Thai students host cookout for students
Those who crave Thai food in Logan are usually out of luck, but Utah State University students got a chance to try the cuisine Tuesday at a cookout on the Taggart Student Center patio.
The cookout, offered by the Thai Student Association, featured such specialties as chicken and vegetarian curry, spring rolls, pad Thai, and barbecue chicken skewers.
The Thai Student Association raised about $400 at the event, said Sirisak Kongsomsaksakul, president of the club. More than a fundraiser, the cookout was a way for Thai students to share their culture with the campus.
“Food is one of our traditions … I think this may be the easiest way that we can promote our tradition and share with others who are not Thai,” Kongsomsaksakul said.
R.J. Willmore, a freshman studying biology, sat down for a lunch of pad Thai and barbecue chicken between classes. Willmore, who served a mission in Thailand for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said he jumped at the opportunity to eat Thai food again. He said the taste of the food was pretty close to what he had in Thailand.
“The spice of it is not quite the same,” he said.
He said it’s similar to how “a cheeseburger tastes different here than it does there.” Replicating foreign flavors can be difficult due to availability of ingredients.
Some authentic flavor may be lost in translation, but that didn’t stop students from gobbling up 320 spring rolls, the cookout’s best seller. Made of vegetable filling surrounded by a flaky, deep-fried wrapper, they made a perfect between-class snack at 50 cents each. Many students chose the barbecue chicken skewers for $1, an easy take-along option for the walk to class.
Those who wanted more than a snack could order pad Thai, chicken curry, or vegetarian curry for $3. Pad Thai, often called Thailand’s signature dish, consists of soft noodles, vegetables, and sometimes shrimp or meat, served with crushed peanuts on top. The curries and pad Thai were also available in combinations.
The lowest-selling item was the curry puff, but Kongsomsaksakul said that less of these were prepared because they are difficult to make. He said the worst part about the cookout was food preparation, because it took a lot of time.
For Kongsomsaksakul, the best part was that the cookout served as an “unofficial meeting among Thais that can make more unity for us. Moreover, we can show and share union to [the] USU community as well.”
Two of the stated goals of the 25-member Thai Student Association are to establish unity among fellow Thai students and to spread Thai cultures to non-Thais, goals that were accomplished at the Thai cookout on Tuesday. Who knows? Maybe soon pad Thai will be as common as ramen for students at USU.
-lisamb@cc.usu.edu