According to the Fowler Museum’s press release a cup of tea is had three billion times a day. I think I consume about ten of those. As a serious tea devotee I have been tickled about the opening of the Fowler’s new exhibit, “Steeped in History: The Art of Tea.” Bringing together rare Chinese & Japanese ceramics, tea paraphernalia, Colonial American paintings, historical documents and more, the exhibit dares to capture the political, social and spiritual impact of this almighty drink.
HOURS: Wed-Sun 12noon-5:00pm; closed Mon-Tues
ADMISSION: Free
WHERE: The Fowler Museum
ADDRESS: UCLA campus
WEBSITE: www.fowler.ucla.edu
EXHIBIT DATES: August 16-November 29, 2009
Join Fallen Fruit for its Annual Public Fruit Jam at Machine Project. Bring local fruit, empty glass jars and an enthusiasm for getting sticky with fellow jam-makers. The communal jam love-in is an opportunity to make up your own fruity concoctions. Last year my sister and I created a special blend of “Bedford-basil-strawberry-plum jam,” a delicacy definitely not available on any store shelves.
Honey chiffon with fresh strawberries, Blenheim apricot with an all butter crust, and three berries with raw cream are some of the pies waiting for you to savor and swap at SlowFoodLA’s Summer Pie Swap. Bring a pie and the story behind it to share. The folks at SlowFoodLA want to hear the origins of your creation. Is it a treasured family recipe? Or made from ingredients bought at your local farmer’s market? Do you bake with sustainable or fair trade products? Dedicated to celebrating the food traditions of our country, SlowFoodLA has it right by preserving our heritage with a warm slice of double cherry hand pie.
Praise be the day when I cross paths with the Coolhaus ice cream truck and have to choose a “Prefab Flavor” - Frank Behry, Mintimalism, Mies Vanilla Rohe, Richard Meyer Lemon or Neutrapolitan to name a few. Architect owned and imagined, the Coolhaus truck will be roaming the streets of L.A. this summer and will hopefully use its Twitter account Koji BBQ-style to let us know where to find it.
Under the tutelage of garden designer Marta Teegen, become an urban gardener this fall and learn how to feed your family and friends with kitchen-grown food. Organic broccoli, beets and carrots are eager to germinate this time of year and with a little know-how can be harvested on indoor raised beds. Inspired by the words of Thomas Jefferson, that “agriculture is our wisest pursuit,” Teegen wants Angelinos to reconnect with “the pleasures of homegrown earth-friendly foods.”
You bring the TV dinner and Telic Arts Exchange will provide the microwave for a night of eating with others while watching film shorts on food, community and the act of consuming. As part of Telic’s current exhibit “Conversations That Never Happened,” a collection of 200 photos of people eating alone, TV dinner night is a look at the rituals of solitude in a communal setting.
