National Bitter Melon Council

Bitter Melon [A]side/[In]side

November 11, 2006

Bitter Melon [A]side/[In]side was a dinner project for the Grantmakers in the Arts Individual Artist Funders’ pre-conference event for the 2006 GIA conference: Beantown Remix. The event occurred on November 11, 2006 and involved the pre-conference attendees, artist presenters, and collaborating local caterer. The event took place in the Hans Hoffman Gallery at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum.

Carved fruits and vegetables have a long tradition in Asian and Southeast Asian cultures. Garnishes can be as extravagant as these food sculptures or as minimalist as minced parsley sprinkled on a plate edge. Gaudy or simple, they are key aesthetic elements to the food and dining experience, but not often noted in the list of ingredients on a menu description. Their lack of visibility implies inferiority compared to the main element of the dish, though they can actually, through flavor or aesthetics, add character that distinguishes or completes the sensory experience of the dish. What happens if the featured ingredient in the new garnish is the bitter flavored green gourd Bitter Melon?

Through Bitter Melon [A]side/[In]side, we featured the power and potential of these small, ‘hidden’ culinary additions, to form or change the meaning and significance of the dining experience. When the garnish packs the potent flavor, does its significance outweigh that of the main ingredient?

Simultaneously, we were secreting Bitter Melon throughout the meal; it appeared in every dish but was hidden within the hierarchy of flavors. The incorporation of Bitter Melon in the meal, as an overt aside as the garnish and as a covert ingredient inside each dish, reflects on GIA, Provincetown, and the NBMC itself. It highlights the layered relationships between the three locations, communities, and institutions. Art grantmakers and artists, conference and preconference, the NBMC and this preconference, the preconference and Provincetown…how are each [A]sides and [In]sides to the others? And how does the final flavor of the event change as a result of this mixing of ingredients?

The culinary element of the project was a collaborative effort between the NBMC at Cosmos Catering, local catering company based in Provincetown, MA. Our goal was to invite a local caterer to develop a banquet where every course, from hors d’oeurves to dessert, included Bitter Melon as an ingredient but did not taste at all like the bitter gourd itself. Based on the specific dishes that they prepared, we created a series of Bitter Melon condiments and garnishes for each dish.

The space was divided into quadrants depicting the emograph that we use to map out the Myers-Bitter results. The emograph is a mapping system based on the concepts of loss, gain, attachment, and no-attachment. It creates a 4-quadrant graph; the opposing ends of the x-axis are ‘Gain’ and ‘Loss’ and the opposing ends of the y-axis are ‘Attachment’ and ‘No Attachment’. Each quadrant represents the emotions Bitter (loss with attachment); Peace (loss with no attachment); Pride (gain with attachment); and Humility (gain with no attachment). Two tables per quadrant were laid out in the gallery space.

The place settings included white napkins with the NBMC artist statement silk-screened on to in white. The letters showed up more clearly on the linen the more someone wiped their face and hands with the napkin. The settings also included a white placemat printed with a green outline of a Bitter Melon. Participants were allowed to keep the used napkin and placemat at the end of the night. Each plate was garnished with a thinly sliced bitter melon and lemon wedge. The center of the table included bowls of different Bitter Melon condiments including: Bitter Melon sea salt, spicy oil infused with Bitter Melon and garlic, Bitter Melon pepper, Bitter Melon and fresh hot pepper.

The seating arrangements for the guests were prepared using our Myers-Bitter Survey, an interactive documentation method that we created using the model of the Myers-Briggs personality test. (See Myers Bitter Survey for more information about the survey and to try it out yourself!) We asked GIA Preconference participants to take the survey before the evening of the dinner. We then quantified their results and divided them into tables based on their survey scores. Participants were placed at each table based on the similarities between their survey answers in a quadrant appropriate to the survey results: i.e. persons with the highest proportion of questions answered that reflected ‘Pride’ were placed together at one of the 2 pride tables.

When participants arrived, they were given NBMC promotional materials and asked whether or not they considered themselves an artist. Their answers were marked and then used at the end of the event. At the end of the night, participants were told that the placemats were also art objects, and food spilled on the mat was their contribution/creative alteration to the art object. Those who had marked ‘yes’ to the entry question were allowed to sign their own placemat (as their own unique piece of artwork.) Participants who marked ‘no’ were not able to sign their own, and an NBMC member signed it for them, claiming authorship.

Additionally, when participants entered the space, we took their nametags away and replaced them with individualized nametags that we had prepared that reflected the results of their survey. These nametags had letters corresponding to the phrases for each quadrant of the emograph: B for Bitter, Pe for Peace, P for Pride, and H for Humility. The letters were placed in a quadrant on the nametag, with font sizes representing the proportion of corresponding survey questions answered that most closely paralleled the NBMC answers to the survey. For instance, someone who answered the most ‘Bitter’ questions ‘correctly’ on the survey had the biggest ‘B’ on their nametag and was placed at a table with others who had a similarly proportioned nametag.

The dinner included a welcome from NBMC members, a speech by the Cosmos Catering chef, a discussion about the conceptual framework and background for the dinner and a question and answer session. It also included a reprise performance of the NBMC theme song with Lyda Kuth and Louisa McCall, attendees who had learned and performed the song at the Goya Day celebration and Annual Meeting on May 7, 2006.

This project was a commissioned by the LEF foundation and the Grantmakers in the Arts.