A Deeply Moving Restaurant Concept

Conflict Kitchen, a take-out restaurant in Pittsburgh, serves only cuisine from countries that the United States is in conflict with.

Eating food from foreign countries can really give you an idea of what kind of culture and environment they have. It will give you an idea of their preferences and a glimpse at their traditions and practices. This is why Conflict Kitchen wants to use food to increase the awareness of people. Perhaps show them that there are real individuals, real families, real cultures, that the US are intervening with.

They have already served Iranian and Afghan cuisines. I think it is a deeply moving concept. I mean, I am actually very curious about what kinds of flavors Afghan or Iranian food will have.

I actually have a food blog where I deal with my reflections about the joys of eating. Although I haven't really updated it in a while, it does show how significant this topic is to me and how I am really admiring this restaurant concept.

There was a time when I was uncertain about non-interventionism as a foreign policy. Especially after watching a documentary about North Korea called "Welcome to North Korea" where I saw the lives of the citizens there and how their lives are controlled by bureaucrats and coercive authorities. There is no innovation, no incentive to make one's life better, no markets, no progress. It is as if only fear and propaganda exists and everyone is living a lie. You know, I feared for them and I wanted to help them. But at that time, little did I know that markets and not governments will be the only way to help them. At first glance, non-interventionism would seemingly become isolationism.

But then we have to remember that the United States have tried to intervene before with the Koreans and so with the Vietnamese and we see how history is telling us how this kind of foreign policy fails and just creates more hostility and even more complications. Through different revelations in Wikileaks, we see how their CIA has created more problems than solutions.

From my point of view, I see that allowing countries to trade freely will allow people to realize the value of capitalism and how markets create innovations. For instance, if the embargo to countries the US were in conflict with were to be ended, goods can be brought in, goods that represent innovations that are brought about by the market. Better food, better technologies, better medicine, etc. Citizens of these countries can realize the importance of markets and capitalism.

What is undeniable is that the US is about to go broke because of their foreign policy. I am not really in the mood to argue non-interventionism vs isolationism or debate about the merits of free markets to the peace and prosperity of the world. I am only writing this article to share a restaurant concept. It is thought-provoking, moving, and at the same time very appetizing. Affecting my brain, my heart, and my stomach! All in one! :)