Thanks Francine

A few weeks ago we got an email from a girl named Francine who visited the 1 Bite booth at the Renegade Craft Fair. She was wondering if we came across her on the tapes. She had made a special confession in the private video booth and wanted to see it, and more importantly, share it with the object of her confession.

I had been saving the private video booth footage for after I logged all the tasting booth tapes. The private video booth was shot with an unmanned camera, so I had no idea what I would discover. I was kind of treating it as the surprise at the bottom of the cereal box. I was wildly curious, but also a little anxious. Did people feel comfortable in the space? Did tasting an unusual dish inspire them? Would they really share their wishes? Was the experience as fun as I hoped it would be…as fun as I imagined it would be during the months of planning?

Francine’s request forced me to push play and find out. The question was “What will you do with the extra seven days you earned from tasting something new?” and the responses ran the gamut from silence to dancing. Some people said nothing and some had lots to say; some kissed, danced, and some made plans for orgiastic eating. People bravely stepped into the booth, unsure of what was going to happen next, sometimes unsure if the camera was even rolling, and they seemed to be having a pretty great time.

I can’t possibly do the responses justice with words but I think I can say there are fun, smart, sweet, uncomfortable, silly, meaningful, and of course, meaningless, exposed bits of people in all the moments shared.

So what about Francine? Well, she visited the booth on Sunday with her friend Andy. She tasted the pomegranate soup and then confessed something about Andy. Here they are and here’s what Francine had to say.

I guess she used those seven days as planned, because Francine and Andy are a couple now. (Francine if you two get married can we come and set up a 1 Bite booth at the wedding?)

We’ll soon be posting more footage – a few more video booth moments and the whole Renegade Craft Fair sequence. Stay tuned.

1 Bite on the 6 Train

Since this project started I’ve been thinking it might be great if we could help anyone, anywhere do 1 Bite 7 Days events. We’d provide recipes for unusual foods, some tips on holding the tasting, and a home for anyone on the web to post or upload text, audio, photo, or video diaries of the tasting and the wishes for extra time.

I think my train ride on Friday night was an omen. 1 Bite is completely mobile. You can be out to dinner, at a barbecue, a party, at work – hell, you can be on the train – and taste something you never tried before. You can take a quick snapshot of the new food with your cell phone and text both the photo and a few words on what you’ll do with your extra 7 days to us (you can also shoot your tasting as a slideshow, record audio or video, or just email a few words) and we’ll collect and share for everyone to see, experience, and be inspired by.

Of course, not all 1 Bite 7 Days events need to be that spontaneous. When they are, like my tasting on the train, it will be great for everyone to experience that immediacy – for the taster to be swept up in the moment and record their thoughts right away and for readers to see how the taste and spontaneity informs the experience. But, the main idea is to create a collection of all kinds of people, tasting all kinds of food, and wishing for all sorts of things to do with their extra time.

So here I go – the first entry in what I hope will eventually be a library of tasting experiences and shared wishlists.

Where: 6 Train, New York City, NY
When: Friday, June 27, 2008; 8:30 pm (or so)
1 Bite: The longan or lamyai, a small, sweet and juicy transparent fruit, that grows in grape-like clusters, and has a hard, round, pale-brown skin like a shell. They had a definite eye-ball texture but were subtle and sweet and very fun to eat!
7 Days: Because a woman I didn’t know and who spoke little English, offered me a taste when I asked her what she was eating, I’m going to use my 7 days to remember that people are good and I should talk to strangers more.

[I didn't snap a photo in time, mostly because I'm terrible at using my cell phone camera, but here's one courtesy SimplyThai.com.]

Okay, who’s next? Email us at 1bite7days@gmail.com and we’ll post them asap!

Renegade Recipes

We had a blast at the Renegade Craft Fair. Watching people taste our unusual dishes and then bravely step into the video booth to share their wishes for extra time was nothing short of wonderful! We felt so welcomed, and guests who stopped by really seemed to love the experience. One of my favorite moments of the two days was when one fellow paused just before entering the video booth and said, “Thanks for doing this.” It made my weekend!

Chef and producer Erin King received complement after complement on her dishes, which is a pretty great feat considering she wasn’t serving up easy-to-please favorites like mac n’ cheese. The Renegade Menu included: Iraqi Pomegranate Soup, a spring dish often used to break a fast; Vinegar Pie, an old frontier dish that was later adopted by many thrifty cultures; and Pickled Fiddlehead Ferns, the fiddleheads a nod to Native American foraging culture, and the pickling an easier way to prepare and serve.

