Boston University adds authentic Asian dishes

BOSTON — Coming soon to a dining hall near you: a mélange of new, authentically prepared Asian dishes.

As part of an effort to promote healthy and diverse cooking on campus, chefs from the renowned Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park, N.Y., visited BU last month and instructed chefs from BU Dining Services as part of a five-day intensive Asian Cuisine Academy. The goal? To come up with a series of authentic Asian dishes to roll out over the coming semester.

The weeklong academy culminated with the presentation and tasting of 16 new dishes from China, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam—all incorporating the freshness, lightness, and flavors characteristic of their respective cuisines. Fewer than half of the roughly two dozen Asian international students invited to attend the tasting said they regularly dine on campus, but they buzzed excitedly as Dining Services social media coordinator Robert Flynn (SHA’96) listed the dishes being tested that day: Thai-style beef, claypot chicken, Thai chicken soup with coconut milk and galangai, Vietnamese grilled shrimp paste on sugar cane, pan-fried Chinese dumplings, sweet and tangy tangerine spareribs, double-cooked pork, Chinese greens, fresh spring rolls, Malaysian chicken satay with peanut sauce and red onion relish, pork vindaloo, roti chanay, sushi, grilled glazed salmon, stir-fried glass noodles, and egg fried rice.

Overall, the students were enthusiastic, with most saying the quality and authenticity of the food exceeded their expectations. Dian Zhang (COM’15), a graduate student from Cheng Du, China, studying business journalism, pronounced the food as good as, and in some cases better than, the food she eats at home. “I think the sparerib is better than my mom’s,” she said. “If the dining hall was full of Asian foods like this, I’d eat there much more frequently.” Favorite dishes included the sushi, the spareribs, the dumplings, and the chicken satay.

Each student was given a short survey to fill out at the end of the tasting. Flynn says that once the feedback is taken into account and any necessary modifications are made to the dishes, they will be served at every on-campus dining hall this fall. At the end of the semester, they will be evaluated for popularity, along with the rest of the menu items, and will either remain on the menu or be replaced, based on student input. “We let the students take the lead,” Flynn says.