Artasia at St. Thomas the Apostle

During the fifth and final week of our programming, the activity was coming up with food recipes or creating recipes for concepts, notions, and ideas. For example recipes, I made a traditional dish from Turkish and other Middle Eastern cultures called sarma/ dolma. I also presented a symbolic “Recipe for Rewarding Friendships.” I wanted the kids to know me on a deeper level and both of these recipes were so close to my heart – the first being from my home country, and the other reflecting my art practice as a poet. I had also brought my typewriter with me for us to use in order to write/ print our recipes. 

Many kids chose to make traditional dishes. The particular material we used for this week was felt, and it was especially great for food recipes with stuffing as well as wrapping/ rolling. This is why many kids wanted to make sushi, spring rolls, and noodles. Many creative pieces were assembled as most kids not only made a dish but went further to create platters. One of the designs was an example of a children’s menu, with a complimentary toy attached to it. Another one was inspired by the Bakugan anime series and toys, with an added twist of creating a “Bakugan sushi’. The use of yarn helped the kids make noodles. Considering some yarn were thicker than others, the kids created various types of noodles – one being an udon recipe that warms the heart. This recipe was accompanied by a stuffed heart as well. Another design used the fabric scraps that were remaining from previous weeks. By picking a sheer fabric that they remembered using in another week, one of the kids created a rice paper, later turning it into a spring roll.

We then went on to write the ingredients and directions of our recipes on the typewriter. I would say this was also quite a memorable experience for the kids. They loved handling a vintage machine, and trying out to see which different colors and caps they could type. Towards the end of our session, the kids were reading and assessing each others’ recipes. Two particular friends loved each others’ platters, so they started playing a game of “I like your recipe better!” that involved them saying they love each others’ recipes until one of them stops saying it. The game definitely went on for a while! One of the kids also requested that since this was our last week, I should type all of our names on the typewriter as many times as the participants in the room, for us to then distribute these paper notes to everyone as a memory.

I was pretty emotional at the end of the session when the kids didn’t want to depart. They even asked whether we would be seeing each other next summer. I invited them to Supercrawl and said hopefully we can meet sooner in the festival, where they would also have the opportunity to perhaps come across their creations from Week 3!

Saadet Serra Hasiloglu