Guest Speakers at Universty of Washington

 

Recently, FEEST was given the wonderful opportunity to be guest speakers at a Social Work Class at University of Washington (UW) to help guide the students in creating the ideal youth program, along with how FEEST was able to do this for the past few years.

Meng and Cristina picked Marley and me up at school around 2 and headed off to UW. When we arrived at UW, we were a bit early so we waited for about 15 minutes before heading inside to the classroom. We were treated to snacks before starting our panel. About 10 minutes later, we sat down in front of the classroom in a circle facing the college students introducing ourselves and talked about the history of FEEST.

Many students were curious as to how FEEST centers around the youth. We each answered one by one, with Meng and Cristina taking the lead, and next Marley and me answered. We all mentioned how the youth are in charge with minimal adult power. At FEEST , the youth are in charge of everything; this ranges from the dishes we will be making for dinners, taking charge in the kitchen, deciding what will be put in the food, how the tables should be decorated, etc.

This is what makes FEEST, FEEST. Everyone is treated equally and there is no hierarchy.  The youth are the ones in charge, and not the adults. In reality, it is the complete opposite; the adults are the ones in charge while the youth have less power. The adults mentors at FEEST strives for the youth to take charge. They let us become the leader we never thought ourselves to be. They encourage the youth to think outside the box; to experiment. They encourage the youth that no matter how different your ideas are from everyone else, they will still be accepted, because at FEEST, no one’s ideas are put down.

After the panel, we had everyone in the room stand to play an activity called “Yes and…”. Which we usually play at FEEST dinners. For those who are not familiar with this game, we go around in a circle and suggest an idea; the next person would say “Yes and..” and improve this idea or make another suggestion. The tricky part about the game is that you cannot say no to the previous person’s idea. The purpose of this game is to not put any one’s ideas down and that every one’s ideas are accepted. Because we were helping create an ideal youth program, we all went around and shared our ideas of an ideal youth program.

So…. After the activity, we all came to a conclusion that an ideal youth program will have food, music, and have the youth take charge. And that wrapped up our invite as guest speakers!
 

Malawax

Ingredients:
Brown sugar
3 eggs
All purpose flour
Water

Directions:

1. Combine flour, eggs, sugar, and water. Mix.
2. Pour vegetable oil into pan.

3. Pour mix into pan and spread into a thin layer. Constantly check to make sure it does not stick.

Sambusa

Ingredients:
1 bag of tortillas

Filling:
Water
Flour
Potatoes
Onions
Carrots
Cilantro

Directions:

Tortillas

1. Place flour and water in a bowl and mix.

2. Place whole tortilla on cutting board and cut as shown in the photo above.

3. Now fold the tortilla and add the mix and close the tortilla so only the top is open for the filling.
Filling

1. Boil potatoes until soft.

2. Chop onions, carrots, and cilantro and mix in a bowl. Then place in pan and sauté for 5 minutes.

3. Once potatoes are soft, mash them in the pot and add the sautéed ingredients and mix.

4. Now add the filling to the tortilla and close with the flour mix from earlier as shown above.

5. After you are done with filling all the tortilla, fry them in a pot until golden brown.

Marley’s Food Adventure!

Today with FEEST, Robbie and I went on a Food Adventure to a small restaurant in White Center called Meander’s Kitchen. When I first walked into the place, I was a bit disoriented because it looked more like a bar than a restaurant, but later I was told that the restaurant is actually built in an old bar that got closed down because of some under-the-counter business. All the staff there was very friendly and we all greeted each other and warmed up immediately. Then Miranda began to tell me the story of how she began to cook for lots of people. She told me how she and her friends used to go around the city and search for food in dumpsters.

Initially the thought kind of grossed me out, but the more we talked I started to realize that it really wasn’t. The fact is, stores and restaurants throw out millions of pounds of perfectly good food every year just because it doesn’t look right or it’s too close to its expiration date. This food can be saved and eaten and should not go to waste. She used the phrase “decadent poverty” because she was able to cook exquisite wholesome meals out of completely free food that shed just found in the dumpsters of the city. It’s actually ridiculous how the food system is structured here in America. It’s not based around need or necessity, but rather around marketing. I realized that almost everything in our society is consumerized, from our clothes to our electronics to the very food that we eat.

Anyways, she continued to tell me about how she used to live in a punk house where she’d always cook meals for people that didn’t have much money, and all she’d ask was that they contribute some part of themselves to the household. These kinds of actions really build community and can start life-long friendships that can really change a person’s life. This very concept actually parallels the ideals that support FEEST: building community and leadership through food and cooking.

After that, we were shown into the back and I got to see behind-the-scenes in an actual restaurant kitchen. It turned out to be a lot simpler than I’d thought it would be, Meander had perfect mise en place in her kitchen and she was so practiced and efficient in the way she cooked it looked almost easy. She made this amazing “Punk House Hash” with fried eggs on top and in the process she shared some of her cooking expertise and knowledge with me. I even learned how to cook the perfect over-medium eggs. The whole restaurant is just such an amazing place because its designed to make everyone feel welcomed. Everyone there is friendly and the atmosphere is really warm and inviting. Because of this, the restaurant has a really loyal fan base and the employees and customers are often really good friends. I think Meander’s kitchen is an amazing place to eat, go out with your friends, or just meet really cool people. I can’t wait to go back there sometime with my family.

