Paon - reminder of the rituals of food

Reading Paon transported me to the streets of Bali and my tastebuds came alive with the flavours of the food I have eaten there. It also conjured stories, sites, smells and experiences that I have had in Indonesia but most surprisingly it produced feelings of solo wanderlust and communal/solo relations.

Reading the above section - Private Dining - articulated some of my thoughts from my previous post, “….if we truly see the world around us as collaborators I am never solo, often lost in long deep generative experiments with the place I call home.” Paon draws this out into a ritual of solo contemplation/reflection/offering within a collective environment.

A favourite TV series is the Chef’s Table. The imagery is beautiful, sumptuous and over saturated with texture and colour. Each episode focuses on a chef’s relationship to the food they produce. The stories are site specific, layered in history, driven by social change and all aspire for brave cultural futures. The stories entangle the personal and the professional. Food becomes the vehicle for these political, social and cultural conversations. The rituals many create around food, particularly outside of the western construct, embody ritual, culture, regional and linage and connect with seasonal and environmental cycles in a true example of worlding.

Kerthyasa, T.M., Kresna Yasa, I.W., 2022. Paon: real balinese cooking. Hardie Grant Books, Richmond, Victoria.