Day 2

Yesterday’s collection series at the Physical Center: Brooklyn Exhibition at St Cecilia's Convent in Greenpoint was amazing. The turnout was outstanding and the stories have given me much to consider. From Little Cesar’s Pizza tales to twin birthday cakes, I am excited to sort back through them all and bring them to you in the near future.

After 5 hours of interviews I am simultaneously energized and exhausted. So little energy to write. However, I got a lot of questions about the tea that I made yesterday and I am happy to share. It is simply stepped/simmered fruit and a little black tea for body. Here is the recipe…

Drinking Poland

2 fresh apples*

10-12 dried plums (aka prunes)

In a medium sauce pan, boil 3-4 cups of water. Throw in the fruit and boil for 1 minute. Reduce heat and simmer for approx 20 min. Strain. Cool and refrigerate for iced tea or use as a concentrate for hot beverages. For hot tea, fill half the tea pot with concentrate and add the rest with hot water. Throw in a bag of black tea to give the tea more body. For iced tea, just pour over ice. mmmm, mmmm.

*you can use dried apples if fresh apples can’t be found…but I doubt that is ever a problem. If so, use ½ - ¾ cup.

My family trip to Poland was amazing. I learned more there about different ways of living and using all your resources than anywhere else that I have traveled to in Europe. It’s probably because we stayed with a family, but I think it’s also because as a people, we Poles are fairly resourceful. At least I like to think so.

Anyway, Here is what the tea feels like to me…

our handsome river guide...

whoa...who's that hot mama... my grandmother, Clara, our humble and often cranky translater.

GiGi, as she is known to my nieces and nephews with a Górale (a Polish Highlander) in the Tatras mountains where my grandfather is from.

Day One

My family history is largely recorded in food, more specifically, meals we’ve shared. Shared meals times are peppered with conversations about meals we’ve shared before, meals we’d like to share in the future. As I think back on my own personal history, I can see memories that are bound to the smells, tastes and images of places that I have been, people I have shared experiences with and the hope of reliving those experiences some day again.

Take, for instance, the apple tea that I am brewing for my performance today. It is a recipe I designed based on a trip that I took to Poland with my family over 12 years ago. We stayed with a friend of the family. Every day they would make this cold, fruit-based drink that was really light and not super sweet. I finally got the lady of the house to show me how she made it and it was literally steeped fruit, usually fresh or dried apples and plums which were then cooled and drank like juice. Today's tea isn't exactly the same thing, but it makes me think of that place every time I make it. And making it for me doesn’t just re-create the memory of that tea, it re-creates my memory for the whole house, even the way southern Poland felt and looked.

What We Remember is an investigation into the role that food plays in creating our memories. The sensory experience we have in relation to food plays an important part in creating and recreating our memories. The way food smells, tastes, looks, the way it feels or sounds when we are planting, harvesting, buying or cooking it has an amazing ability to help us live and re-live our memories when those sights, smells or sounds happen again.

This blog will serve as a repository for the memories that I have collected as well as a place for me to work through those memories. Each story goes through a careful sifting and winnowing process. Gleaning ingredients and sensory experiences from these stories, I will be reconfiguring them into new recipes for me and you to try. My aim is to find a different way to look at food and the way it is consumed.

Ultimately I will share these recipes and the associated memories with others at food memory dinners conducted several times a year. Members of the collection are invited to the dinners as a chance to meet with other members, share their memories and create community in a different way.

Thanks for visiting and stop back soon as I continue to write about the process, the memories I collect and the recipes that are created or embellished.