In an interview with two community members who are frequent attendees of Cosmo dinners, we asked the following questions: How long have you been coming to Cosmo Dinners? What do you especially enjoy about them? Do you have any special memories of past dinners and people you have met there? Here are their answers.
Dorene Gordon: I've been coming almost two years. I've missed very few. You can eat a lot of different foods and converse with so many students from different countries. I always take menus home with me. It's fun to look at them again and remember people and food and tell my friends about them.
Special memories? There are many! In terms of food, the lamb from the
Greek dinner was excellent and so were the meatballs with vegetables at
the Turkish dinner and the Chicken Korma with yogurt and spices from Bangladesh.
Desserts are always wonderful!
Many times there are programs after the dinners and students speak about
their countries and the women often wear unusual dresses. I especially
liked films about Romania and Germany, the Japanese kimonos and the Romanian
and Turkish clothing, and the Palestinian drum playing with its special
rhythmic beat.
Then at the tables you get to talk with students from different countries about the places they're from, their foods, their education, what they're striving for, and what they're planning to do when they go back to their countries. Each dinner is different and each is special.
Virginia Sharp: I've been coming umpteen years. I love sitting in a group you can visit with and get to know. Each time it's different, no matter how many dinners you attend. I've been to so many good dinners it's hard to pick just a few. Let's see. I do have special memories of a paella and a soltero salad from a Bolivian dinner ("soltero" means "single man") and an unusually hot Indian dinner, hot but really good. I just drank a lot of water and ate more yogurt. Japanese dinners are always special they have such delightful presentations of their food. Korean marinated bar-be-cued beef called "bulgogi" is really good, too. The soup at the last Argentine dinner was delicious, and they served us at the tables. Thanksgiving dinners are special, too, when we have a chance to show off traditional U.S. food and help others through the dinners' benefits.
Other special memories? Sometimes we have buffets and sometimes students serve the tables. It's fun. The tables always look so lovely with flowers and baskets of breads, and the programs following the dinners are really interesting.
I remember a tall, gorgeous Chinese girl from the border near Korea who joined in on a Latin American dinner. When time came to dance, she fitted right in, a little unusual for a Chinese girl. She really enjoyed it. At the Italian dinners we have opera singers and this is always lovely. The Philippines did a dance with bamboo sticks. At an Indonesian dinner we had young girls dancing in beautiful costumes. Iranian and Chinese dinners had people playing special stringed instruments. At another dinner we had a game with a map. The whole setting is so enjoyable. I plan to keep coming to these dinners as long as I can.
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| Scene
from the Greek Dinner. Back: Giorgos & Panagiotis; Front: Vasilis, Giorgos, Vangelis |