Cooking at York

This year, all of the members of the GTA regional staff team have been sharing our ethnic and cultural histories (more about my story can be found on my other blog). This has involved us sharing our ethnic background, as well as significant interactions with other cultures that have shaped our identity and ministry; and sharing a creative expression of our stories such as poems, songs or cultural dishes.

Inspired by the cultural dishes that were made, and by a desire to offer a service to his students while exposing them to new cultures; Dan, Campus Staff at York University began hosting bi-weekly community dinners with his York KCF fellowship. During these dinners, a guest chef would come and students would learn how to cook different meals, as well as have meals from a variety of different cultures.

I loved this idea not only because I love cooking, but I loved the idea of getting to spend time partnering with Dan and his ministry at York! I offered to cook a traditional South Asian meal of Briyani on March 7^th. On the day of the meal, I headed over Dan’s house with two of my students, and began preparations for the meal. By the time York students arrived, most of the meal had been prepared by my students; but it left plenty of time of fellowship.

The timing of this dinner was shortly after our Kingdom People events; so many of the York students at this dinner had already met my students, and they were able to continue conversations started at Kingdom People.

I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this dinner. I knew that I’d be cooking a meal and hanging out with Dan and his students; but it was added bonus when a few of my students accompanied me.  Conversations flowed easy and smooth while we ate the meal. I might have made it a bit “too” spicy, and there was a lot of people passing the yogurt to cool the meal. As Brian, one of my students said, “You raised the bar on spiciness”. Despite the spiciness of the meal, the students eagerly ate. Dessert was Chocolate Banana Bread made by Joy, Dan’s wife, which people thoroughly enjoyed and helped cut the spice in their mouths!

After the meal, the students lingered, and continued to have conversations until about 10 pm! It was a really enjoyable evening spending time with Dan’s students and having an opportunity for them to spend time in fellowship with some of my students.