Project / Tasting Asia
Task / Installation Exhibition
Client / Leisure and Cultural Services Department, Hong Kong SAR Government
and Penang State Museum & Art Gallery, Malaysia
Year / 2002 Hong Kong, 2003 Malaysia, 2014 Hong Kong
Overall Concept and Exhibition Design / Kan & Lau Design Consultants

A project by the Design Alliance (tDA)

Tasting Asia explored Asian attitudes towards food. It was a collaboration between graphic designers and fine artists from Asia, and the late Prof. Leung Ping-kwan (whose pen name was Yesi), a renowned Hong Kong poet and intellectual.

Each of the eight participating countries presented a popular traditional dish. Graphic designers created make-believe packaging, and artists produced original work that could fit on a small tabletop during the exhibition. 

The exhibition booths were replicas of the designers’ packaging, doubling up as a storage space for the table, table-cloth, lighting fixtures and the artist’s work. Some artists used the table-cloth itself as a canvas for their work. We designed the booths for easy setup, packing, and shipping.

All eight associate countries of The Design Alliance*—Hong Kong, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam—participated in the exhibition.

*The Design Alliance was renamed The Design Alliance Asia (tDA Asia) in 2011.
As of January 2020, tDA Asia is represented in 14 countries/regions.

TASTING ASIA—HONG KONG

Foyer, Hong Kong Cultural Centre, 27 October—10 November 2002
New Vision Arts Festival

TASTING ASIA—PENANG

Pinang Gallery, Dewan Sri Pinang, 2—28 June 2003
Penang YTL Arts Festival

EXHIBITION CATALOGUE

The exhibition catalogue took the form of a shrink-wrapped mini-box set, similar to a breakfast cereal ‘variety pack’. Each box contains information about the country, the dish, its recipe, the artist and the graphic designer, and a poem by Prof. Leung.

THE POEMS

Mr Oscar Ho, the lead curator for Prof. Leong’s Retrospective exhibition, informed me that his work for Tasting Asia would be presented under the ‘Foodscape’ section.

I reproduce Prof. Leung’s Tasting Asia poems below as a tribute to his immense talent. It must have been trying for him to write for some of the food, such as Malaysia’s nasi lemak, having had little to no familiarity with them. After all, even though you may encounter these dishes somewhere in Hong Kong, they may not have the original, authentic flavours found in the home countries (which may also differ from district to district). But a poet overcomes all.

malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR

William Harald-Wong & Associates
Designer / William Harald-Wong & Yuri Aizawa
Photographer (design elements) / William Harald-Wong
Artist & Photographer (field work) / Ena Hadzir (Spacekraft)

Food: Nasi lemak

Nasi lemak is quintessential Malaysia. Originally a Malay dish but now enjoyed by people from every ethnic group, and from a humble labourer to Royalty. 

Nasi lemak is rice cooked with coconut milk and served with hard-boiled egg, peanuts, ikan bilis (sun-dried anchovies), and sambal tumis (chilli paste, shallot, and tamarind juice). You can also add a variety of sides, such as vegetables, prawns, squid, fish, and chicken.

Malaysians typically have nasi lemak for breakfast. One can also have it for lunch, tea break, dinner, or midnight supper, or any time in between; at a humble roadside stall, restaurant or in a 5-star luxury hotel.

Nasi lemak

Never feeling hungry when you eat it
Never feeling sad

Fewer and fewer people grow rice
Fewer and fewer work in the fields

The city develops different tastes
Yet rice always neutralizes our pain

Feeling full when you eat it
Feeling strong when you have it

Fewer and fewer people sow seeds in Spring
Fewer and fewer harvest in Autumn

The city develops different melancholies
Rice has become the bits and pieces you lost

Fewer and fewer people grind the grains
Fewer and fewer people husk rice

The city gives you scars in seven colors
The rice gives you consolation in white

Never feeling grief when you eat it
Never feeling wrath

Never feeling lost when you have it
Never gone astray

Nature and its cycles is an intrinsic part of Chinese thought and philosophy. The changing seasons represents the cycle of life—things sprout and begin to grow (spring), bloom (summer), and reach completeness (late summer). They then dry and wither (autumn), rest (winter), and the cycle starts all over again.

This essential idea remains strong among the Chinese community in Malaysia even though it is hot throughout the year, and there are only dry and wet seasons. The Malaysian Chinese is also attuned to the concept of changing seasons as they celebrate occasions such as the Mid-Autumn Festival and Winter Solstice.

Hong Kong

Kan & Lau Design Consultants
Designer & Artist / Kan Tai-keung & Freeman Lau Siu Hong

Food: Poon tsoi (Basin feast)

The poon tsoi is a dining tradition practised in the wai tau villages (walled villages) in the New Territories of Hong Kong. Here, people of lower status (farmers, fishermen, servants and helpers, etc.) are not allowed to dine in the main hall during banquets thrown for special occasions. Instead, they are served in the front yard, with assorted delicacies arranged in big wooden basins. 

