, and how much intersection we had in our nostalgia for rice. MotherRice.
5:00-6:30pm, a rest
6:00-7:00pm. Rice Pilaf, with my partner, in our kitchen. Pavy the Cat served as kitchen supervisor and chanteuse.
Thurs 29 July 21
6:00-8:00pm, garlic Fried Rice with Jonathan, my upstairs neighbor.
8:00-9:30pm, communal meal in the garden, joining many veg from our garden with tofu, and our garlic fried rice