Meal #4

Ruth graciously invited us into her cosy home and kitchen. With friends and family gathered around the table, we learned about fish finger sandwiches as we chopped cabbage and smashed ginger.

The Menu:
Dongbei Salad
Jinjiang Shredded Pork
Sweet Sour Cabbage

Meal #3

Out to Rochdale and to the beautiful ladies at Rose Court. We barely fit into their tiny kitchen, but it was a fabulous evening with salad and noodles.

The menu:
Dongbei Salad
Hand Pulled Shanxi Noodles with Egg and Tomato Sauce

Meal #2

We arrived at the Berry's beautiful home and kitchen and was greeted with chinese teapots, chinese sorghum wine and their lovely family.

The menu:
Dongbei Salad
Mapo Tofu
3 Colors Chicken

meal #1

our first night was a great group of foodies from australia and the UK who had us over to their kitchen. on the menu was:
Mapo Dofu
Twice Cooked Pork
Sweet Sour Napa Cabbage (Chinese cabbage)

some images from the evening:

shopping

ok, so these posts are a little out of order, but here's us in the wing yip supermarket in manchester buying supplies for the kitchen project. L to r: wangwei, richard gregory, and me, for some reason looking excessively enthusiastic about a pile of napa cabbage:

packing heat

here's what our luggage looked like upon arrival in manchester:

i know you're asking: did we actually travel with a wok, cleavers, sichuan peppercorns and chili paste from beijing? yes.
if only you could smell this bag now.

test drive

yesterday held a "dress rehearsal" class for 9 people- mostly from Quarantine and Chinese Art Center, our collaborators and sponsors. made a whooping 5 dishes with everyone joining in on the epic cutting, slicing and dicing. thanks for everyone's patience while we worked out the kinks. Tonight we start the real thing. Wonder where we end up this evening?

some pics of last night for your viewing pleasure:

kitchen project graphics

recipes

some nonsense recipes by Edward Lear

although we're not planning on cooking nonsense in Manchester, i like the idea of a recipe as a delivery format for alternative content, subvert it's seemingly harmless outward appearance as a straightforward set of instructions. 

hello worlds

Welcome to the blog for the Kitchen Project, a artistic collaboration between Quarantine and artists Rania Ho and Wang Wei, commissioned by Chinese Arts Centre.

KITCHEN PROJECT: COOKERY CLASSES THAT COME TO YOU…

What does it mean to make and share a meal?

What’s actually being traded in “cultural exchanges”?

From Saturday February 25th until Thursday March 1st 2012 two artists from Beijing, Rania Ho and Wang Wei, will explore these questions and more by roving around Manchester teaching cookery classes in people’s homes. Classes will cover various topics from basic knife techniques, to step-by-step instruction on a selection of tasty dishes. They will bring all the necessary materials and tools, and improvise when necessary. Participants should provide them with full access to their kitchens.

The class is free, but class sizes are limited as they will be hands-on with participants preparing and sampling multiple dishes during the 3-hour long session.

Kitchen Project is a collaboration between Quarantine and artists Rania Ho and Wang Wei, commissioned by Chinese Arts Centre. Ho and Wang are installation artists who experiment in various mediums - Ho with transforming common household products and Wang creating pseudo-architectural forms. Ho and Wang are also two of the co-founders of Arrow Factory, one of Beijing’s most intriguing storefront art spaces.

Kitchen Project plays with ideas about tourism, authenticity and food to delve into an exploration of the term “cultural exchange”.

Since 2006 Quarantine has been in creative conversation with Ho and Wang, and over the last few years they have made bread, met musicians, pawn brokers, refugees, the people responsible for branding Manchester and many more. This upcoming project opens their ongoing conversation to the general public where the artists will act as “hosts” in the transmission of some simple cultural and culinary knowledge. Rania Ho and Wang Wei are not professionally trained chefs - they are visual artists who enjoy cooking. All their knowledge was gained through learning from others.

Kitchen Project Details:

No fee – free of charge.

CLASS SIZES: Limited to 6 persons

CLASS DURATION: Approximately 3 hours

DATES: Saturday 25th February – Thursday 1st March 2012.

TIMES: Flexible – daytime or evening. Class times can be adjusted to fit any schedule.

PLACES: Wherever you live – must be within Greater Manchester.

CONTACT INFO: Apply as above to Sam Stockdale at office@qtine.com If you need more information, please telephone Quarantine on 0161 830 7318.