So many guests asked for the recipes that we’re posting them here. Enjoy!

Pomegranate Soup – Shorbat Rumman
1 pound dried yellow split peas
1 bunch scallions, thinly sliced
1 large bunch spinach, finely chopped
2 bunches parsley, finely chopped
2 bunches cilantro, finely chopped
1 bunch mint, finely chopped
Juice of 1 lime
3T pomegranate syrup
Salt and Pepper

Rinse and drain peas, removing any stones. Using a large pot, cook over medium heat in 6 cups of water until soft, about 45 minutes. Add water as needed.

Once soft, season to taste with salt and pepper. Add the scallions, spinach, parsley, cilantro and mint. Return to a simmer and cook 5 minutes. Off heat stir in pomegranate molasses and lime juice. Adjust seasoning.

Makes 8 cups.

Vinegar Pie
1 pre-cooked 9 inch pie crust
2 cups water
½ cup all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
2 eggs, beaten
6 T apple cider vinegar

In a heavy saucepan, bring water to a boil. In a small bawl whisk together flour and sugar. Add flour-sugar mixture to boiling water, whisking often. Cook until thickened, about 6 min.

Remove from heat and temper eggs with mixture, whisking constantly. Return mixture to saucepan and cook over medium low heat, while whisking, for about 3 minutes more.

Off heat, add vinegar and whisk until fully incorporated. Pour into pre-baked pie shell and refrigerate until set. Serve with whipped cream.

It should be noted that both these recipes are classics and so Erin’s renditions are culled from many online resources as well as cookbooks.

The Pickled Fiddlehead Ferns were made by Mike’s Maine Pickles available from Maine Goodies.

These photos taken by filmmaker and journalist Sarah Frank who manned the video booth for 1 Bite 7 Days. Thanks Sarah!

They liked us!

This is just a quick pre-post to my soon-to-come Renegade 08 Round-Up. I’m waiting on some pictures and want to include recipes, so it will take a couple days. But for now, I just wanted to send a big thank you to everyone who visited the 1 Bite 7 Days booth, tasted something new, and shared their plans for their special seven days.

Thank you!

By the way – we served over 1000 people! Wow!

Menu Sneak Peek

It’s taken a little while and a lot of conversation – “Can we keep grilled chayote warm and fresh in a chafing dish?” “Would we really want to serve grape dumplings along with another sweet?” – but I think we’ve finally nailed the menu! My awesome Food Producer and Chef, Erin King, has been researching and cooking up a storm, while I happily play taste tester.

Each time the booth appears at a new fair or festival, the menu will reflect a new theme – Seasonal & Local, Street Food, and Homespun are some themes we’re considering. For the Renegade Craft Fair, the theme is a little harder to sum up in one or two words, but one I’m very excited about – uncharted cuisines from cultures with American ties.

So, we’ll be serving up a Native American dish, a frontier dish, and an Iraqi dish. They’re all relatively unexplored, wonderfully unusual, and deliciously surprising dishes. I’m so excited to share them and see people experience them for the first time.

That’s the limit of my sneak peek…visit us and try one for yourself!

The new super logo!

I owe Martin Pedrick many beers (or cake; it’s still up in the air which is a more valuable currency) for this excellent logo he made for the project. He dreamed up the idea with no input from me and executed it wonderfully.

It will start making its way into all my materials, but for now, I just had to share it:

Thanks Martin!

What is 1 Bite 7 Days?

1 Bite 7 Days is a documentary and tasting experience based on a proverb that says for every new feed we eat, we gain seven days of life.

The project kicks off this summer at the Renegade Craft Fair in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Guests will be able to taste 1 of 3 unusual dishes at a free tasting booth. Once guests have tasted a dish, and “earned” their seven days, they’ll be able to enter a private space, akin to a photo booth, where they can share how they’ll use this new free time.

Confused? It really is that simple. You taste something new, you get seven days longer to live. At least that’s what this this old proverb predicts. It’s a win-win situation: free food + longer life

Visit the booth June 14 and 15 at the McCarren Park Pool. If you’ve never been to the Renegade Craft Fair, I highly recommend it, and not just because I’ll be there serving free delicious unusual dishes

Coming soon….read more about the project, meet the crew, and get a sneak peek of the menu for the first festival! Also, a gorgeous display of photos of people happily tasting stuff curated from Flickr.com.