International students crave food from home while adapting to US diet
By Emily Chaiet It’s time for lunch, and Patricia Song is staring at her food options. She sees carb filled entrees like a baked potato, lined up in the hot bar of the dining hall at Northwestern University. In her opinion, this is not a substantial meal. Coming from Seoul, South Korea, Song is used to meals filled with vegetables and meat, making it hard for her to adjust to the American food provided at Northwestern University. “There are sometimes where I feel like this is pretty good food, and I would eat it, and the amount I would put on my dish would be enough,” Song said. “But there are some other days where the food is so different than what I would normally eat at home, and it doesn’t feel like a meal. It feels like a snack.” Since switching from her Korean diet full of vegetables and kimchi (a traditional Korean side dish made of spicy pickled cabbage) to an American diet full of starch and fried foods, Song has noticed that she has ...