Another story of the poon tsoi’s origin revolves around Wen Tian-xiang, a well-respected general of the Song Dynasty and his troops. They arrived in Xinan County after fleeing from the Yuan army. They had to depend on the locals for food: dry eel fillet, dry squid, radishes, soya sticks, red bean curd, and pork. The ingredients were then piled into wooden basins borrowed from the fishermen, thus starting the tradition of poon tsoi.

Today, poon tsoi has become a signature dish of the wai tau villages. Assorted delicacies are arranged layer by layer in the basin, and each basin feeds twelve persons.

Poon tsoi

There should be roast rice-duck and pan-fried prawns on top
Order of the classes are clearly laid out in layers
But the poking chopsticks gradually reverse
the lofty five-spice chicken and the lowly pigskin
The Sung army once sought shelter here after defeat
wolfed down the fishermen’s reserves from big wooden basins
dined on the beach in crude circles, with no elegence of the past
Away from the capital, they tried wild flavors of the rural folks.

Unable to stay on top, they collapse with gradual consumption
No escape from touching bottom colors, whether you like it or not,
no way to block exchanges between humble mushrooms and rare squids
Reversed relationships taint each other and affect the purity on top
Nobody can stop the meat juice from trickling down, and let
the bottom-most turnip absorb all the flavors in all its sweetness.

indonesia

JAKARTA

BD+A Design
Designer / Irvan A. Noe’man
Photographer / Artli Ali
Artist / Hadhi Siswanto

Food: Rice and santan (coconut milk)

Despite being the fourth most populated country in the world, and home to 250 ethnic groups, Indonesians are united by their staple food: rice. When cooked with santan, it results in various delicious dishes, such as nasi kuning (yellow rice), typically eaten during special occasions such as birthdays and selamatan (ceremonial meals).

Other dishes made of rice and santan include koyabu and putu mayang, eaten by Moslem Indonesians at the breaking of their fast during the puasa (fasting) month.

Rice and santan

India brought over spices and curry
Arabian Shish Kebab became satay
The Dutch seized the nutmeg and cumin
The Chinese came with black beans and vegetable seeds
The soy sauce landed here from afar became sweet
Numerous islands line the coastline on the dining table
Nobody can colonize spices
Turmeric dyes my fingers yellow
Pandan leaves always have a strong fragrance
The fiery chili pepper refuses to bow to anyone
Hot as volcanic lava
Rugged as ocean rock. Only
Rice is our common language
Rice is our consoling mother
Rice encompasses all colors
Rice soothes the old wounds in the stomach

LAOS

VIENTIANE

Bluegrass Design Group
Designer / Praseuth Banchongphakdy
Artist / Kongphat Luangrath

Food: Larb (Sticky rice with meat)

Larb has initially been a word used by Lao people to mean receiving something from an endeavour, e.g. hunting, fishing, or doing business. If someone can get a good haul from their hunt or at sea or is successful at business, they are said to have larb.

This word later became the name of Lao’s favourite dish because people like to celebrate their successes by eating the tastiest food. As such, larb is always served at happy occasions such as winnings, weddings, and other receptions.

Larb is made of minced meat or fish, and a variety of ingredients and spices: ground roasted rice, roasted eggplant, garlic and onion, shallots, hom huead, hom haw, fresh coriander, galanga, ginger, dried chilli pepper, and fermented fish and salt. The spices differ depending on whether the larb is meat or fish. Larb is traditionally eaten with sticky rice and can be served raw or cooked.

Larb

Sound of the cleaver drumming on the chopping board
calls forth our expectations for a warm supper
The meat slowly matures under the beatings
Shredded vegetables become more complete
Glutinous rice has its tender charm
holding together all the daily shattering
Time spent in preparing a dish
slowly accumulates into an exquisite flavor

Singapore

Immortal Design
Designer / Maylene Seah
Photographer & Artist / Ken Seet

Food: Chicken rice

Singapore’s international, multicultural society has contributed to the diversity of the island state’s culinary offerings, earning it a reputation for being a food paradise. However, the humble Hainanese chicken rice is a local dish that continues to capture hearts with its juicy chicken, fragrant rice cooked with chicken stock, and chilli-garlic dip.

Other ethnic groups living in Singapore have their versions of the chicken rice, such as the Malay nasi ayam (deep-fried chicken with rice) and the Indian briyani (yellow rice) with curry chicken.

Chicken rice

Do I have the best recipe
to cook chicken in steaming water
remake tenderness in a foreign land
console parents who drifted over the oceans?

Do I have the best recipe
to make the best sauce and chili-lime dip
reconcile the taboos of food and language
readjust to the rules of the new dinner table?

Do I have the best recipe
to cook rice in chicken broth with the right texture
make it less oily to please new neighbors
accommodate to the city’s diverse appetite?

