Illustration by Neelam Khan
Berkeley High School (BHS) is a place where you will find students from many different countries, meaning that there are many cultures and religions to learn about. One way to stay connected is through sharing food together.
Brenda Saucedo, a senior in Arts and Humanities Academy (AHA), said that her favorite foods around the world are enchiladas and orange chicken. Saucedo likes enchiladas because, she is “Mexican, so [she] grew up eating that.” Orange chicken is her favorite because of its flavor, and she highly recommends trying these dishes.
Another student, Kainat Pachakhail, a senior in Berkeley International High School (BIHS) loves Grape Leaves (Middle Eastern), Biryani (Pakistani), and Sushi (Japanese). Biryani is made of rice and has lots of spices; grape leaves are stuffed with rice and have a sour flavor, and there are many different kinds of sushi, but the one she likes are sweet. She suggest buying biryani from Shalimar, a restaurant in San Francisco. Pachakhail says, “I like biryani because it is part of my culture.” She likes sushi because it’s a good snack and grape leaves because they connect her with a different culture.
Atom Lai Costa is a senior in AHA. His favorite food around the world is chole bhature, which is a spicy chickpea curry and fried bread, (Indian), chow mein, which are noodles, (Chinese, but he prefers Hong Kong style where the noodles are fried), and Lasagna (Italian). Costa recommends to, “Buy chole bhature from Vik’s Chaat restaurant.” He likes chow mein because it is his childhood food, lasagna and chole bhature because it has lots of fat.
Shannon Erby is an AHA US History, Ethnic Studies, and Newcomer US History teacher. Ms. Erby’s favorite foods around the world are saag paneer, daal, and naan which are all types of Indian food. She also likes pad thai and vegetable curry, red or green, which is all Thai food. Ms. Erby says, “Indian food has lots of flavor … naan is a bread which has its own taste.” Thai food is spicy and pad thai is sweet and citrusy. Ms. Erby likes Thai food because it’s delicious, and she likes Indian food because of all of the different flavors and spices.
Zoe Kratins is a senior in AHA and her favorite food around the world is Turkish içli köfte. It has a very rich taste of lamb and it’s also spicy. Kratins says, “I prefer to make the içli köfte [at home] because sometimes they fry it in restaurants, so the flavor is not same. When you cook [it at home] and instead of frying you boil it, it retains the flavor.”
From Pakistani biryani to Italian lasagna, there are all types of delicious dishes. At Berkeley High, people eat plenty of food and dishes from different places and countries around the world because there are students from countries around the whole world. Take an opportunity to share your favorite food with someone else. Eating together is a great opportunity to bond and to share our unique cultures with the entire Berkeley High community.