Home Cooking? Yes, We Do.




If you think Cai’s case alone is not representative enough, then please take a look at a broader picture of how other international students deal with their dining activity in Athens.

Official statistics indicate that, each year, there are around 1,000 international students from 100 countries and regions worldwide enrolled in OU as undergraduate and graduate students.

Such a figure is of course not so significant if compared with the overall OU student population of more than 20,000. It nevertheless stands as a key indicator of this university’s diversified culture, an essential attribute highly valued by university authorities.

Yet is dining at OU diversified enough to meet all international students’ needs?

Apparently it may be. You can come across, for example, Asian lo mein noodles or Mexican burritos at some local dining halls. Also, you may find quite a few local restaurants offering exotic cuisines from countries like Italy, India, China, Turkey and Greece.

However, quite a lot of international students here seem to have chosen cooking at home as the primary means to gratify their stomach needs.

“I usually take some cereal or yogurt or vegetable juice in the morning, then take food from home for lunch and later I would cook something for supper,” said Kiko Tanaka, a Japanese student who has stayed in Athens for 15 months. “I hardly ever eat out.”

“When it comes to eating, the biggest problem to me is that I don’t have enough time to cook or sometimes I’m too tired to cook,” said Tanaka, adding that, (once for a while, she would miss Japanese food, though that happens not very often since sometimes she feels like too busy to indulge herself in that food-related nostalgic recalling) unclear statement!.

Ryoko, another Japanese student who came to OU about four months ago, has somewhat different ideas.

“I really miss genuine Japanese sushi since sushi available here is different from what we have back in Japan,” she said. “My roommate or I would always cook, using our own kitchen. Serving our own national food for each other is really fun for both of us.”

She now eats “much more nutrition” here than in Japan, mainly thanks to the food available to her. She adds that she is worrying about gaining weight little by little since she consumes “a lot of sugar and oil” here.

Kweku Opoku-Agyemang from Ghana, a first-year graduate student, seems also unable to quickly get his dining habit localized here in Athens.

"I miss the food of my country so badly that I want to cry when I see a hamburger and fries," he said. "I'm OK with the foreign food available here, yet I guess that kind of fast food is not very healthy as I think it has too much salt and fat most of the time."

Preferring to go to the two uptown Chinese restaurants quite often mainly because the flavor of the food served there is closest to what he has in his home country, Agyemang would, as his typical dining pattern, still cook at home quite a bit together with his roommate beforehand and later eat the dishes warmed with their microwave oven after class in the evenings. "The biggest problem (regarding dining) is that food here is a lot more expensive than that in Ghana," he said.

To Seon Mi Lim, a student from South Korea who has been in town for about one and a half years, cooking at home seems to be an obligation for a caring mother like her.

“I have to do it (home cooking) mainly because of my two picky sons,” she said. To cater to the taste of the two kids, especially that of the younger one, she would always try to present some traditional Korean food familiar to them, such as instant noodles, bulgogi (marinated beef with vegetables like mushroom and onion) and ttokpokki (cylinder-shaped rice cake) and so forth.

On a typical day, Lim would have to get up early to prepare breakfast, mainly Korean-flavored rice and soup for her sons. After sending the kids to school, she heads for her own classes and usually takes instant noodles or left-over pizza as lunch. The family’s supper is still in the Korean style, mainly made of rice plus some traditional food of her home country.

Lim, however, occasionally brings her kids to eat at local eateries like Ruby Tuesday, Lam’s Garden, Papa John’s and Pizza Hut. Yet she feels that “there are not many choices for us”, referring to the lack of authentic Korean food available here. She also explains that the practice of giving a tip when eating at those restaurants is still something she is not so comfortable with.

Paula from Chile, who has studied here for nine months, chooses cooking at home for different reasons.

“I would always try to schedule some time to cook and have lunch at home every day,” she said. Sitting down in her cozy apartment, savoring her self-made food and socializing with her friends is an enjoyable experience during the noon time. “It’s like sort of break time for me,” she said.

Paula meanwhile said that, unless invited, she would seldom eat out because she, as one who strictly keeps an eye on her diet, doesn’t trust the food served at local restaurants as they might offer something unhealthy (for example, she insists that the fish available on local eateries’ plates is fresh, which is stark opposite to what she can have in her hometown, a seaside city in Chile). She is also not used to the large servings at local restaurants that often exceeds what she can take.

Although there is no exhaustive examination to see if all international students would opt for home cooking as their principal way of dealing with their hunger, such a way at least exists as the most essential element in this group’s dining pattern at large. As exemplified by Cai’s case and other international students, they have such a choice because of concerns, family reasons and personal preferences often tinted by their diversified cultures and values.


----> Go to Part III