ISSN 1746-8086 Issue 13Stimulus - Food - August/September 2006 - For the Urban Anthropologist Respond Creative UrbanCulture “Food is our common ground, a universal experience.” James Beard “Our lives are not in the lap of the gods, but in the lap of our cooks.” Lin Yutang, The Importance of Living, 1937 STIMULUS 13 Food Contents * Poetry 009 Words by Michael Humphreys 010 Words by Jake 011 Shoppin’ Wiv Me Homies Words by William Keenan 012 You Believe in Marriage Words by Julie R. Eszner 013 Ding Dong Delivery Words by William Keenan 014 Organic Bosc Pears Words by Julie R. Eszner * Writing 017 Impressions from the Andes Words and Images by Maria Dabringer 033 An Identity Lost Through Convenience Words and Images by Gabrielle Sanderson 037 An Appetite for Flesh Words by Yannis Tsitovits Main Image by Cedric Barbe 046 Mindless Eating Words by Carol Mann and Alice Pfeiffer Images by Alice Pfeiffer and Lisa Johansson 055 The Last Supper 067 Matter of Life and Death (Bolero) Words by Barbara Neri Images by Ralph Neri and Julia Millis * Fashion 073 Chile Roasting, Familia y Cultura in Northern New 025 Mexico Bora Aksu Words by Alicia Fedelina Chávez Photography by Florence Guido-DiBrito 029 Aitor Throup 065 Consumption! Consumption! Consumption! Words by Tom Minor * Music * 051 Interviews Mary and the Boy 057 Tasting Exotica Gayle Chong Kwan * Regulars 061 Picnic in a Random Location 016 Sam Sweeting Gwen Cheeseman 044 Helen McKenna 072 Hannah Cranston Gareth Webb is on holiday and will return next issue. Altered Beast Images by Ben Woodeson Mega Drive, TV, Bath, Safeway Saver’s Tomato Soup, Copper and Zinc Electrodes. The piece consisted of a bath of cheap tomato soup which generated the power for an old computer game and black and white televi- sion. The computer game was playable by the viewers. stimulus Respond For the Urban Anthropologist Designer Ilias Tsepas Issue 13 - Food - August/ Stathis Mitropolous Ben Woodeson September 2006 [email protected] ISSN 1746-8086 For contributor’s contact details, ________REGULARS____________________ please email the editor in chief at EDITORIAL [email protected]. ____________________________ Hannah Cranston Editor in Chief Gareth Webb We welcome unsolicited material Jack Boulton Gwen Cheeseman from our readers. If you would [email protected] Helen McKenna like to make a contribution to future issues then please email the Comissioning Editor - Articles CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE ____________________________ editorial team at the addresses Sharmaine Reid Cover image by Barbara Neri above. [email protected] Images on pages 2-3, 6-7 and 9 by Ben Woodeson Stimulus Respond is published six PHOTOGRAPHY ____________________________ times a year by Stimulus Respond Photography Editor ________Articles ____________________ Limited. All material is copyright Jack Boulton Gayle Chong Kwan (c) 2006 the respective contributors. [email protected] Maria Dabringer No reproduction without prior Alicia Fedelina Chávez consent. ________POETRY____________________ Sarah Hyde Poetry Editor Carol Mann Mary Byrnes Tom Minor [email protected] Barbar Neri Alice Pfeiffer Gabrielle Sanderson ________FASHION____________________ Sam Sweeting Fashion Editor Yannis Tsitsovits Melina Nicolaide Cover image by Barbara Neri [email protected] ________Poetry ____________________ Julie R. Enszer Fashion Journalist Michael Humphreys Christos Kyriakides ‘Jake’ [email protected] William Keenan ART ____________________________ ________Photography____________________ Designer Gayle Chong Kwan Jack Boulton Maria Debringer [email protected] Florence Guido-DiBrito Lisa Johannson Julia Millis Aleksi Niemela Ralph Neri Alice Pfeiffer The photograph on page 56 was also missing a credit, which should Editorial have read ‘“Harvesting a Passion” © 2006 by María DeGuzmán, Issue 13 - Food Camera Query’. Apologies again to both Tom and Maria. What is the role of food in culture? How is eating related to inequality? Enjoy the issue and see you in two Is there such a thing as a perfect months, diet? Are you ever what you eat? Jack x Surviving on little or no money in London has it’s few advantages. One of them, if you are moderately sensible, is learning how to eat properly and cheaply. It took a short time to realise that it is cheaper to buy vegetables from a local market as opposed to a supermarket. When you are eating to nourish yourself, you also learn the nutritional value of food and what is good for you. This issue we have gathered a broad spectrum of features and articles from all over the world. Carol Mann and Alice Pfeiffer’s photo-essay Mindless Eating discusses street food in both Paris and London, whilst we also have material discussing the cultural value of food in Chile (lalalalala) and