Art

Cooking is an art, as you would sometimes hear how people describe it. But you don't see them
being displayed in art galleries, museums, but only in the cafes, as a separate supplementary entity
housed in these premises. An artist friend courteously invited me to collaborate with her on an art
exhibition. The central theme about this exhibition is the memories and the legacy of an old Japanese
occupancy era heritage house that is about 80 years old in history. She argued that there only has
been limited attempt on combining displayed art with culinary arts. She has heard some examples
of using fruit to express the relationships of time by allowing such ingredient to go through the
whole decomposition process. But health safety and odor could be an issue. After exchanging several
discussions, I've come up with the ideas of powders that the visitors could smell and taste to trigger
their childhood flavor memories associated with such heritage house. As a result, different flavors


were created and they included:

1. Osmanthus distillate
2. Indian olive aroma
3. Koji mold on the apple wedges
4. Fermented Koji rice with congee
5. Chicken noodle soup with black sesame oil
6. Stewed pork's knuckle 
7. Kimchi
8. Fermented star fruit drinks
9. Homemade stinky tofu
10. Peanut flavored mocchi
11. Puffed black sesame rice crispy
12. Root beer
13. Hawaii pizza
14. Popcorn with butter and cheddar flavor

Such collaboration is important and interesting as the techniques in the cuisines have been adopted

to help display art in its humble form. Perhaps, this is the beginning of a new chapter for the culinary arts where

they will no longer just be categorized as dietary supplements to the arts, but an art itself worth

of showcasing in the exhibition rooms.