The Public Lo Mein is a loose framework for installation & performance-based salons featuring artists, hackers, and legal scholars. The basic idea is that over the course of an evening, a series of presentations & open discussion regarding fair use and attribution in emerging genres would take place as guests enjoy a fresh lo mein dinner. Event hosts should prepare the meal themselves.

 For my version, dinner & talks would be followed by live music from Brooklyn, 2s & 4s - they do a fantastic cover of Happy Birthday to You. Boston’s Joseph Colbourne would be invited to DJ after hours. It is not stodgy party. To get a sense of the overall mood I’m suggesting close your eyes and picture Rirkrit Tiravanija and Yochai Benkler at a modest disco at Zebulon with Babycastles in charge of the video projections.
Anyhow - to get the ball rolling step one is having a solid recipe. According to the U.S. Copyright office, when a recipe or formula “is accompanied by substantial literary expression in the form of an explanation or directions, or when there is a combination of recipes, as in a cookbook, there may be a basis for copyright protection.” I’ve asked my mom to produce such a work and waive the intellectual property rights. It’s quite tasty, and she encourages the production of derivative works so feel free to get cooking.

Sally Sisto’s Public Lo Mein

Ingredients:

1. 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2. 2 cups broccoli florets cut to about 2” pieces
3. 1 1/2 cups pea pods
4. 1 cup carrots, julienned
5. ½ cup chopped onion
6. 4 cloves minced garlic
7. 1 red pepper, julienned
8. 1 green pepper, julienned
9. 2 cups bean sprouts, rinsed
10. ½ tsp red pepper flakes
11. Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper
12. ½ cups Tamari
13. ¼ cup sesame oil
14. 1 lb whole wheat linguini or angel hair pasta

To Cook:

1. Bring water to boil while prepping the veggies
2. Heat olive oil over medium high heat in a very large (preferably 14”) deep skillet or wok
3. Blanche broccoli in boiling water for 2 min, then add a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking / preserve color. Repeat with the pea pods.
4. Cook the pasta.  This should take about as long as it does to stir fry the veggies.  Put carrots, onion and garlic in the skillet and stir for about 2 minutes.  Make sure the garlic doesn’t burn.  
5. Add the peppers and stir for another couple of minutes. 
6. Add the broccoli, pea pods and bean sprouts and stir for a minute. You want to veggies to be crisp tender. Add salt and pepper to taste.  
7. Add the red pepper flakes. Turn the heat to medium low.
8. Drain the pasta, reserving ½ cup of the water.  Add pasta to the skillet with the veggies. Add the ½ cup water.
9. Add the Tamari and sesame oil and mix everything together.  You may want to add more to taste.

Check out Sall Sisto’s band, The Wippets, on MySpace.

Photo: CC-BY-SA-2.0 by Seth W.