There was the smell of meat and spice in the air. People sat around with their friends eating a variety of food from all around the world. The International Potluck brought people from all walks of life together on Noc 14 at 5 p.m.
Ruby Arriaga, activities coordinator, said, “International Education Week is this week, so this is like a kickoff for it.”
About 80 students and faculty showed up for the event, Soon-Mi Choi, athletic training and exercise physiology assistant professor, is of Korean ethnicity and brought a Korean dish called bulgoggi, which is made up of beef, soy sauce, onions, carrots, green onion and garlic.
Choi said, “It is a very popular dish in Korea everybody knows how to make it. I fermented the soy sauce for two to three hours and it takes about five to 10 minutes to fry the meat with sesame oil.”
Choi’s 9-year-old son Alex Park said the bulgoggi was his favorite dish and his second favorite was the sweet called Quindim brought by Nelson Passos, computer science professor, from Brazil.
Passos said, “It is a favorite sweet from Brazil. It is made out of egg yolk, coconut and sugar. It only had 60 calories and is served at weddings and birthdays. “
His favorite dishes from the potluck were the Mexican food and the bulgoggi.
Choi said, “I had the sweet and it was good.”
Other dishes at the potluck were tinga de pollo, a Mexican dish made of chicken, tomatoes, onions and chipotle. There were also tamales, another Mexican dish, and curry worst, a German dish made with kielbasa, tomato based sauce and curry. In all, there were 10 dishes but there still wasn’t enough food.
Arriaga said, “It was more than what I hoped for. Next year I know to get more food.”
Some people were also to late and not able to get any food.
Arriaga said, “I was going to buy 300 plates but I got 85 instead and ended up running out of plates. I’m glad others brought extra plates.”
Arriaga said she hopes that students that came got to learn about the different foods that are around the world. There was also a spinner game prepared for students so they could learn about different flags.
Arriaga said, “Basically we spun it and you would guess the country of the flag it landed on. If you guessed correctly you get to have a piece of candy. All in all we had a great turn out. I’m looking forward to next year.”
