On February 11, our Emet for Israel group at Laurentian University, LUJSA, hosted an event called Roses and Dinner: Israeli Cooking with Love, as a pre-Valentine’s Day celebration of Israeli food, culture, chocolate and fun. The students organized bread-baking, shakshuka making, and had background information on each piece of the meal.
The event attracted 45 students, including people who came out from across campus. The current and former student government presidents attended, as did, members of the Student Government Association, the Creativity Club, and a number of new students that had never come to a LUJSA event before.
Attendees mentioned they learned a lot about Israel during the event. The students even had an executive of the Muslim Student Association attend and mention how much he enjoyed the food.
Our Emet for Israel Liaison, Sidney Shapiro, reported,
“We recently decided to try a new type of event on campus, and invited students to come out for an evening of Israeli food and fun. There is a kitchen we were able to use near the student center on campus and we titled the event “Roses and Dinner: Israeli Cooking with Love” to combine Valentines Day and the dinner. While we did not have much V Day themed elements (It’s harder to get roses in the middle of the winter than we thought) we did pick up some themed napkins to go along with the blue and white tablecloths. We brought in all the side dishes from Israel in cans, and this was the highlight of the night. We had condiments like amba, techina (green and white), schug, to go along with various pickles and olives, baby pickled eggplants, pickled peppers and many other Israeli delicacies. Along with fresh baked bread on the tables and hard boiled eggs, students made their own sabich, while waiting for the personalized shakshukas to come out of the kitchen. The event was well attended and people really liked the food. For many the food was a surprise, combining so many different tastes and textures. Hopefully we will use this as a basis for future events, and maybe break out the falafel next time.”