MASARAP: A Comfort Food Exhibition
You’re invited to a series of events I’m hosting at Babycastles Gallery in New York City as part of an exhibition called MASARAP. Masarap is Tagalog for ‘delicious,’ and I’m hoping to use this time to explore the complicated origins of comfort food as well as the ways we play with what we eat.
Why comfort food? In an increasingly troublesome world online and IRL, we have looked to online food delivery, food porn and various forms of self care to seek solace. This space is here to help you step back and examine your relationship with food.
Running throughout the exhibition is the Dampa Project, a reimagining of open-air fish markets in the Philippines where customers handpick their ingredients and choose what style of cuisine they want. In this version, customers will donate ingredients as their admission to select gallery activities. The object is to create a communal pantry where dishes will be created and served at a later date. An online inventory and menu will be updated throughout the exhibition here.
Schedule of events
MASARAP: Opening Party on Thursday, 8/23 from 6:30pm to 10:30pm
Sliding scale $5–10 Tickets or FREE with ingredient donation | Facebook
Join me for an opening night toast and be the first to play with my handmade breakfast art.
DJ sets by Buskko and Greem Jellyfish
Comfort Nuggets by Frank DeMarco
MASARAP: Indie Game Night on Saturday 8/25 from 7pm to 10pm | Facebook
$5 at the door or FREE with ingredient donation
8pm DJ set by Business Pastel
Featuring these games:
MASARAP: Board Game Night on Sunday 8/26 from 6pm to 10pm
$5 at the door or FREE with ingredient donation | Facebook
Games that will be available: Guts of Glory, Morels, Candyland, Flapjacks & Sasquatches, Bad Medicine, and Sushi Go. Thanks to Kickstarter for lending us a few copies!
MASARAP: Comfort Food Roundtable & Potluck on Friday 8/31 from 7pm to 10pm
Sliding scale $5 to $10 Tickets or FREE if you bring a dish | Facebook
A potluck and roundtable discussion about comfort food through the eyes of chefs and media makers. We’ll delve into why we crave what we crave through all five senses.
Admission is on a sliding scale or free if you bring a dish with a label and serving utensil. Plates, napkins and forks will be provided. Bring something that comforts you.
Featuring Sarah Keough of Put A Egg On It, Wen-jay Ying of Local Roots NYC, Carol Benovic-Bradley of Pilotworks and journalist Isha Aran.
MASARAP: Sutukil Dinner on Saturday 9/1 from 6pm to 7:30pm
A sit-down dinner focusing on the parts of Filipino sutukil style of cooking: sagwa for grilled, tuwa for stewed and kilaw for raw. Includes 3 courses and 1 refreshment.
Sutukil is the familiar practice of choosing the food you are about to eat and the different ways it can be prepared for you. It’s like when you go to a restaurant and point at a fish in the tank that you’d like to eat.
MASARAP: Closing Party Kamayan on Sunday 9/2 from 6pm to 10pm
Sliding scale $5 to $10 Tickets | Facebook
All the ingredients that were donated to the Dampa project will be cooked and arranged in a giant banana-leaf lined grazing table where you can only eat with your hands. Bring your own tupperware to help take home leftovers!
BONUS: We’ll be screening the first episode of Facts N’ Cheese as well as launching the first ever Lao Gan Magazine!
Lao Gan Ma (“Old Godmother,” for its iconic founder) is a brand of chili sauces extremely popular in China and increasingly everywhere else. The sauces are more umami than spicy and complement fries or grilled cheese as well as they do traditional cold noodles. This zine is a hot-pot of love for LGM simmering over with art, recipes, DIY projects, a history of the sauce and of MSG, and more.
Installations on view:
KUMMERSPECK translates to ‘grief bacon.’ These soft breakfast items were created to bring comfort and relief. They can be touched and rearranged any which way on its blue plate. Please take off your shoes when engaging with his meal.
BLUE PLATE is a dinner table where people can sit down and ‘feast’ with their eyes on various food porn projected onto plates.
For all future events, you can follow my Facebook page or check my website.
Are you coming? Please let me know by RSVPing, commenting here or tweeting to me, @Randwiches.
