NY Flavors Ice Cream
Miwa Koizumi
To Cite this Contribution
Koizumi, M. (2016). NY Flavors Ice Cream. p-e-r-f-o-r-m-a-n-c-e, 3.
I setup my Ice Cream Stand in different neighborhoods and situations. With it I map the variety of tastes and smells from the big city: “New York,” the destination of so many different tribes. I concentrate the tastes and smells and memories into a comestible frozen liquid serving with which you can participate in a simple ephemeral tasting experience.
“NY Flavors Ice Cream” is my own Cultural Anthropology study. New York contains an incredible variety of small tribes which co-exist in these five boroughs. Even if in each era the borders change quickly, the cultural and edible particularities stay, remnants for the 2nd and 3rd generation Americans. I am constantly on the sniff for new mixtures, boundaries, and essential tags. With my NY Flavors Ice Cream I try to highlight the cultural diversity of New York City.
I made a simple cart from which to serve ice cream. It reminds me of the mom and pop food carts used by first generation immigrants to bootstrap their existence in a foreign country, first by selling to other immigrants from their homeland, then slowly melting into the dominant culture.
The NY Flavors Ice Cream stand was performed at:
The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse, Miamis
The French Institute Alliance Française, NY
The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, NY
The Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, NY
The George Adams Gallery, NY
The Hungarian Culture Center, NY
Here is a sample of previous experiences:
Green Point
nationality / ethnicity: Hungarian and Polish
taste: Hungarian stuffed cabbage – onion confit and tomato sorbet in a frozen cabbage leaf
East Village
nationality / ethnicity: Ukrainian
taste: Red borscht – beet sorbet with sour cream and dill ice cream on the side
38th Street East
nationality/ethnicity: Pakistani
taste: Curry and chai ice creams
Lower East Side
nationality / ethnicity: Eastern European Jewish
taste: Lox and bagels – lox sorbet with bagel flavored ice cream
4th Street Herald Sq
nationality / ethnicity: Korean
taste: Kimchi sorbet
Peekskill
nationality / ethnicity: Ecuadorian
taste: Ceviche – ceviche flavored sorbet with toasted corn kernel sprinkles
Wall Street
nationality / ethnicity: Irish
taste: Guiness beer
St. Marks Place
nationality / ethnicity: Japanese
taste: Onigiri (rice ball) – rice congee ice cream with nori and choice of konbu (seaweed) or sesame-bonito topping
Miami
nationality / ethnicity: Cuban
taste: Cuban Guacamole (pineapple, avocado, garlic, hot peppers)