Colorful lunch

The smell of ginger, curry and garlic spread over campus Porsgrunn today when foreign students at Telemark University College served their national dishes at the Food Festival. But they also wanted to communicate that food is culture.

- I think it is important that we show up our food, cause it is also our culture, says Sahar. Along with three other masterstudents from Iran, she had set up a long table with different lunch and dinner dishes from Iran. They had been prepearing the meal for three days.
Not so hot
For a foreign student, the food is often a great loss when they stay away from home. And it is not the first time international students have made food for each other, but today they wanted to share traditional dishes from their home country with employees and fellow students at Telemark University College.

- The Iranian food is not as spicy as other Asian food. In Asia, they eat much rice, but in Iran we have a different type of rice that we serve here today, Sahar continues.

It was the International Student Union (ISU) at Telemark University College who organized and initiated the event. The Food Festival served food from Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, China, Bosnia, Spain and Turkey. The students believed that their dishes were moderately spicy to adapt to Norwegian taste.

Bread is ok
The chairman of the International Student Union, Chameera Jayarathna, and his fellow students from Sri Lanka served exciting dishes from theuir home country.

- I miss Srilanian food and often prepare it in my studio. Bread is ok when you are hungry, but that’s also it, smiles Chameera who is head of the 50 foreign students at campus Porsgrunn.