A taste of foreign lands for Arcadia and Mumbai students
For an international exchange course on food and culture, 25 students from Arcadia University in Glenside and five from Mumbai spent two weeks exploring each other's culinary worlds, a caloric adventure that gave them a taste of more than curry and cheesesteaks.
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For an international exchange course on food and culture, 25 students from Arcadia University in Glenside and five from Mumbai spent two weeks exploring each other's culinary worlds, a caloric adventure that gave them a taste of more than curry and cheesesteaks.
They sampled their native cuisines while walking along the teeming thoroughfares of India and through the crate-lined Italian Market. On Tuesday, they dined on pho, smoothies, and pizza at the King of Prussia Mall food court.
"I think everything comes in very large quantities" in the United States, said Shivika Adhwaryu, 19, of Mumbai.
"Huge," added classmate Karishma Kumar, 18, "and very bland compared to Indian food."
The Arcadia students visited their Indian counterparts for a week in early March, after which the Mumbai students, from the Global Pathways Institute, traveled here. They were learning how culture and tradition are reflected in the ways food is prepared, consumed, and shared in the two countries.
The class is part of a collaboration between the schools to facilitate study abroad. The food culture course serves as an introduction for the students, most of whom are headed overseas for long-term study.
"In the U.S. it's about friendship and food, talking and socializing over food, who's going to order out," said Sandra Crenshaw, Arcadia's associate dean of international academic programs and international affairs.
In India, she said, "it's about the making and preparing of the food and sharing it with family."
Arriving in India on March 5, the Arcadia students toured a professional hotel kitchen and later visited a Hindu temple for an lesson on vegetarianism, Crenshaw said. About 42 percent of Indian households are vegetarian.
They experimented with fast food in shopping malls, where an Egg McMuffin becomes a Veg McMuffin and a McSpicy Paneer sandwich includes cheese but no hamburger. They also spent an afternoon with an Indian family helping prepare a meal and later sitting down with them to eat.
"When I think of modern cooking, I think of putting something in the microwave, but everything was done with so much care. They didn't follow any recipes and every ingredient was important," said Ciara Brathwaite, 19, an Arcadia freshman.
In the U.S., the Indian students visited Reading Terminal Market and a Wawa store, and ate lunch at the gargantuan buffet at the Shady Maple restaurant in Lancaster County.
"People eat their food very fast here," said Suvin Seal, 18, a freshman from Mumbai, who described the Wawa cheese hoagie that he ate on the first day of his visit as "amazing."
The Indian students noted a difference between going out to dinner in the two countries. A proper three-course meal is always preferable to any fast-food entrée, they said.
On Thursday, the day before the students returned to India, they sat down to a Thanksgiving dinner - on St. Patrick's Day - at the home of Laura Baldwin, Arcadia's chief marketing and branding officer. The menu included turkey, stuffing, peas and carrots, cranberry sauce, and apple pie.
"Thanksgiving is about home, family, and culture," Baldwin said. "It's the ultimate American food culture tradition, and I wanted them to experience that."
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