How to try different cuisines from all over World without trying any restaurants?
There is an ongoing debate on putting end to Erasmus funds. I guess this is the most absurd thought, I have heard in the 21st century against any cultural and education development. I guess they should instead promote more and more such programs involving even more Asian and African Countries.
It is only here where you would see an Indian student dancing on a Spanish songs with his Mexican friends drinking German beer in a French Club. Erasmus is not just sharing knowledge through students exchange it is beyond that.
For me Erasmus or any other student exchange is an idea of cultural exchange, thought exchange. It is an exchange of ideas, revolution and business. I have seen any people generating ideas and converting it into a business plan. Where can we see such amalgamation of novelty with such sophistication.
But I would not make this post a boring one but would like to keep it simple and share my experiences on Erasmus in Dijon, France. I hope you all would love it.
Indian dinner cooked by me. It was my first attempt at cooking for such a large group.
For me Erasmus was an experience of life time and would love to relive it once again. I have identified 5 pillars of Erasmus. These pillars join you with others through culture, heritage, knowledge, likeness attraction.These are:
1. Food: You would get chance to experience different cuisines from different countries prepared by students and not in any Restaurants.
2. Drink: no Erasmus can complete without you being drunk with local drinks or with some friend's favourite that they bought from home.
3. Dance: My favourite. I went as a idiot dance but came back with lot of moves. You would have blast with so amazing peoples that you could have never thought back home.
4. Travel: Well, in my 100 days in France I could travel 10 countries and that too as an traveller. I travelled with so many people that it was always party where ever we went. No travel is as fun, elaborate, life touching as the one with your Erasmus friends.
5. Community: the community that you build after meeting people from 30+ nations is priceless. They are everywhere in the world and would help you anytime if you need any particular help. You can travel rest of your life around the world with someone to greet you anywhere.
So in this blog I would talk about Food.
My favourite: French Dinner with my French friends Ninon, Geoffrey and Camille.
I had eaten Italian food at a fancy restaurants back home. I am addicted to Fast food chains of American culture, for me this was the cuisine of Western World. For me Indian food was best. I went to France with literally taking 1 KG of Indian spices with me. I knew I would need them a lot.
So when First day I went to a restaurant with my friends I ordered Spicy Chicken (they could not understand spicy chicken). When I tasted it, I felt it missed my spices so I put my hand into the pocket and took several sachets of Indian Spices. I trend the chicken red with chili powder. My friends had a laugh riot watching this but I felt, I am in trouble here, "How could I survive without food". But then certainly my Chinese friend asked me to try her cuisine.
So the trend of mass cooking started. We decided to cook and invite everyone once a week. We started with Chinese then we continued with Hungarian, Polish, Czech, Bulgarian, Mexican, Indian (2 times), and many more along with the mother of all cuisine "French Cuisine."
The Chinese delight, our friend Joycee made 9 dishes from Chinese Cuisine for us. Love you Joycee :)
Want to try some Polish food? Our Friends Ewa and Agata were good host. Seen here Agata preparing the food.
There is always fun eating this way, not only you socialise with people, you could also learn some quick recipes and try it with your family, friends and Girlfriend/boyfriend back home. These parties made us feel like a family. like this one at Bulgarian dinner cooked by my Friend Mira, it was a joint effort by the whole team to prepare the table. You can check pics.
This group dinner was the best things that we could decide to do. Through this we:
We saw people crying after eating Indian food.
We saw people playing with chopsticks while eating Chinese.
People gossipping over Mexican food.
Some trying to wash dishes together or some making fun of cooking.
The list continues with other numerous dinners. But the biggest one was when we decided to cook all cuisines on the last day and we had Australian, Spanish, Mexican, Austrian, Hungarian etc cuisines on the single table. This is what Erasmus is all about. Erasmus means love, peace, mutual sharing. culture etc.
Our last day with the Grand Dinner. Haha Sheila having most fun here.
I could add more pictures to this beautiful album but I would stop here. I hope you all would not miss the opportunity of community dinner. Believe me you would have so much fun and so much to learn. Never skip them. Don't be a boring, self centered person who eats only at restaurants.
Always give compliments to your host. He/She may not be best cook in the World but their efforts are hones and compliments would make them feel happy.
Sooner I would come up with a post on Dance. Till then Ciao, Bye Bye, A bientot, auf wiedersehen, see you soon.
P.S: Please do not use any of my material without giving me some credit. It would be a big help from your side.
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