Coming up this weekend, Gannon hosts its annual International Night, a great chance for the Gannon community to experience the food, entertainment and music of a variety of cultures. I have gone to this event every year since I was a freshman and I absolutely love it.
I decided to bring this up in my column this week because I would like to encourage Gannon students to go to this event for several reasons. This gives students the chance to not only experience live entertainment from around the world, but you get to eat international food.
The best part is you can take as much food as you want from as many countries as you want. When I go to a buffet style event like this, I like to get my money’s worth.
Our generation, at times, can be one of very picky eaters and many times we don’t like to try something if we don’t know for sure that we’ll like it.
Most of the time when I go to a restaurant, I have one dish that I order every single time. Generally, I don’t want to pay for something if I don’t like it.
That being said, at International Night, everyone pays the same price to get in, and then you choose what you want to eat. It gives you the perfect opportunity to taste food you wouldn’t normally eat without worrying about wasting your money.
I used to be a very picky eater – I was hesitant to eat most things and you can bet I never ate vegetables on my own free will. I stayed that way through most of high school, with a few exceptions, but then I realized what I was missing out on.
I remember my freshman year, a good friend of mine took me to Khao Thai and I tried Pad Thai because it was the blandest thing on the menu. I hated it. I probably wouldn’t have gone again if the restaurant weren’t so popular.
I went a second time when a group of my friends decided that’s what they wanted for dinner. I tagged along partly because I wanted to see if I liked anything else and partly because I have an irrational fear of being left out.
I decided to try a dish that a couple of other people ordered – drunken noodles – and it was fantastic. It’s my new go-to order at Khao Thai. The only reason I didn’t order it before was because it came with tomatoes.
Since then I’ve made the effort to try other ethnic foods including Indian, Greek and sushi – you can laugh but until I discovered California rolls I would not touch it.
Anyway, the point of this whole spiel is to encourage you to try new types of food that you wouldn’t normally eat in a buffet setting where you don’t have to worry about wasting money. Plus, you can pay for your ticket with GU Gold, so it’s about the same as using a meal plan.
The way I see it, being picky is never an excuse not to try something you never had before.
KHADIJA DJELLOULI
