International Food Fayre 2018

A week last Sunday, Concord College held its ‘International Food Fayre’. Students from different cultural societies cooked food from their home countries, presenting the food for other students and staff to taste. As Concord is an international school, there were many different cuisines for everyone to choose from and try such as Kazakh, Eastern European, Thai and Malaysian food and many more delicacies.

As the Head of the Chinese Society, I delegated my members to purchase ingredients and cook on the event day itself… Despite some not knowing how to cook, there were many students that had the ability to and were willing to participate, which made getting ready for the event much easier. The hardest thing was to arrange for a suitable time and place to cook, as many of the Chinese dishes we chose to cook often do not last very long. In addition, our time slot to cook in the student kitchen was two hours before the actual event. Thus, I assigned the participants to various boarding houses to use their kitchens too, to ensure the foods were ready by the time of the fayre.

Our pearl milk teas (a Chinese delicacy) were extremely popular amongst the students. Besides that, I personally enjoyed the toppoki from the Korean society very much. Because I was on duty at the Chinese Society’s stall, I did not manage to try many of the other societies’ food unfortunately. However, many said they all tasted delicious. I had a lot of fun getting ready for the food fayre with other members of the Chinese Society and from this, we have strengthened friendships with each other.

Britina – 6.2

International Food Fayre & Sushi Day

What else could we have an appetite for if not the International Food Fayre. Here at Concord the food fayre is an annual event that students organise to share their culture and traditional foods from their own country with the whole college body. It is a known fact that Concord students are constantly hungry, so it was no surprise that everyone was hyped up about it.

International Food Fayre

On Sunday morning, from about 9am to 2pm, I could see students rushing around the Students’ kitchen cooking and having fun. There was a great turnout as over 70% of the students and almost all the teachers came to join in on the fun. Even the parents of the day students came to help out and really support everyone. I, myself, am an active member of the African society and we made roasted chicken and rice with spicy tomato stew, a dish very common to Africa. It was definitely one of the most enjoyable events I have attended during this term. One of my favourite parts of the day was eating from the Thai society. There were a lot of different societies providing different foods, some I had never tried out before. Far from the Southern America to Asia and the UK, every society managed to make great food and satisfied our tummy, as well as create a fun environment for everyone to eat and socialise. I personally feel it was a great way to end the week as most of the 6.2s had only just recovered from the heat of the UCAS 1 window period.

Sushi Day

The fun did not stop there. About three days later, Concord dedicated the Wednesday after to give the students what they had, for a long time, requested. Yes! Sushi Day. Hours before lunch time, the buzz had already gotten around and there was so much anticipation. The queues for sushi were so long but the students did not mind and most especially, there was more than enough to go round. Everyone had extras and everyone was full, I only hoped that there were able to pay full attention in class. I had never tried sushi before till then and it was a memorable experience for me.

As the week comes to end, it’s a bit sad that these food festivities cannot go on but my fellow Mandelans have something to look forward – the Mandela House Dinner.

Ikem Nzenwa 6.2

Food Fayre

The world’s biggest feast took place at Concord College on Sunday the 5^th of October.  This event’s immense size may not be underestimated, due to the fact that we had representatives from over 20 countries eating the food demonstrated for degustation by over 10 international societies.

Although the point being of this event was primarily for foreign students to get a taste of home, it turned into a friendly cooking competition, as it turned out that Concordians, as a whole, are very passionate about cooking.

Frankly, the cooking process was probably the best part of the food fair. The occasion definitely united societies together and gave an opportunity, for all the new students, to contribute to their country’s community.

This year, some students have also created an ‘International society’, the idea of which is to give an opportunity to all of those who come from unusual (to Concord) places to take part in the school’s society events such as this occasion.

The food was delicious. Although I tried a number of most delicious meals such as Victoria Sponge and Japanese rolls, my personal favourite were Indonesian fried bananas with nutella, which I’ve never tasted before.

Oleksandra Torubara 6.1