Sunday, February 23, 2014

Diversity Dinner

Saturday morning, I woke up bright and early. Excited, I headed to the kitchen. Although Albright has a tiny, under-stocked kitchen, today nothing would stand in my way. Today, I was making борщ (borscht)!

All week long, I was stealthily hoarding vegetables from the dining hall. Every day, I made rounds to all of the vegetable-carrying houses to find the best/needed ingredients.I made a long shopping trip to all of the grocery stores within walking distance, going back and forth, comparing prices of everything extinct from the student dining halls. But why so much effort? What is this foreign thing that I was planning to make?

Every year, Albright house hosts a Diversity Dinner. For this dinner, everyone interested can cook something that reminds them of home. On the day of the dinner, we have a house-wide party to celebrate diversity accompanied by delicious, new food cooked by the students.

My family is Russian and my contribution to the house dinner was my signature dish for family dinners, a thick, hearty beet soup. Other dishes served included curried chicken, several rice dishes, chili, Texas-style macaroni and cheese, shoofly pie, vegan cupcakes, gulab jamun (Indian doughnuts... my personal favorite), and many more.

Our creations!

Scrumptious kale. 

Homemade cheese dip with herbs on a cracker.

Although this may not look as amazing as it tastes, but this sweet potato pie was truly spectacular... trust me!


Texas-style mac n' cheese

Leftover vegan almond cupcakes and peanut-butter chocolate cupcakes/balls.


Nothing better than fresh fruit!



Eating shoofly pie for the first time.

My Borscht! 


Unfortunately, we ran out of plates, but the truly dedicated tasters resorted to cups of borscht.

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6 comments:

  1. AnonymousFebruary 23, 2014 at 6:00 PM

    This feast must have truly been spectacular! I love the fact that your house could come together to share cultures through food.

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  2. UnknownFebruary 24, 2014 at 5:25 PM

    Wow talk about a mouth-watering meal! I'm so jealous I may have to at least have a mini-cultural potluck with my friends. It's such a great way to really dive into different cultures. My temple used to do one of these and I remember the flavors being so exciting!

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  3. UnknownFebruary 25, 2014 at 12:51 PM

    what a great tradition! thanks for sharing so many pictures of the food. I'm getting hungry!

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  4. AnonymousFebruary 28, 2014 at 1:08 PM

    That's hilarious that you spent the week hoarding vegetables from the dining hall.
    All this summer my friend has been telling me about the (different kinds of) borscht soups she had tried at this one Russian restaurant (Christmas Eve borscht, hot borscht, etc) and I continued to listen on as a dutiful friend, while remaining very envious! I had never before tried it and was extremely happy that I had that chance during Tuesday's class. Thank you so much!

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  5. UnknownMarch 1, 2014 at 2:39 PM

    Last Tuesday was the first time I ever tasted borscht and I really liked it! Thanks a lot! And all the food you and your housemates cooked look delicious. Such a great house tradition!!

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  6. AnonymousMarch 1, 2014 at 5:29 PM

    The borscht was great! The first time I was introduced to borscht was one night at milk and cookies (a weekly house event) when a friend of mine came in with a transparent tub of pink liquid. She plopped some smetana on top so the red borscht turned pink. Although I liked it, it was differently an unexpected flavor to experience after finishing a cookie. Ii haven't had it sense so thank you for bringing it to class!

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