On Mon. Nov. 5, Smith’s International Students Organization and International Students & Scholars Office hosted the 73rd Annual I.S. Day Celebration. During lunch time, students streamed into the Campus Center, lining up to try dishes representing almost all of the countries and cultures that the student body comes from. A total of 22 countries were represented, and 26 dishes were served, encompassing appetizers, main courses and desserts. Since every dish cost one to three tickets, bought beforehand for a dollar each, I could only try a few dishes from the wide variety being served. First, I tried squid porridge, a common breakfast dish in China. It was unlike any breakfast food I am used to eating in the United States, where fish is not commonly eaten in the morning. I also tried Warabi-mochi, a Japanese dessert made of a jelly-like starch and covered in with soybean powder and kuromitsu syrup, a kind of sugar syrup. Similarly to the first dish, I had never tried a dessert quite like Warabi-mochi in the United States. It was nutty and less sweet than many American confections.
I had neither time nor money to try other dishes at I.S. Day, but the celebration was about more than food. It was about celebrating the diversity of Smith’s campus and the global community we have. There are students from about 70 different countries on campus, coming from cultures different from that of Northampton and the United States as a whole. It is important to share these many cultures so that we, as a campus, understand more about the world as a whole. Food is one way we can share our cultures with one another and foster this global community.
