What Do They Eat?

Most of you must have wondered what international students eat at GDUFS. Which food is the most popular among them? And why do they choose to eat it? Follow the steps of our reporters, to see the answers given by students from different countries. This time, let’s unveil the little “secret”meals in the campus canteens, and also those not oncampus.

We interviewed an Indian student. She usually has her meals at home where her mother cooks for her. For the sake of this, she also has the privilege to eat local Indian food in China. According to her, they bring some ingredients for Indian food from their country. What’s more, there is also an Indian grocery which can provide the ingredients for them. Therefore, she is still used to Indian food. But this doesn’t mean that she never eats Chinese food. Like other students, she also likes to get some snacks and drinks outside the North Gate. When it comes to snacks, she got extremely excited, mentioning that spicy potatoes, fries and roasted yogurt are her favourites. Sometimes, she will also go there for lunch. Fried noodles, fried rice and Malatang (a kind of local delicacy originated from Sichuan province in China) are her preferences.

Also, in order to discover the answer from the East Asian students, our reporters had a meal with a Korean girl in a restaurant outside the North Gate.

Foreign student's homemade food

“Medium spicy, braised chicken.” CHOI Wonhee ordered her food as soon as she was seated, which indicates her frequent visits to this spot, “Malatang, wonton and braised chicken are on the top of my lunch list.” When mentioning the food served in our campus canteens or made by herself, a negative answer was given to us. According to Choi, on the one hand, the plain, lightcanteen food – mostly typical Cantonese food – seems unappetizing for a girl with a personal preference towards spicy food; on the other hand, the lack of kitchen supplies accounts for her rare cooking. “But some of my friends who live in the dorms with a set of cooking utensilsdo cook by themselves sometimes,” she added and showed us the picture of homemade ramen with kimchi.

When it comes to Africa, Emefa, a beautiful girl from Togo, also talked about what she usually eats at GDUFS. Of course she eats at the campus canteens, where all sorts of traditional Chinese food, such as spicy fishand salt baked chicken,can be found. Moreover, she is also keenly interested in food at the snack street outside the North Gate. “I love the fried rice noodles with beef! It isjust amazing!” Emefa had sparkles in her eyes when talking of this delicious food. Besides, she sometimes makes lunch or dinner by herself, too. She shared her special experience of meeting the greengrocers. Most of the time, the greengrocers are extremely surprised to see a foreign student buy vegetables like onions and garlic, and they are also really passionate.

On a rather cold and windy afternoon, in the hallway of the 7th Teaching Building on the North Campus, we came across Luis Perotti, an Italian student with a typical European appetite, who happily accepted our short interview.

Our journalist interviewed Luis Perotti

“My food is Italian food, so I always eat pastaand pizza. What to eat depends on what time it is. I cook a lot by myself,” said Luis, his curly hair fluttering in the wind. When asked about the campus canteen, he mentioned that he goes there two or three times a week, and he prefersthe food on the second floor of the First Canteen. “The big piece of fried chicken there is good. I like it,” Luis smiled.

Besides, he told us that he ate outside the campus most of the time. “5pm is too early for me to have dinner,” said he. He’s very flexible with his time, and somehow it’s a pity that the campus canteen’s opening time is fixed. We gathered from his words another reason why he eats outside:the food outside is various, and students can always find the food that’s to their taste.

From the above elaboration, we can find that though with different preferences for food, students from different countries all choose Malatang, noodles – the authentic Chinese food – as a huge part of their daily diet. Besides, like Luis and Choi’s friends, cooking serves as a way of satisfying their appetites for food from their hometowns, while like Emefa, it could also further one’s knowledge of Chinese cuisines. As for the school canteen, its simple flavor and short opening hoursmight be the reason of little patronage.