International student dinner: good friends, good food, good times

Empañadas, molletes, Punjabi chole masala, gulab Jamoon, lemon rice, Thai vegetarian green curry, Vietnamese rolls, potato fry, homous b lahmeh, arepas colombianas, bubur sumsum, sochni… These are just some of the names of the delicious homemade dishes that were served at MSM’s annual International Student Dinner on Friday 2 December.

MSM’s business lounge was filled with staff members and students from the full-time MBA, Master in Management and M.Sc. in Management and Engineering programs who all felt ready to enjoy a good meal together after a tough week of activities and exams. Everyone wanted to taste everything and the plates were too small to fit all the varieties of dishes. And every dish was so tasty that people kept coming back for a second, or third, or fourth round. The Indian dessert Gulab Jamoon was the big success of the evening. The group of MM students who had prepared it said that they had made it from scratch for the first time in their lives: “Back home in India, we buy it already made, but here we had to look for the recipe and make it ourselves. We spent an entire afternoon preparing it and we’re happy to see that it turned out so well and that everybody likes it! It’s a true Indian specialty.”

Many students said that they had prepared the food together, often as a group of four to five people: they chose the dishes together, went shopping together and cooked together. It has been a collaborative project involving lots of laughter, creative thinking and skype sessions with family and friends back home.

Some students already knew how to cook and could share entire recipes by heart with those who asked for them. Unknown names and ingredients were searched on the spot via mobile phone and everyone learned at least one new spice, one new way of cooking, or one new combination of ingredients during the event.

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The evening continued with two pleasant surprises: first, a friendly birthday celebration for MBA student Mercedes Marinas Guzman with Limburg vlaai and good wishes from all students and staff and second, a spontaneous visit from MBA30 alumnus Olugbenga O. Balogun, who was spending a few days in Europe and had decided to come back to Maastricht and meet and greet the new MBA class at his Alma Mater. “It’s so good to be back,” he said, “I have kept great memories of my time in Maastricht and at MSM! I am very pleased to meet the new students.”

A warm sense of togetherness could be felt throughout the evening, as the broad smiles in the group photos reveal. As the saying goes, happiness is sharing good food with good friends.