CHENNAI : It was a cacophony inside the little courtyard at the Central Lecture Hall building in IIT Madras. One could smell dishes cooked with a fair share of curry powder and desserts with nutella. At the International Day celebrations held at the college recently, international students shut their books and took to cooking. They had their fellow mates get a taste of international cuisine.
Nao Komata and his friend Akira Ukamoto cooked the Miso Soup at the International Food Stall they set up. “It is a very popular breakfast food across Japan. Everyone from grandparents to babies have it regularly. Miso is soybean in Japanese. Soybean paste is a major ingredient in this, apart from tofu and other vegetables. Since it is also a vegetarian food, we thought we will try to make it here,” said the duo from the Nagaoka University of Technology.
At the neighbouring bench of the stall, a bunch of German students prepared Kaiserschmarrn, which includes eggs and flour as its main ingredients. “It is a pancake without meat, popular across Germany, especially in the South. It is easy to cook and typically German,” said Lucas Specht from the Department of Management Studies. Students had a tough time cooking the dishes using the limited gadgets available. A few of them thumped down pieces of meat using non-stick frying pans. “Back home, we have meat hammers to flatten the meat. But here, we have to make use of whatever we have,” said Timo Schaller. Meanwhile, the others went a step further and started experimenting on their native dishes by using Indian ingredients. Johannes Geissler and his friends liberally powdered their Currywuist with curry and red chilly powder.
“We all love spicy food now, though back home the food is generally not spicy,” said Johannes Geissler. “It all started when I got interested in Thai food. After that I started making everything spicy by adding chilly flakes. Now I am comfortable eating spicy food — be it masala dosa or tandoori chicken,” he said. Akira Ukamuto of Japan from the neighbouring stall added that Biryani was his favourite.