the Andes (Impressions from the Andes). Gayle Chong Kwan, whilst also illustrating the poetry section this issue with images from her exhibition Cockaigne, also takes time to tell us about her Manipulated Memory Tasting Booth which explores the relationship between food and memory, particulary concerning ideas of the ‘exotic East’. I must also take a moment to apologise for a couple of crediting mistakes last issue. The poetry Now I See and We Were Boys were incorrectly credited to Tom and Doreen Giles, when in fact it should have been solely Tom Giles. Words by Michael Humphreys Packaged food doesn’t tell the story How the carrot got on my plate and how the dirt and molecules left the carrot in this state No siree its here now and looks orange enough and perfect enough, but doesn’t taste as sweet, as those I had from ‘Demeter’ the ones that were funny-shapes and different lenghts and colours but, tasted like heaven on the run. Words by Jake I think I’ve recognised within myself what others have been seeing all along. That hungry look. Like I’ve sharpened my teeth, Like I’m sizing you up Like I’ve salted your skin And am preparing to eat you. Shoppin’ Wiv Mi Homies Words by William Keenan Two hoodrats went shopping for sausage ‘Have you tried pickled herring with almonds?’ Their image inspired by hip-hop The trainee inquired with smirked pride Since the mall looked most uninviting ‘Yes we did that last week, with some tender young leek; To a health store they ambled their bop We’re starred five in the Michelin Guide’ There were vitamins galore and rye vita ‘No hoodies’ signposted class warfare And things to transform a goulash Kept stoked up by food snobs in suits But search as they might midst th’organic shite Yet the ‘snarler’ and earth-clad potato There was nowt there for bangers and mash Take eating right back to the roots. You Believe in Marriage Words by Julie R. Enszer For Kendra from a wood The way you know the tines block you carved of this fork will pierce soft, baked flesh this concave spoon and bring it to my lips this flat fork The way the gentle bowl Together they break of this spoon echoes formal dinner-table conventions the shapes reject artifice we both desire embrace utility I hang your belief This is the way on my wall: you believe a print in marriage Ding-Dong Delivery Words by William Keenan She rang the bell in hooker style Sent by ex-navy seals. He opened up, at eighty-six, Expecting ‘Meals on Wheels’ ‘I’ve come with super sex’, she said, In silks designed to tease. ‘I’ll have the soup’, th’old matelot sighed, ‘I’m not that hard to please’. They eased into a rare mixed hour Of tea and toast and telly She snored, he slurped, their contract signed Set off by lemon jelly. ‘Well, that was grand’, she cried aloud, ‘And by the way, I’m Nancy’. ‘That’s nice’, he beamed, and stripping off: ‘What else would you fancy?’ ‘I like a man on top,’ she smiled, ‘Maybe a snort of charley’. ‘Oh, mighty me’, th’old sailor gasped: ‘I’ve just got lemon barley!’ ‘That’s cool, my dear, I’ve had such fun. One day, I hope, we’ll … you know’. ‘OK’, my lass’, he spanked her ass: ‘But next time bring tomato’. he images on the last four pages are by Gayle Chong Kwan and are taken from her new series of twelve photographs, which are the latest contribution to the Fourteenth Century myth of a glutton’s paradise. TIn the land of Cockaigne all work is forbidden, hams grow on trees, houses are roofed with pies and rivers run with wine. Each image depicts a utopian or mythical landscape constructed entirely out of a single foodstuff. The landscapes share similar horizons and viewed as a whole they combine to form one fantastical panorama. Yet these beautiful images are constructed from foodstuffs, which are verging on the repellent. The lard is beginning to sweat, the cheese is plastic and slimy, the dried meat infectious. Erudite, ambivalent and multi- layered, Cockaigne explores myths of paradise, pleasure and the exotic in tourism, European legend and the history of Fine Art. Gayle Chong Kwan is interviewed on page 57. Organic Bosc Pears Words by Julie R. Enszer I wanted to peel them when they were ripe. Very ripe. When the sweet flesh easily would give its skin to my sharp, freshly honed knife. I wanted to peel them and slice them, I wanted to boil them then simmer them with cinnamon. I imagined the balsamic reduction I would drizzle on the plate. Sweet potatoes. Pear sauce. Pork loin. It was to have been the perfect marriage of texture and taste until the pears passed their prime. They softened. They spoiled. Sour vinegar seeped onto my stainless steel counter. When I went to toast the very last bagel, I uncovered rotten pears. They smelled. And the poor bagel—its plastic drenched in fresh-minted vinegar.