Conflict Kitchen on NPR

I admit to still not catching the food from Conflict Kitchen yet even though I live pretty close by. Once one gets past the increasingly lame is it art questions and takes it as mostly a new opportunity to experience new foods and perhaps cultures on a different level it's great.

You see, Conflict Kitchen only serves food from countries we currently are in some type of conflict with--although often short of outright war and it's a product to a large extent of CMU's Art and Design departments.

Listen to
NPR's story on Conflict Kitchen

"In a few months, the grant-funded restaurant will switch countries — and cuisines. In September, it will serve food from Afghanistan. After that, maybe Venezuela or North Korea.

"You know what, it's delicious," says Joni Perri, a Kitchen regular who works nearby. "Every bite full, delightful. And it's just smashing that stereotypical myth that just because there is conflict in those countries ... I don't let it stop me from buying good food."

Weleski says what most people know about the featured countries is through the media. To prompt the discussion, she will host events such as live webcam meals with diners in Tehran."

Also read, the great post about it on Reimagine an Urban Paradise where she advocates a violent conflict with somebody with great vegetarian food. (not)

Sadly, a huge amount of historic cultural exchange has come through war as surviving soldiers bring back wounds; internal scars; memories of lost friends and sometimes fond affection for the great food "over there."

Apparently it worked that way in Iraq.

"Minutes after the place opened, Travis Post, a Marine captain from Oklahoma who had been stationed in Iraq for seven months, pulled up in his car. "So you've really got shawarma back there?" Mr. Post asked, referring to the spicy grilled meat sandwich popular throughout the Middle East.

"You want one?" asked Ms. Hazime's husband, Crisantos Hajibrahim, who was working the cash register.

"Heck, yeah!" Mr. Post responded. While training Iraqi police, he had shared meals with locals daily. "There was a lot of lamb in my life," he says."

Blog Talk Show @ Waffle Shop Tonight

Sorry another mostly cut and paste post.

Tonight I Heart Pittsburgh will be hosting what should be an exiting talk show about blogging @ The Waffle Shop. This means you can eat waffles with all sorts of great toppings while you catch or perhaps participate in the show!

This week IheartPGH will host a talk show about blogs and blogging. We have some local bloggers lined up as guest and we would love to connect to bloggers beyond Pittsburgh too. Through the magic of the Internets even if you aren’t in Pittsburgh you can still watch the show and even participate too.

Have a Blog? Be Our Guest

Do you have a blog? Would you like to talk about your blog? Then you should be a guest on the show. Email iheartpgh@gmail.com if you are interested in being a guest this week or on a future show. Not in Pittsburgh, not a problem. We can add you in a virtual guest.

This Weeks Show

We are still finalizing the details and guest lists but look for some sports blog talk from TheSteelerN’at Blog and some serious fashion advice from Pittsburgh author Suzanne Mauro.

So great that CMU has kept up with this evolving community project/lab/business.

Rust Belt bloggers Public Art Post: Waffle Shop: A Reality Show

Josh Rubin's contextual art class at CMU struggles to find new and interesting ways to combine "art" and ordinary life. Each Semester, the class has been renting a different storefront in town as a base for an art project. See the projects on the Tent Show site.

The current one seems like a home run combination of yummy food and Reality TV and actually seems like a decent business model(it's CMU!). Of course one can sit there and ask if it's art, but that is hardly the point.

"Waffle Shop: A Reality Show," is truly a working waffle shop, offering plain and chocolate waffles garlanded in whipped cream for $3. But the interior also features a brightly lit photo booth and, at any given time, there might be a discussion being filmed on the week's chosen theme.

I haven't yet experienced this. Waffle Shop is well located next to The Shadow Lounge in East Liberty. Videos of the discussions will eventually be posted on line and are shown in the window.

"As for where this particular idea came from, Rubin says that as with a good waffle, when it comes to art, "We start from scratch. There's no syllabus. We research the area, pay attention to the surrounding culture and what else is going on around us. Students go with ideas -- it's a classroom in the world."

The waffle shop is just the latest version of what Rubin calls the "Tent Show." According to its Web site, www.tentshow.org, it's "a forum for experimental public projects that respond to the social, physical, and cultural dynamics of specific contexts and audiences." Previously, the class has operated a coffee shop, hodgepodge storefront and taco stand.

East Liberty was an appealing place to explore, Rubin says. The Penn Circle area crumbled decades ago due to a combination of bad luck and bad planning. But today it's re-emerging as a tony shopping district. As a result, Rubin says, the waffle shop is located on the site of "two different ecosystems."

And it draws energy from both. Steve Pham and Jennifer Lin of Shadyside still wore the telltale wristbands from just having danced their faces off at the packed Girl Talk show, the evening's earlier and sweatier entertainment at Club Gravity in Cheswick. What brought them in?"

Posting this a day early and I may post another tomorrow.