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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

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Desserts display student diversity

Student groups provide tasty treats for cultural festival

Add two eggs, one-half cup of sugar and some caramel and you've got flan. Add tapioca pearls, coconut milk and palm sugar and you've got Malaysian tapioca. Add phyllo dough, walnuts and cinnamon and you've got baklava. Add flan, Malaysian tapioca and baklava and you've got "Desserts from Around the World," an international dessert festival uniting different people with the common interest of desserts.\nThe confectionary clambake was held Saturday in the Leo R. Dowling International Center by several IU international groups, including the International Studies Student Association and the English Conversation Club. ISSA and ECC president Jen Green said the event was a good way to celebrate diversity.\n"We just wanted to get people to come and appreciate all of the groups on campus," Green said. "There aren't very many times that all of the international groups on campus can get together, so that was our idea."\nThe program has been held at IU before but has been on hiatus, Green said.\n"I guess they ran out of people to organize it or something," she said, "but we thought it was really important to get it started again."\nVisitors were greeted at the door with a bowl, fork and spoon to gather and consume their favorite international treats. In one room, the international student groups set up shop and dished out their nation's best. In another, several seats were arranged for guests to comfortably partake in the sugary fare. Some debate ensued as to which dessert was the tastiest. Senior Deepam Rusia said the Turkish treat was the best.\n"I like the baklava," Rusia said. "I think it's delicious, has good texture and a strong flavor."\nBut sophomore Rahul Sharma said the Latin flavor better suited his tastes. \n"I liked the flan the best," Sharma said. "I liked it because I've never had it before, and it was interesting because I had no idea what went into making it."\nGraduate student Servet Celik of the Turkish Student Association, bringers of baklava, said the group's dessert was tops for the night.\n"Some desserts are heavy and they make you full, but baklava is not like that," Celik said. "When you're eating it, you can have as many as you want."\nFrom another end of the world, the Malaysian Student Association served tapioca with coconut milk and palm sugar. The mix of sauces and tapioca pearls made a dessert with a gelatinous texture. MSA Public Relations Officer Nurakmal Yunos said the tapioca had the baklava and the flan trumped.\n"I think we have the best desserts," Yunos said, "just because it's chewy, so it's not like this soupy-type thing, and you can chew on it. And we eat it with the coconut milk and the palm sugar, so there's a distinctive Asian taste to it."\nThough sugar was the order of the night, Rusia said the desserts were a clever device to get people from different cultures together.\n"You see a lot of people of different cultures here getting together and talking," Rusia said. "I think that's another critical part of the program -- not just introducing people to different cultures, but also to different people."\nSharma offered a more personal solution.\n"Well, I just had dinner, and instead of having ice cream, I came down here and tried desserts of different cultures," Sharma said. "I think that makes me a better person."\n-- Contact staff writer Rick Newkirk at renewkir@indiana.edu.

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