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Baili Zhang, director of international programs, serves dumplings to the attendees. Students and faculty from four countries presented their version of the dumplings.
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Participants prepare the dumplings before the start of the event. They were preparing Nepali style dumplings called momo.
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The event was held at the University United Methodist Church. The cost for the ingredients was reimbursed by the International Club.
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Ryusei Isobe, freshman communication major, grills a Japanese style of dumplings.The dumplings are called gyoza.
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Russian students set up their serving station. They made two types of dumplings, buuza and pelmeni.
The first ever Dumpling Festival hosted by the International Club took place April 11 at the University United Methodist Church. There were different types of dumplings available from various cultures, including Nepal, China, Japan and Russia.
Mohammad Asfaque, junior mathematics major and International Club president, explains that while the club has organized cultural celebrations before, this event is unique in its focus on cultural diversity through dumplings.
“We’ve done celebrations of culture and events like these before, but this was a new concept, like celebrating the diversity in culture through dumplings. Yeah, it was, it was a new idea,” Asfaque said. “We wanted to find people to represent their ethnic groups, so far we could gather only four groups.”
The participants representing their various cultures were present in the kitchen preparing the dumplings ready to serve freshly made dumplings.
Hinata Isobe, senior finance and international business major, made dumplings from his home country of Japan. He discussed the process of making dumplings with friends using pork, green onion and Napa cabbage for the meat option and tofu, Napa and green onion for the vegetarian option.
“Including me, three friends helped me to cook it so it takes only one hour, excluding the grill time. So today I grilled with my friend, and then it took maybe one hour and a half making around 150 dumplings,” Isobe said.
The attendees all seemed to enjoy the different types of dumplings available with the dumplings being finished just an hour from the start of the event.
Josie Riddle, sophomore art major, appreciated the diversity of dumplings, noting that they differ more than people might think. She particularly enjoyed the dumplings from Nepal for their curry flavor and found the soup dumplings from Russia unexpectedly interesting.
“I think it’s really great. It’s kind of fun to try the different dumplings from the different countries and see the difference with them. Because I feel like a lot of people think dumplings are all the same, but they’re different and that’s really good,” Riddle said.
Asfaque hopes that the club will host the event again in the future with more cultures participating.
Edited by Stuti Khadka and Jeremy Ford.