For more info about Meander’s Kitchen… Check out their Facebook page

Mayrie Fay , 17 years old

  Today, we made different type of dishes. I didn’t know that you can do so much with tofu like “ OHMYGOD!”. We stir fry the tofu with soyrizo and put them in tacos. It was “BOOOOOOMB!!”. If I were to make my own restaurant, then I would definitely would add that dish on my menu. I learned a lot from FEEST today and I met different kinds of people.  I’m not sure how many times I’ve been to FEEST, but I am sure that every time I came to FEEST I would feel that everyone is welcome. I can’t imagine myself working with people to make a dish before, because I’m used to doing or making a dish by myself. Once you started working with people in FEEST you would never get tired of it. You would go home with so much to think about after FEEST. FEEST don’t use who to work with. It is fun to be with people especially when you are working with them to make something better and healthier. I am happy to be with the FEEST and I hope that there’s more people to appreciate what FEEST is all about.

Xedalle, 15 yrs old

This is my first time at FEEST and I didn’t know what it was, but when i arrived at Feest the members were really kind and nice. The environment was friendly and supportive.I have no experience of making food(which made me worry about the result of my dish), but the members of FEEST assisted me and also taught me what to do to make my food tasty/ taste good. While I was making my Fruit salad I had no idea what kind of shape I should cut the fruits, but they assisted me, after their help  I made a delicious fruit salad(it had mangoes,apples,bananas,tomatoes and, mint to add some kick to it).It also had a sauce with maple syrup, lemon juice, lime juice and, mint.  Which i would have never made without FEEST members and their support.I also like the traditions of FEEST, the traditions were really kind specially when people thank each other for their dish and i like the traditions where you have to clean up together which makes you meet other members and get to know them.I really liked the part when we put all of our dish on the tables and eating together.We also had different kind of food which made it better! The dishes were really good.I had A LOT of fun in my first day at FEEST!

 

Rahel Yohannes, Age 15

When I first arrived at FEEST I was kind of overwelmed by how many foods were out on the tables. After washing them we gathered around a table and discussed what we were going to make. From Afican dishes to Mexican and others we picked dishes to make and begone our work-cutting,cooking, dressing. It was the first time I worked on a dish I didn’t really know about; it was a very interesting experience. In my group we made cabbage wraps. We put in soy rizo and chicken adobo with lettice and wrapped in cabbage. Honestly I didn’t think it would taste good because well… there was cabbage in it. But as my group came near the end it acually was very eddable and looked, smelled and tasted amazing-it was kinda spicy too. When we were finished cooking we set our dishes out on the table with the other groups foods and the smell was amazing! Not to mention all different kinds of foods there. I had a lot of fun and I hope that others would come stop by at FEEST as well.

 

Breaded Fried Boneless Chicken Breast

Ingredients:

• 5 eggs
• Package of chicken breast 
• 1 bag of bread crumbs 
• 3 limes
• Olive oil
• Salt

Directions: 

1. Slice chicken breast into thin slices. 

2. Place chicken slice into egg mix. Place on plate and sprinkle desired amount of salt and lime. Then place in bread crumb mix. 

3. Place in pan and let fry in olive oil until golden brown. 

 

 

Okayo-don

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 1/4 onion
• hand full of green onion
• 1/3-1/2 lb chicken breast
• Mixture of fish and soy sauce, and sugar
• 1 cup sticky rice or regular rice

Directions: 

1. Slice chicken and onions.

2. Cook chicken.

3. Place chicken, onion, sauce, eggs, and green onion in a bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds and you’re done!

And here’s a little story behind this dish!

Brandon, 15

Today at FEEST, we made a Japanese dish called “Oyakodon”. In Japanese, Oya means parent, and ko, means child. Don represents donburi, which is used to describe any dish that has rice with other ingredients on top. Oyakodon is made using chicken, eggs, and onions placed on top of rice with a sauce that’s preparation can vary. The chicken and eggs are the reason the dish is poetically named “Parent and child donburi”.

Sanyasen, 9th grade

FEEST. feest represent food empowerment education sustainability team.
    feest it a program where we make healthy food,first they put different food on the table after that each one of us comes up with an idea to make new food. Today my job was to make kale salad what i did first was to cut down the kale into pieces and i did the same thing with the garlic and the time i did it for a few mins until they where really small pieces. After that i put that kale in a bowl and mixed it with the garlic and the time.Then i started to massage the kale and put vinegar,Salt,Union and Oil. I kept doing it for a while, also i tried it to see if it was good or not. it tasted like union and vinegar it was really good just the taste of it made me feel like eating all of it. Everyone who hasn’t been to feest i recommend you to try it out your going to love it, we make new friends , we learn how to cook and at the same time were just having fun hearing music and hanging out with friends. try it out, it’s a BLAST.

Check out some other dishes from dinner!

Blood orange mango strawberry fruit salad:

Garlic Chard Fried Rice:

Soyrizo Potato Stiry Fry: