Asian cooking demonstrations share culture

Bloomington residents embrace many types of ethnic cuisines, and IU student groups are no exception. \nBesides trying the countless ethnic restaurants that line the streets of Bloomington, students can take part in an alternative ethnic experience right on campus.\nEvery month, a different Asian Student Association holds a cooking demonstration at the Asian Culture Center.\nA student from the participating association volunteers to share one of his or her favorite recipes and demonstrates how to prepare the dish. At the end of the event, everyone gets to sample the meal and receive a copy of the recipe to take home.\nBloomington residents and students of all ethnicities and backgrounds, participate in the program, but the majority of the audience is typically comprised of the students involved with the participating student association.\n"(The student associations) have a really good turnout, and you can see that they really support each other," said sophomore Daya Pillai.\nPillai is an office assistant at the Asian Culture Center and is responsible for organizing the demonstrations. \nShe works with the different student associations to make sure they have what they need to host a successful demonstration, which is about more than just the food. Presenters often include anecdotes about the dishes and why they chose to share them.\n"They'll talk about how their mom made the recipe growing up," Pillai said. "It's not just about the recipe -- you really get an inside view into their culture." \nFriday night, the Vietnamese Student Association will host the cooking demonstration, where the featured dish will be spring rolls and crab meat soup, presented by the VSA president, junior Lena La. \nThe VSA is dedicated to promoting cultural awareness on and off campus. It has found that the cooking demonstrations are one way to work toward its goals.\n"Our club is a cultural club, so we want to promote cultural awareness about the Vietnamese culture, and cooking is a fun way to learn about culture," said senior Chi Le, VSA vice president.\nMembers of the VSA plan to share their fashions as well as their food by wearing Vietnamese clothing to the demonstration.\nLe hopes many students and local residents will attend Friday's program, not only to learn more about the Vietnamese culture, but also to encourage oneness in the community.\n"We also want to promote the unity of students -- not just Vietnamese students, but students of other cultures," Le said.\nThe cooking demonstration will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday at the Asian Culture Center. Admission is free and the event is open to the public. For more information, log on to www.indiana.edu/~acc, or contact the Asian Culture Center at 856-5361.\n-- Contact staff writer Leigh \nJohnson at elljohns@indiana.edu.