This year’s iteration of Tu’s International Bazaar Night was a carnival, with a large variety of food and events inspired by international customs and culture.
When I mentioned TU’s annual international bazaar night was coming up, my roommate looked at me and said, “The chicken in the green sauce.”
My roommate is not crazy, I promise; it’s just that TU’s international bazaar, which was themed as a carnival this year, always promises a batch of amazing food we can never find anywhere else. This year was no different. The carnival was held last Friday in ACAC’s large banquet hall, and the line stretched down stairs and around alcoves, the event was so popular.
15 cultures were represented at the event: Vietnam, Latin America, Malaysia, Italy, China, Korea, Africa-Angola, Omani, France, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Russia, Persia, India and Indonesia. There was also a booth representing The Purple Ribbon, which was holding a fundraiser. The booths lined three walls of the room, with seating in the center. This year, each booth wasn’t given a tent, which made the room seem a lot more open. Finding a seat was difficult, as was navigating the room, because of the amount of people.
The food, as always, was spectacular. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to sample everything, just because of the size of the crowds and competition for the food, but my plate and I were still full by the end of the night.
Sometimes it was difficult to tell exactly what you were eating, as some of the labels weren’t that descriptive (which means we’ll never know the recipe for the chicken at the Saudi Arabia tent).
Booths offered a variety of items: some desserts, some main dishes, some appetisers and some drinks. Some had catered options; others were handmade. Some of my personal favorites were the desserts. The cookie dessert from the African-Angola table was heavenly — creamy and cold, with just a bit of a crunch from the cookie. The watermelon drink from the Korean table was also great; it had a bit of carbonation and melon bits at the bottom. A banana dessert at the Malaysian table was sweet without feeling too guilty. And of course, we found the chicken at the Saudi Arabia tent, which was perfectly tender and juicy.
The carnival also featured a “Parade of Nations,” where representatives from some of the groups paraded around the room, some in “traditional” clothing, some in not. The Chinese students had one student sing at the front of the stage while the rest of the group walked around; the American section had a pair do a country dance.
While all the food left us a bit stuffed at the end of the night, visiting the carnival was worth it. The amount of work and time that was put into organizing it is beyond expression.
