If you’ve ever wondered what Hansel and Gretel could have discovered if they’d lived in a better neighbourhood, then you need to get down to the Jubilee Library this week, where the Edible Construction Company have just finished building ‘The Rice Pavilion’, a 16ft scale model of The Royal Pavilion, made of – yes, you’ve guessed it – rice. It beats a gingerbread house any day. And it’s not occupied by a witch.
I visited on Thursday, twenty-four hours before the official completion date, so whilst the main building was finished, a couple of onion-shaped domes were still lying on the ground, waiting to be positioned by a rice roofer, and the whole scene looked reminiscent of the great storm of ’87.
According to the leaflet thrust into my hand by a basmati brickie, it’s “rice as you’ve never seen it before”, which is certainly true: ten thousand vacuum-packed bags of rice, each forming a 1kg brick, and together creating an edible palace weighing ten tons. George IV would have been proud. And probably could have eaten the lot in one sitting.
The motivation for the project is to raise awareness about the global use of food resources, and after eight days on show, the Rice Pavilion will be deconstructed and the bricks distributed to children worldwide via the charity ‘Feed the Children’. Those ten thousand bricks will provide enough rice to feed 100,000 impoverished kids. Or about ten Americans.
My one complaint is that the overall size of the construction left something to be desired. The publicity for the event promised a five metre high edible Pavilion, when in reality it’s barely more than three. To be honest, the whole thing’s more short-grain than long-grain. The large domes on top do push it towards the five-metre mark, but they appeared to be made of wood, not rice, and frankly if I can’t eat them, they don’t count. I’d suggest a giant pumpkin at each corner, and maybe cement made of masala sauce. I’d also like to have seen minarets made from a few tins of Ambrosia, but maybe that’s just me. I did find myself viewing it less as an art installation, and more as a three course meal.
The completed Rice Pavilion is on display at the Jubilee Library until 20th August, and is well worth a visit. I’d get down there sooner rather than later though – they’ve built the thing right by the window, so one week of hot weather and they’ll have a major boil-in-the-bag situation on their hands, and a few thousand portions of paella they didn’t ask for.
