The ‘seeds’ of Tangra Summer started last year when I was talking to Jason Gaspar, my friend and head gardener at Wyckoff Farmhouse Museum about growing some Indian vegetables in his garden that I could prepare for an event at the museum. This past winter, I brought back various seeds from Lalbagh Botanical Gardens in Bangalore where my mother is from and Jason is now starting to grow some of these vegetables.
Here is the start to some Indian cucumbers that will be part of the meal:
The dinner started to take shape a couple months back when I was having a conversation with friend and cookbook author Diana Kuan who specializes in Chinese cooking about collaborating on a seasonal pop-up dinner at Wyckoff. It was then that
Tangra Summer, our idea for a seasonal & vegetarian Indo-Chinese feast was born! Our meal pays homage to Tangra, a predominantly Chinese neighborhood in Calcutta that has existed for generations and where you can find food that is a perfect mix of Chinese and Indian cuisines.
Diana just this year came out with her first cookbook,
The Chinese Takeout Cookbook and she regularly shares recipes on her site
Appetite for China and
Brooklyn Atlas. I made her
marbled tea eggs before on the site, which were so beautiful and delicious. She and I teach cooking classes at
Brooklyn Brainery and she has this one dumplings class that I’ve been dying to take, but lucky for me I got a personal class a couple weeks back. We decided to experiment with some Indian fillings and I got to make my first wontons and dumplings.
Not bad right?? I’m really excited to learn more from Diana in this collaboration.
Last week, we went to visit Jason and he showed us around his garden. Wyckoff Farmhouse Museum is actually the oldest building in New York and the first historic landmark in the state built around 1652. It’s kind of a hidden gem and we feel very lucky to be working with them. Jason also lives inside part of the museum! There was a great article in May in Edible Brooklyn all about the museum and his work that you can read here.
And here are the deets!
Tangra Summer will take place on Sunday, August 25th at 5PM. Diana and I will be serving a family-style vegetarian meal with beer provided by
Big Alice Brewing in Long Island City, which we’re super happy to be working with. The night will start with some hanging out in the garden, playing lawn games (bocce, bowling, horseshoes) and exploring the house. We’ll start dinner at 6PM inside the house. It is a very special place and if you can join, I definitely would suggest buying your ticket early as we only have 20 seats.
You can buy your ticket
here and hope you can make it to Tangra Summer!
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