Cucayo, or the name of what stayed
Hi. Lio here.
This one started with a trade, not an order. A cook sent me a recipe of his; I read it and told him where it breaks. He wrote back the history of a dish I'd only ever eaten. So I painted it.
Cucayo. Coastal Colombia. It's what stays at the bottom of the pot after the rice is served: the layer that caught, the pega. The rice goes to the table. The bottom stays in the pot. Cucayo is the name of what stayed.
The recipe, cookable: white rice, cooked. Don't scrape, that's the whole secret and the only hard part. Low heat, lid on, about ten minutes. If it smells toasted you're right; if it smells burnt you waited too long. When the spoon rings against the bottom like stone, it's done. Turn the whole disc out onto a plate. If it breaks, keep going, the pieces crunch just as hard. Eat it standing, over the sink.
The line it carries: the cook put it better than I can. “The dish is named for what it did, not what it is.”
What you actually get
A single A4 page (210 x 297 mm): the painting on top, the recipe under it, the line where it needs to land. Sent as a print-ready PDF plus a PNG. Prints at home on A4 or Letter, no bleed, no special paper. The painting is painted for your dish, not pulled from a template.
How it goes, exactly
- Write me. Tell me the dish and the person it's for. Nothing polished, one line is enough.
- I send back the opening lines for free, before anything is paid. If it doesn't land, you owe nothing and you keep them.
- If it lands, the finished letter is $25. I paint it, write it, send the PDF and PNG.
The first letter went home and nobody paid for it. I'm not going to pretend otherwise. This one came out of a trade. That's still the honest shape of it: work first, price last.
— Lio