SOUTH Korea

SEOUL

Ahn Graphics

Food: Bibimbap (Stone-grilled rice)

Bibimbap is a popular Korean rice dish with mixed ingredients and gochujang (hot pepper paste), known for its taste and nutritional value. Research indicates that the bibimbap was created based on the conventions of the yin-yang and Five Element Theory, thus resulting in a dish that features vegetables of various colours to strengthen different parts of the body.

There are many regional variations of the bibimbap, although the most famous variety is the Jeonju bibimbap. It is typically topped with soybean, sprouts, namul (seasoned vegetable dish), hwangpo-muk (yellow mung bean jelly) from buckwheat jelly, gochujang, jeopjang (fermented soy sauce), and seasoned raw meat.

Bibimbap

That many vegetables
each in its own pride and beauty
What hands shake the bellflower?
string them into a tune to put around one’s neck
Cut the cucumber into half-moons
dipping them in sesame oil
Massage the lettuce tenderly
let it play a melody of the haegum violin
Transform the mushrooms into ten long drums
beating through the weeds of autumn chill
Arrange the bean sprouts disheveled in tumults
long daegum flutes orchestrating in the crisp of dawn
Let the beets tell the secrets of their hearts
and dye all the faces red
Each with its own woe beneath the beauty
that many vegetables in a dance entangled
Falling into shape in a heated stone basin
change our rice into a song of mixed colours

THAILAND

BANGKOK

Pink Blue Black & Orange Co Ltd
Designer / Siam Attariya
Artist / C. Nakpawan

Food: Tom yam kung (hot, spicy, and sour shrimp soup)

Thai cuisine is famous for its exquisite flavours, garnishing, and nutrition—attributed to the liberal use of herbs in their dishes. Not only do they enhance the flavour, colour, and aroma of the food, the herbs are also beneficial to digestion and the gastrointestinal system.

Thailand’s tom yam kung—a combination of fresh shrimps, mushrooms, and aromatic Thai herbs—is well known for its subtle hot and sour taste, and is one of the most palatable and healthy Thai dishes.

Thai society treats their meals as a form of socialisation, encouraging relationship and care among family members; and as an opportunity to teach children appropriate manners and behaviour.

Tom yam kung

The hottest is pepper
The hottest is water

The hottest are her lips
The hottest are your ear-plugs

The hottest are their official announcements
The hottest are your gossip columns

The hottest is her body
The hottest is his gaze

The hottest are their basic law
The hottest is our self-censorship

The hottest is her smell
The hottest is your big nose

The hottest is her passion
The hottest is your indifference

The hottest is your nakedness
The hottest is her eternal neatness

The hottest are his eyes
The hottest are her moods

The hottest is her dimple
The hottest is when you are vulnerable

The hottest is your language
The hottest is your silence

VIETNAM

HO CHI MINH CITY

The Studio of Pius Eugene
Designer / Pius Eugene
Artist / Trần Thanh Xuân

Food: Oc hap la gung (Stuffed snails in ginger leaves)

Cuisine in Vietnam differs vastly between north, south, and central regions, but they are united in their consumption of rice and noodles. Vietnamese meals are also not complete without fresh vegetables and herbs.

A favourite food among the Vietnamese is the oc hap la gung—the best is said to be in Hanoi. While stuffed snails in ginger leaves seem to be the most popular, snails can also be cooked with green banana, pork skin, soya curb, and perilla leaves; or with other ingredients to suit different occasions or weather conditions.

Snails are fat, meaty, and tasty only in October, hence the name ‘Snails in October in Hanoi’.

Oc hap la gung

I was picked up from the water field
taken out
minced
added dried mushrooms, lean meat and onion
added salt
fish sauce and pepper
added a blade of strange ginger leaf
to be put back
into my shell
to make me more tasty

I was taken out
removed from
my own geography and history
given exotic colors
foreign flavors
added value
paid high prices
just to place me
into my unknown
future

THE DESIGN ALLIANCE ASIA (tDA Asia)

Tasting Asia was The Design Alliance’s first group project. It was a test-bed for collaboration among our associates from eight Asian countries, overcoming language barriers—English is not the mother tongue or the first language for many of our associates—and logistical issues. 

At the time of the exhibition, some associates were already internationally renowned (South Korea, Hong Kong). Other associates (Laos, Vietnam) were making their mark as designers in their respective countries, and Tasting Asia may have been their first collaborative design project beyond their national borders.

The final installation of Tasting Asia may not be perfect, but what was important was the beginning of a professional relationship among our associates, which has strengthened over the years leading up to the present day. Tasting Asia, and subsequent collaborations, fostered a keen curiosity and a deeper understanding of Asia’s diverse cultures.

Ten years later, this close working partnership enabled tDA Asia to win one of Asia’s most prestigious award for its research project Colours of Asia.

LINKS