Joong (Cantonese)

Preparing for the show and choosing the postcard image. A snap (no pun intended), for Mr. Louie's Window has always been one of my and my gallerist's favorites. But I did not know exactly what the sign meant.

A call out to several friends, few of whom speak Chinese but with relatives or friends that might, resulted in a response from Joy Chu, an incredible art director, book designer - my designer on my teen book on civic & political activism - and lecturer (GOT STORY presently at UCSD extension). Joy's mother has always been one of my favorite resources for Chinese translation, whether for my lunar new year's greetings or in circumstances such as this.

"Joong," Joy writes, according to her mother, is the "Chinese version of the tamale...A sticky rice packet wrapped either with a banana or a lotus leaf, stuffed with either chicken,pork, beef, hard boiled egg or sweet bean paste."

This makes sense for Mr.Louie's storefront was one of many little businesses in Seattle's International District. Just before discovering his store, I had visited a totally modern noodle/fortune cookie factory where the air and light of the space was filled with white flour and where gleaming chrome machines churned out noodles and cookies, dumping them into large, printed cartons destined for the Northwest's asian markets and restaurants.


A far cry from Mr. Louie's store where, behind half empty metal shelves carrying a few Asian cooking utensils and pots, the steam emanating from a back room led me to Mr.Louie himself standing in a small kitchen where he was making what appeared to be pancakes in ancient woks, all to be then flattened, rolled and cut for the most amazing slippery noodles filled with peppers and spices. These Mr. Louie cooked each evening, to be sold the following day.


I returned several times to his shop during the Seattle trip for he allowed me to document his process, graciously and smiling for neither of us could speak in the language of the other.
It is significant that in my exhibition there will be two photographs from my encounter with Mr.Louie, one of my most memorable of the project.