TERROIR – an offering

GSMD-500 | Grad Studio 1 
Action 2 : TERROIR – an offering
My teammate for this Action: Jeffrey Li

For this Action, we had to design a food experience for our assigned partners. A dish that has meaning to us or our families which would be an expression of our ground that we are most identified with.

For starters, Jeffrey and I reached out and decided to share a document with each other that includes our food allergies / intolerance, general food preference (ex. vegetarian or not) or any specific limitations regarding obtaining special ingredients. For example pork is considered Haram in my country and consequently unavailable. I also had no access to an Asian supermarket while Jeffrey had a great Persian market close by. The main objective of this action was to choose a dish that the other person could actually enjoy to make and eat in order to have a pleasant experience from the beginning till the end.

My Offering | Abgoosht آبگوشت
I chose Abgoosht آبگوشت (Dizi دیزی) for Jeffrey. A rather simple dish compared to all the other complex and multi-step Persian recipes. Abgoosht is a historical dish in Iran and was quite staple in the past mostly because it was really easy to prepare. They would put the stoneware crock (Dizi) on a very low heat oven and leave it to cook for hours. This way, Iranians got to do other things and attend other chores and just come back at lunch/dinner time and serve the dish. I chose this food because I wanted Jeffrey to feel more relaxed while making it and even leave it and do other things (either rest or work) and have an overall laid back and calm experience. I put some Persian playlists in the instructions as well to set the mood, mostly traditional and nostalgic Pop songs which are intertwined with the atmosphere of Abgoosht and its Persian roots. (Except the 3rd playlist… that included nostalgic and silly pop / dance Persian musics which get played in our parties a lot…initiating Abgoosht After-Party)

See the full instructions here: Abgoosht – An offering to Jeffrey Li

Jeffrey’s offering | 八宝茶 (Babao Gaiwan Tea)
I’m a tea addict so when I found out about Jeffrey’s choice I was so excited. He sent me a pdf file explaining about this tea’s origin, ingredients and the brewing and how to drink it. Iranian substitutions were also mentioned for a few of the ingredients, which I found really helpful as I have no access to an Asian market. This tea was influenced by the Islamic culture in Ningxia (Jeffrey’s Hometown) as they have a significant muslim population, so it was not that surprising and yet really fun when I found out that we basically have all the ingredients at home! (besides green tea because we prefer black) I even googled Ningxia to find its location on the map and was once again fascinated over how much cultures can travel and influence each other. Not to mention that Jeffrey was sending me this from San Francisco, adding another dimension to the whole thing.

The only real obstacle I had was to find a similar vessel to Gaiwan, yet to another surprise, I found an alternative in our kitchen which my mom had gotten from a local Persian potter long ago. The structure was super similar to Gaiwan while I knew it had nothing to do with brewing tea.

Video on Moodle

I made a video to show the simple but calm process of brewing this tea. I was a little self-conscious of my moves in front of the camera because of the limited space, which made it hard to really experience the calm and reflecting moment of making and drinking this tea. On top of that, while I was making it, I got a text and was informed that my friend was diagnosed with Covid-19! making it much much harder to think about anything else other than that. But when I actually got to drink it, after making a mess on my desk, I was intrigued by its taste and the aroma. It was familiar in a way but at the same time completley new. It was an intersection of my personal knowing of these ingredients, these Persian ceramics and Chinese culture. I made more for my parents that night and we got to enjoy this tea together (more relaxed this time) and nerd out over its taste.
Babao Gaiwan tea from Ningxia is going to stay in our family in Tehran! Thanks again Jeffrey!

P.s: Can’t wait to get my hands on a real Gaiwan vessel!