Three weeks ago, Alex Toledano '04, Jen Pan '04 and Ellie Harrison '04 didn't think they would have enough funding, support or organizational skills to pull off an inaugural event for Flavor, the ethnic food club they recently founded.
They proved themselves wrong last Thursday when Flavor tickled student tastebuds for the first time at the Carl A. Fields Center for Equality and Cultural Understanding (previously known as the Third World Center).
The event confirmed the group's presence on campus and emphasized their founding goals.
"There are a lot of barriers at this school," said Pan, co-founder and treasurer of Flavor. "We just want to eat good food and meet people."
At their inaugural event, Flavor succeeded in breaking down some of these social barriers. Over forty undergraduates, graduates and professors turned out to learn more about traditional Indian food by feasting on delicacies from A Passage to India, the 2001 New Jersey Monthly Reader's Choice pick for Best Indian Cuisine.
Restaurant manager Amit Kapadia brought Indian cuisine from varying regions of the sub-continent. He spoke for fifteen minutes on the influences on Indian food and regional variations in the dishes.
Spices are the key to good Indian cuisine, he explained, and dishes often require between five and ten spices. The challenge for the chef is the replication of that same ratio of spices each time the dish is made. Everything on the menu reflects the chef's particular taste because dishes are composed of two or three main ingredients and the chef's own mix of spices.
Regional food also varies according to the staple foods available in a particular area. For example, in the North, wheat is the staple food. In the South, it is rice, and in the East, dairy products are widely used. Northern food also has Arabic and Persian influences.
By the end of the introduction, mouths were watering. Diners — some new to the increasingly popular cuisine and some well acquainted with the taste — proceeded through the buffet line to enjoy an appetizer of yogurt-covered doughnuts, followed by chicken, lamb, and vegetable dishes, all spiced to perfection. The buffet line was complete with an authentic dessert dish.
Though the event came together at the last minute, details were carefully attended to. Place settings were color-coordinated and complete with an informative guide to Indian food compiled by Harrison, the secretary of Flavor. Fresh flowers floated in fishbowls at the center of each table. Diners were encouraged to strike up conversation with new people and to discuss topics pertaining to India.
Grads, undergrads and professors alike left the dinner with full bellies. As the dining room emptied out, Toledano, Pan, and Harrison smiled and sighed with satisfaction.
"The different types of people who came — that is something we really wanted. We wanted to get the people who don't normally do this stuff," added Pan. "So many events on campus become de facto segregated."
Everyone has to eat at some point. That's the universal beauty of the group's premise.
The idea for Flavor came out of a food-filled trip to New York City over fall break '01. Toledano, co-founder and president, and Pan were looking for the only authentic Indonesian restaurant in the city, supposedly in form of a café in the basement of the Indonesian consulate. They made it to the building, but the café was closed. Instead, Toledano and Pan dined Colombian and snacked Korean in Jackson Heights.
Their day trip led to a vision of a student group that would make trips to ethnic nooks and crannies in New York City to try new foods, in addition to bringing quality cuisine to campus and reviewing local restaurants in campus papers.
A semester later, Flavor has already reviewed two restaurants in the Nassau Weekly — Lorenzo Brothers' Pizza and Olde English Fish and Chips, which has Taiwanese and Old English eats.
In addition, Toledano, Pan and Harrison have utilized the Flavor website as a resource for ethnic foods. They plan to post reviews that don't make it to print as well as links to various restaurants and cooking sites.
The triumvirate is still in the process of deciding what other activities Flavor will sponsor. Toledano said they plan to host one more dinner this year, possibly during reading week — cuisine yet to be determined. A trip to New York is not out of the question either.
Negotiations with Princeton University Dining Services are also underway to make the dinners a part of student meal plans or at least further subsidized. Though a stretch, Flavor would even like to work out a deal with eating clubs.
The Indian food prompted breath mints and a good toothbrushing, but Flavor itself left all venturing diners with a deliciously satisfying aftertaste.
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