Homesick Canteen (2024)

Welcome to the Homesick Canteen! We don’t have a chef in this canteen because only the homesick person is able to replicate, reproduce and reinterpret dishes in their memories. Every visitor can be a chef in the kitchen and retrieve their (lost) memory through cooking, sharing, and tasting. You can also share the recipes you learned in your homeland and the migration land. Homesick Canteen is for everyone who has ever been caught by homesick. People without homesickness are also welcome to experience how it feels.

Homesick Canteen collects how people from different cultural and geographic backgrounds use the recipe to archive intangible things such as emotions, memories, and relational ties. It also aims to explore the inner world and mental support of diaspora people and develop a possible coping strategy through casual conversation in the kitchen. The artists will archive the collected stories and re-interpret them into food packaging design.

Homesick Canteen Side-project – The Frozen Memory
In Rotterdam, thousands of migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees are currently living on a decommissioned cruise ship. This bold decision by the Dutch authorities is seen as an effective short-term solution to the acute accommodation crisis for refugees in the Netherlands. The largest group of asylum seekers in the Netherlands are Syrians, making up 40% of the population, followed by individuals from Turkey, Yemen, Eritrea, and Somalia.

Through conversations with asylum seekers residing on the ship and Stichting Mano, which frequently works with the underprivileged, we have identified a significant issue: the ship’s kitchen is inaccessible to its residents. For safety reasons, they are unable to cook for themselves and must rely on the provided meals, which predominantly consist of instant foods like nuggets and sausages. This situation has led to a deep yearning among refugees for their traditional comfort foods.

To address this issue, we have decided to collect recipes from the refugees, cook, share meals together, and produce Frozen Food for them as part of the “Underdeveloped” exhibition at Garage, Rotterdam. This initiative is not only about culinary activation but also aims to think critically and develop targeted solutions to one of the challenges faced by refugees living on the ship. Our goal is for our project to have a lasting impact beyond the exhibition itself.

As female immigrants to Europe, the project initiators Yen-Ting and Erby understand the importance of home-cooked food.They often buy or cook our comfort foods and freeze them so they can be enjoyed later.

Homesick Canteen will re-cook comfort food recipes provided by the refugees and produce frozen food products from these recipes. The frozen meals will be vacuum-sealed and packaged in cardboard boxes. The packaging will not only list the food’s name and ingredients but also feature illustrations and the refugees’ migration stories and memories associated with the comfort food. These frozen meals will be stored in two freezers, one in Garage and another on the ship. Refugees will have continuous access to the frozen meals made by Homesick Canteen as long as they are within their expiration date.

By providing refugees with the opportunity to enjoy their traditional comfort foods, we hope to offer them a sense of home and comfort amidst their challenging circumstances.