CAMPUS
ACULTURALTASTE OF HOME REPRESENTATION IN TUFTS DINING By Ruby Goodman
A
nevay Ybáñez, a first-year at Tufts, was born and raised on the border of South Texas and Mexico. She’s used to dishes piled with Fideo (a soup eaten when it’s cold outside), heavily spiced chicken and rice, and the sound of clinking bottles of Mexican Coke around the dinner table. “Food is a massive part of our being,” Ybáñez described. “It’s everything.” In the absence of these familiar meals, Ybáñez felt disoriented when she arrived at Tufts. “Because I grew up with people who are like me,” Ybáñez stated, “I’ve never had to experience that sort of ostracization, ethnically, and socially… I haven’t had any Mexican food since I’ve been [at Tufts], so I miss it a lot.” Ybáñez’s yearn for familiar food is not only emotional, but physical as
well. After a week of dining hall food, Ybáñez began to experience intense stomach pain. Her body wasn’t used to the new ingredients she was eating, or the absence of old ones. Faced with an unfamiliar environment in college, many students crave the feeling of home. Some students may hang their home country’s flag above their bed, join clubs brimming with people who understand their culture, or seek comfort in familiar routines and rituals they practiced in their childhood. However, students like Ybáñez feel that one of the most central aspects of one’s upbringing cannot be replicated: food. Around the world, food is a key expression of care. Home cooked meals, childhood staples, old recipes, and food-focused events are woven into the fabric of identity, strongly associated with familial love and the feeling of security. Without this comfort, Ybáñez feels
WITHOUT [THE COMFORT OF FOOD FROM HOME], YBÁÑEZ FEELS THAT SHE IS MISSING AN INTEGRAL PART OF HER CULTURE, EXPRESSING, “THERE’S A CERTAIN PART OF ME THAT’S LEFT UNTOUCHED WHEN I COME [TO TUFTS].” that she is missing an integral part of her culture, expressing, “there’s a certain part of me that’s left untouched when I come [to Tufts].” Tufts Dining tries to provide students from various cultural backgrounds with food that tastes like home. Amy Hamilton, Manager of Strategic Communication and Marketing of Tufts Dining, wrote in a statement to the Observer that Tufts Dining has “respect for cultural diversity and the savoring and preservation of family traditions and centuries-old food cultures.” This has translated into the increase in diverse meals in the dining halls, including Mediterranean, Thai, Halal, and Indian dishes served on a weekly basis. At Hodgdon Food-on-the-Run, there is a permanent Mexican food station, “Churros Calientes,” and a PanAsian section that often prompts lines that bend around the room. However, Tufts Dining’s most concerted efforts to integrate different cultures’ foods come in the form of special food nights, such as Hanukkah Dinner or Asian Food Night.
16 TUFTS OBSERVER FEBRUARY 14, 2022
