Swiss Student Cooking Up a Storm in Georgia
"An exchange is based on sharing."
I've enjoyed cooking since childhood. My parents would show me what they were cooking, and I would always enjoy watching them. Growing up, I would try to reproduce what they taught me, and it made me realize how much I love cooking.
So, of course, when I applied for an academic exchange year in the USA and had to talk about my hobbies in my application, I talked about cooking. I said how I would enjoy cooking for my future host family. I wanted to share recipes from all around the world. I am from Switzerland, a country in Europe, and I'm half Chinese, which makes me enjoy Asian food as much as European food.
Once I arrived in Georgia, I discovered that my host mom loves cooking just as much as I do and that she has all the equipment I need to cook. The first days I was here, she showed me her favorite recipes and how she loves to cook, which I enjoyed a lot, as she taught me techniques I've never seen before. After a few weeks, I started to cook myself.
I have made many dishes since I arrived in the USA. I made carbonara, an Italian pasta dish made with eggs, hard cheese, cured pork, and black pepper. I prepared pho, a Vietnamese soup dish consisting of broth, rice noodles, herbs, and meat.
I made lasagna, a baked Italian dish consisting of wide strips of pasta cooked and layered with meat or vegetables, cheese, and tomato sauce. I served lo mein (fried noodles with chicken, eggs, and roasted vegetables).
I also made crepes, a type of very thin French pancake, and chicken satay, a southeast Asian dish of seasoned, skewered, and grilled meat, served with a sauce. I shared homemade fried chicken burgers with roasted potatoes.
An exchange is mostly based on sharing—through food or anything else.
—Julia (Switzerland), hosted by the Lau family (GA)
