International Food Festival at AISJ

Last week we had International week at school. On Tuesday we had the International Food Festival and the Craft fair at school and on Wednesday we had the International parade. It was a busy week for the moms, all that food preparing on top of a short week because of the Thanksgiving break. But it was fun!

I represented Thailand at the Food Festival, since there are only us and 1 other family that is Thai, so I made Fried rice and Chicken Satays... 200 of them!

The day before I marinated 5kg of chicken breast fillets and stuck them all on sticks... then the next morning I started grilling them at 5 am, we had to be at school at 9 am, and I still had to fry the rice as well. So after putting the girls on the bus at 6:45 am I finished the rest and went to school.



In total we had to serve 700 children and about 180 staff, but I wasn't the only one who made food. In total 40 countries participated. Each made a few dishes from their country, so all the kids and staff could try to eat around the world. We do this every year and it is a huge event. We are spread out in the canteen and on the outside, each country their own table. People always ask me why I do Thailand and not Holand? But the Dutch community has so many families to represent that I don't need to help, but Thailand has only me... but next year I will get some help from another mom who is Thai-Chinese. This year she helped China, next year Thailand! I hold you to that Jen!!



Next to me was China, we were all grouped into regions, so the whole of Asia was in one room, Europe outside and the Americas in the other room. Unfortunately we were so busy that I don't have pictures of all the tables, but here a few.



Such a great experience for the children to taste food from all these countries. We had food from Australia, Japan, Korea, China, Thailand, India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Israel, Egypt, Morocco, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Russia, Romania, Czech, Hungary, Poland, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, Spain, France, Belgium, Scandinavian, UK, Canada, USA, Mexico, Honduras, Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Brazil.
Isn't that amazing or what!!

The table of India, with some delicious samosas.



Not only did we prepare and cook the food from our home country, we also dressed up the tables with local artifacts from each country and the women behind the tables dressed up in their national costume. So in one glance you could learn so much from 1 country! This table was from Orit, the organizer of the whole event, so not much time to stand behind it... but a great looking table! Thank for organizing Orit, you did a great job!



And my friends from Brazil, they had such a beautiful decorated table!!



It was again a fun and great day at AISJ! As you walked around the campus there was a heightened sense of anticipation and community spirit. Children enjoyed having their parents at school sharing and explaining special dishes and traditional costumes & food with their friends and their parents friends. It was heart warming to see the tremendous sense of pride, camaraderie and fun!

And tomorrow the Parade of the Nations, another great event!
Mireille