When it comes to food, most college students limit themselves to the cheap and easy. But as the frigid months of winter roll through Buffalo and many take shelter indoors, the timing might be right to leave the Easy Mac in the cupboard and try something very different and possibly much more pleasing to the palate.
The many cultures at UB and some of their tasty traditional cuisine might provide just the change students need, and many of these dishes can be prepared without much hassle.
Wafaa Taha, a freshman Spanish major of Palestinian heritage, said hummus is a traditional Middle Eastern treat that is especially easy to prepare.
Preparation begins with a can of chick peas - Taha prefers the Goya brand - and tahini paste (also called sesame seed paste), garlic and lemon juice. After warming the peas in a separate pan, mix the peas and the ingredients into a blender and blend for three to five minutes until the contents appear pur?(c)ed. More tahini paste or chick pea juice can be added to make the hummus more or less thick.
Taha said this Palestinian dish can be eaten as breakfast or as a side with dinner.
"Put it on a plate and smooth it out with a spoon and pour olive oil on it and eat it with pita bread," she said.
Sean Williams, a sophomore physical therapy major, is no stranger to the kitchen and his specialty is Jamaican cuisine.
One of his favorite dishes, codfish fritters, takes little effort.
Williams starts out with a quarter pound of codfish, flour, onions, garlic, scallions, paprika, and pepper. He boils the codfish long enough to make it soft and a little less salty, then he cuts the fish and the seasoning into tiny pieces and sets them in a frying pan with a little oil for a few minutes -- just long enough to simmer. When the seasoning and codfish are ready, he mixes them into the flour and makes them into the dough that he fries until brown.
Codfish fritters are good for a big breakfast or a light dinner.
Derrick Ma, a student at the University at Massachusetts at Amherst, said when it comes to authentic Asian cuisine, beef with broccoli is certainly not on the menu.
Ma said when he's in the mood for an easy meal he prepares the quick Chinese dish of shrimp and eggs.
Ma advises that the experimental chef start with a package of frozen baby shrimp and eggs (the number of eggs depending on the meal portion). The shrimp should be boiled in a separate pan until they turn a "pinkish" color. The non-fast food Chinese way of cooking calls for very little oil and fat, so Ma advises that the eggs be put in a pan with nothing other than a little water until they "fluff up." When the eggs are cooked just so - not soggy but not overcooked - Ma said the shrimp should be thrown into the pan and mixed with the eggs.
"It's good by itself but some people like to throw on some salt," he said. "A lot of Chinese cooking is just about natural cooking."
According to Ma, shrimp and eggs is a dish with history.
"It's one of those dishes that was made up from when people were peasants but now everyone eats it," he said. "That's an old school dish. I haven't had that in a while, I kinda want some now."
Basirat Shoberu, a senior biochemical pharmacology major, is of Nigerian heritage and said Jolof rice is one of Nigeria's native dishes. Unlike plain white rice, Jolof isn't the kind of rice that gets served as a boring side dish. A spicy, seasoned plate of Jolof rice is enough to be filling as well as satisfying to the taste buds.
In order to make enough for about six people, Shoberu starts her preparations with four cups of white rice, two tomatoes, one bell pepper, eight ounces of canned tomato sauce, three ounces of canned tomato paste, onion, salt, dry red pepper (like Cayenne) about one cup of meat broth or four Magi cubes and water.
The next step is to blend the fresh ingredients into a paste. The rice and about six cups of water are placed into a pot with the heat turned on high and left to cook for 10 to 15 minutes. The tomato/pepper mixture or the tomato sauce and tomato paste is then added. Onions can be diced and added to the mixture as well. Add enough water to allow the rice to finish cooking.
Meat broth or Magi cubes, along with salt and dry red pepper can be thrown in as the rice and paste cooks for added flavor. Shoberu allows the rice to continue cooking until soft. Then, bon appetit.
Jolof rice, shrimp and eggs, codfish fritters, and hummus are just the tip of the iceberg of the tastier side of UB's cultural mixture.
For those willing to take a step away from the usual, the snowy days and long nights of winter at UB might provide the perfect reason to give the our cultural moniker of "melting pot" some practical meaning.
