Conflict Kitchen: A Different Kind of Socially Conscious Eatery

I usually reserve the "eating out," and "flashback friday"-like posts to busy school times and family vacation times. However Conflict Kitchen, a little take-out eatery I visited in Pittsburgh, PA was just too cool for me to not write a post about it. Located along literally some of the most pristine outdoor open-space grass I have ever seen, Conflict Kitchen is a food stand that changes its menu every 6 months. Each half year, the eatery picks a nation that the US is currently in political conflict with and serves food from only that nation. Not only does the menu change up, but the entire stand goes through a makeover, with its decor and colors to match the nation, and a new name. Currently, its Venezuela. 

Now, there are plenty of socially conscious, politically active food eateries, restaurants, and general dining choices around the world. The ones I've visited, though, tend to circle around concepts like, sustainability, or locally sourced, organic, grass-fed, ect ect. You know, the things you think about when you think of a Californian hipster. Sometimes there's an occasional coffee shop that'll donate x percentage of profits to a local charity. They might even make a contest out of it if they're super into it! All of that rambling is to basically emphasize that none of these restaurants literally remake themselves twice a year to achieve their social activism ~twist~.

My Pabellon Criolos

Of course, as a food blog, I should probably comment on the food. I tried to get a picture of the menu (below), but the glare from the picture perfect park really makes it a bit hard to read. The menu for Venezuela was largely small eateries, like plantains, empanadas, arepas, and then two "large plates." I was super hungry, so I ordered the pabellon criolos, which basically consisted of really delicious shredded beef, beans, rice, and some perfectly sweet and not too soft, not too firm plantains. There were so many other things I wanted to try though too-like the arepas! If only I wasn't traveling alone that day. But kudos to an excellent combination of good food, good design, and really creative concept. Not that they needed or wanted my approval.

I will be the first to admit, sadly, that I don't think I actually learned a whole lot about Venezuela by visiting Conflict Kitchen. The eatery does do exhibitions and presentations with the public, but they seem to be few and far in between. There's a lot of small, cutesy, interesting stories about Venezuela on the website. However, I get the impression some basic background on the on-going conflict would be important, which I sadly lack. Then again, as a food eatery that serves ethnic cuisine, perhaps the point isn't to educate the eaters on the political puzzle, but rather to share the social and cultural experiences of each of the nations it features in a rather literal way.

Anyways, I'll end this post with a quote from an  NPR article that I think nicely summarizes Conflict Kitchen (written back in 2012 when the nation was Iran and I guess they were serving wraps):

"The eatery is an experimental public art project — and the medium is the sandwich wrap."