Homesick Restaurant (2020–ongoing) is a pedagogical project with a series of workshops focused on food and communal cooking in a nomadic context, initiated by Lu Lin and Tanyatorn Lau. We initiated the project aiming to rethink rituals related to food to address homesickness among international residents in the Netherlands. Within the context of a travelling restaurant, we open up space to discuss relations to unfamiliar environments, throughout the shared moment of cooking and story-telling. Via the project, we explore the potential of food and cooking to generate social changes, and how powers of remembrance within food and the act of preparing and eating a meal are able to provoke us to learn from it.
Food is more than just ingredients. In many cultures especially Asians, food represents ways of living, memories, authenticity, and stories. And most of the time, food signifies a feeling of home. Sharing food means we share some connections with each other which are disappearing in our modern social context that leads to loneliness. In particular with the international residents(so called expats) living in the Netherlands, they experience homesick feelings due to this disconnection and loneliness. W have hosted the first editions of the project – Let’s Mix (2021)”, “Rolling Spring (2021), I’m feeling a bit blue (2020) and We Are There and Here (2022)– delved into international residents’ struggles with ‘diasporia’ which were shaped by lack of social relations and feelings of homesickness. In order to seek common grounds during the events, we share and co-create food to facilitate a space to talk about social issues constructed by migration and cultural exclusion.
participating
The fourth edition of the workshop, titled “We Are There and Here (2022)”, took place at Arcadia in Leeuwarden and was funded by Over de Drempel.
In this edition, we focus on the international residents (so-called expats) who live in Leeuwarden and open up the discussion on the topic of loneliness in diasporic circumstances. We were there, called origin, firstly; but also we have our here, a new home/shelter. Or maybe, we are in limbo and don't belong anywhere. We’re talking about the present, past and future engaging there and here in which we are being taken shape.
In this edition, we are experimenting with adaptivity with different spaces for articulating how autonomy and diversity should be seen. We see food as a bridge to connect people who experience more or less homesickness together. We aim to redefine “home” and bridge those personal stories to new coming memories by putting those aspirations into the food experience. Food experience is not only about food, as the outcome itself, but also the whole composition of being. It is a collective work and a practice of caring.
participating
In Thai cuisine, yum means mixing in general. We can see from how the whole Thai salads are made throughout this method. There’s a dish called Yum ruam mit ( ยำรวมมิตร ) that translates as to get together with friends, so it can be said that ruam mit is a meeting of many ingredients in one simple, flavorful dish.
Home feeling in an unfamiliar environment
We remember well how important the introduction day here was 2 years ago when we were the new students here. That’s the moment when you are stepping from your previous life to the “new and unknown” environment. Thus, the transition between these experiences is important. We realized that we can’t do it without a safe feeling and welcome ritual entering into that new space.
Homesick Restaurant is here for the common ground in an unfamiliar environment towards the home feeling in any landscape. Making any newcomers feel like they are included via the value of co-creation.
Storytelling and Tooking (take actions and cook together)
We see clothes and food as the containers of memories which are an important part to share the stories and feelings authentically.
We want to bridge those personal stories to the new coming memories by putting those aspirations into the garment . Then, we transform individual clothes to a collective cloth/memory via making and doing things together.
Food and fashion are a fundamental part of everyday life[…] Fashion and food both provide opportunities for conviviality, intimacy, pleasure and satisfaction and are arenas of acceptance or resistance to gender inequality. They also satisfy other needs, associated with comfort, control, escape, family provisioning, social interaction, and cultural participation.
The kitchen table is where food is served and garments cut out and stitched. Yet on both counts its role as a site of creation is today challenged: we witness changing family meal systems and home sewing as an add-on to clothes shopping. While the rise of the “ready-made” in both sectors has altered habits and eased the burden on (mainly women’s) labor, it has also removed skills and power over the means of production of everyday products.
September 2021
Food workshop. Practice Held in Common, Arnhem, NL.
Local Food Initiatives and Fashion Change: Comparing Food and Clothes to Better Understand Fashion Localism. Fashion Practice, 10(2), 160–170
participating
In this edition, Rolling Spring, we collaborate with z o m e r k a m p: an assemblage of seven women connected by a somatic consciousness and shared material, social and spiritual love of the world: Amor Mundi. They attempt to experiment with community building and re-connect our bodies to nature. They invited us to be part of the discussion of body, food, and landscape.
Why spring roll?
Because of the limited conditions— no cooking and easy to make, we figured out using spring roll as a theme. It's spring already in the Chinese calendar.
Even though Tanya and I are both from Asia, the spring roll means different for us. It's a universal food in Thailand, which is as universal as rice. But for Chinese food culture, we only eat it in spring; it's a welcoming spring ritual. Spring roll is a dish carrying different meanings and memories and shows how it narrates different stories in different contexts. Furthermore, it represents the inclusiveness within food— you can choose what you'd like to eat, like a buffet. So we use spring rolls as a trigger of the experiment for taste and sensation.
Why food?
