A Visit to the Conflict Kitchen

I've known about the Conflict Kitchen for months now and have been meaning to go for some time. Well the other day I finally got my chance and let me tell you, it was a fantastic experience all around.

Conflict Kitchen is a project by John Peña, Jon Rubin, and Dawn Weleski and is funded by the Sprout Fund, The Waffle Shop, the Center for the Arts in Society, and the sale of food. Graphic design by Brett Yasko. Architectural design by Pablo Garcia of POiNT.

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, the Conflict Kitchen is a take out restaurant that only serves food from countries that the United States is at conflict with. The country will rotate every 4 months, along with the dish served. The current country that the Conflict Kitchen is featuring is Iran, but will change very soon to (I believe) Afghanistan. And I know what you're thinking: "But the U.S. isn't in conflict with Iran!" You're absolutely right, the U.S. is not in physical, troops on the ground conflict with Iran, but we haven't had diplomatic ties with Iran since 1979 and have been working to instill more sanctions on the country in order to curb their nuclear development programs. So no, we're not in traditional conflict with them, but our nations certainly don't see eye to eye.

Don't think that the Conflict Kitchen is just about the food (although I will get to the food, don't you worry). The whole point of the kitchen is to break down cultural and physical barriers about U.S. perceptions about people who live in the countries that the U.S. is in conflict with. Every aspect of the kitchen is dedicated to this, right down to packaging.

"Through food, wrappers, programming, and daily interactions with customers, Conflict Kitchen creates an ongoing platform for first-person discussion of international culture and politics."

This current iteration of the Conflict Kitchen was developed in collaboration with members of the Pittsburgh Iranian community along with people in Iran. Both of these communities were interviewed in order to produce the information that appears on the wrapping of the food served there. The wrapping includes subjects such as U.S. perceptions about Iran and Iranian people, women's rights, poetry, youth and film among others. I really do think that using food as a means to connect people culturally is a brilliant idea, as it appeals to one of the basic necessities that everyone on the earth needs: to eat. The wrapping that the food comes with, along with discussions and other events that the Conflict Kitchen has put on, including a live Skype meal with people in Iran, are great ways to raise awareness about the actual Iranian community and see them in a completely unique light and not just in the way that the Iranian people are portrayed in the mainstream media.

Now for the food itself (I told you it was coming up). Currently, the cuisine served at the kitchen is an Iranian sandwich called a Kubideh. A Kubideh sandwich is essentially spiced ground beef, fresh basil, mint and onion all served together on homemade Barbari bread with black sesame seeds. I've never had Iranian food before so I was obviously a bit curious as to how the Kubideh sandwich would taste, but after one bite I was sold. There's something very organic to the way that the spices blend together with the beef, not to mention the mint and basil throwing a most welcome curve ball to my taste buds at the same time. The homemade Barbari bread, which I would say is probably a cousin to the pita, was the perfect wrap for such a sandwich. The whole thing, including the locally bottled grape pop, was quite the satisfying lunch. Don't believe me? Well check out the reviews that the Post-Gazette, NPR, and the City Paper have done about the Conflict Kitchen.

So if you're looking for a truly unique experience in the city of Pittsburgh, get down to East Liberty and check out the Conflict Kitchen. Not only will you not be disappointed with the menu, but you might just learn something too.