Eating together is a routine ritual of home. Since I moved to the Netherlands, I noticed that making together and eating together has disappeared. When I was eating in the school, the food was either already prepared by the school or brought by ourselves. We never have a moment of cooking together or sharing food together.
Food is a trigger of breaking the boundary, so we chose using food as a bridge to connect. In the event, we invited the participants to experiment with the concept of a collective restaurant: be the host and also guest at the same time. The homesick restaurant breaks down the capitalist definition of the restaurant and exists as a collective restaurant that emphasizes the value of sharing and co-creating.
Why 'homesick'?
The concept of 'homesick' not only means our homesick feeling but also an opportunity of rebuilding kinship and home feeling together, in this event. We set cultivating safe space as a goal, sharing, and co-creating as the methodology. Seeing it in light that this event can contribute to the safe space that has already built for the stronger bond by connecting with the co-memory in order to get to know each other better. We want to make this process go smoothly in the flow by food experiment.
As feminist activist Gloria Anzaldúa notes: [T]here are no safe spaces. "Home" can be unsafe and dangerous because it bears the likelihood of intimacy and thus thinner boundaries. I always feel I can't present myself absolutely at my home(with my parents) because I didn't come out to my parents. Even though we're really close to each other, there is a gap or wall between us, which obstructs our communication and my self-expression in front of them. I feel safe with the people who know my sexuality, and I bond with them. I do believe chosen families exist because my friends have seen my authentic side without performative sham and accept who I am as a human.
How to make it happen?
During this collective practice, we changed the format of co-creation. We let the participants determine what kind of restaurant they want to build rather than well-prepared for them. By giving the initiative to the participants, they take the responsibility of caring not only for selves but also for others. We regard this practice as an experiment of cultivating a safe space in the community helped by food.
We also re-think the meaning of co-creation, which should convey clear rules of limitations and what we have. It demonstrates the word 'without rules, no game.' Besides, we re-position ourselves as coordinators and facilitators in the event. And also, each institution that we collaborate with has different goals and values. Personalizing the event for different communities is a core of cohering the values together; simultaneously, the homesick restaurant can be a tool to facilitate through reframing the safe space and enhancing the cohesion.
We started out this project during the winter school break last year (2020). It was not an easy situation for everyone during the Christmas holiday period under the pandemic restriction. While our other Dutch classmates were preparing to celebrate the holiday with their family. We both didn’t have a family to come back for as many flights were canceled. Then, it was the first time that the homesick feeling came to us. We missed a sense of home here immensely. And the only thing that could calm us down was the thought of home-cooked meals that are cooked the same way when we were in our countries. To give us the home and family touch, we decided to cook those meals by ourselves and to share those outcomes with each other. It comes to the realization that how cooking, eating, and sharing the story can cope with the blue feeling at the time. This inspired us to help our other international students in the program with this experience. Therefore, we took Artez Master Fashion Strategy cantina space as the collective dining room to welcome and nurture the homesick peers to feel at home there. In this first event, we invited the international students to cook their favorite home meal dish that was packed with a full rich story behind it and to bring that food to share with other people. Throughout the experience of cooking based on the special memory, sharing the story about it, and then eating together afterward, in this way, we all were not just the guest, but we were also the host at the same time. As a result, we received positive feedback from all participants in this first event in a way that we got to know each other better via food. Since then, we are positive to continue this project as the tool to support the community that’s already built to elevate to a stronger bond.
‘We have been left our homeland for 16 months. I’m calculating.’ Tanya said.
I just realized time passed so fast; We were so busy with addressing the crises of covid that neglects our feelings of homesick. These recent months have been tough on us. We have to deal with so many things at the same time. And on top of that, we’re doing it so far away from home. We all have different experiences and backgrounds, but one thing that unites us is our longing for that warm, safe place we call home. We all have these little blue moments in which we remember a favorite dish and say: ‘oh I wish I was home now. With our Homesick Restaurant, we want to recreate the homely feeling we all love by sharing our favorite native dishes with each other.
It’s not only a safe space practice for tactics but also a solution for alienation. We experienced some miscommunication issues because of cultural differences in food, which evokes my thinking of alienation caused by different cultures. I acknowledged how powerful the food is. The food preference impacted by the food industry and ethical issues. What if we have one night throwing away these disciplines and sharing our food is an essential context— about our gustation memories and feelings?
We live in a liberal society, which encourages personal’s achievement. We know this vision of universal care is as daunting as it is pressing. But in our current moment of rupture, where neoliberal norms are crumbling, we have a rare opportunity. Awareness of our systemic carelessness across all social hierarchies has begun to appear everywhere. Let's begin by avowing care, in all of its ubiquitous complexities, an d by building more enduring and participatory caring outlooks, contexts and infrastructures, wherever we can.
Caring is a learnable capacity; caring also is a inherent ability. Like Aurelie assumes: “But what if humans were not just born to compete and strive for their own advancement? What if humans were also innately good, born ready for care attachment and commitment and meant to live their lives in close connection to others in small and large groups?
