

Nicholas Sugiarto

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Asian Food at Dartmouth
Admittedly, coming into Dartmouth, one of my greatest worries would be that I would miss a lot of the stuff from home — specifically, the food. Coming from California, I was used to being able to eat a variety of Asian food: ramen, boba, curry. But, given the fact that Hanover is in New Hampshire and not California, I wasn't expecting much good Asian food.

And Indonesian food? Not a chance. Even in San Diego, the only place I could get that was in my own house. In my mind, there was absolutely no way I would find any of it in Hanover.
Unfortunately, I was right. There is no Indonesian food in Hanover. But, on the bright side, I was also pleasantly wrong.
For one, FOCO, which is Dartmouth's all-you-can-eat buffet, serves sushi every Saturday. And, since it's all you can eat, let's just say that my friends and I have already eaten an embarrassingly large amount of it. Like, bordering a dozen plates.

Indonesian people love spicy food, so naturally I grew up eating a lot of it. There's just something beautiful about the masochism involved in eating something so spicy that your nose runs and your eyes cry.
So understandably, I was a bit disappointed when I found out that I couldn't get that here. That is, until I went to Collis.
For the uninitiated, Collis mostly serves stir fry. Once they cook your food, you have a choice of a few sauces. Hoping to rekindle the magic from back home, I opted for the "hot" sauce. Initially, I thought I recognized the fire-alarm-red color and rounded chili seeds, but I thought nothing of it. It wasn't until I tasted that familiar heavy-on-your-tongue kind of spice that I knew.
"Is this? No. This can't be… no way…"

I've talked a lot about Asian food at Dartmouth, and I know what you're thinking. Is it authentic?
No.
It's not authentic. Not by a long shot. There's no way around it. I'm sorry, Dartmouth, but it tastes very much like an Americanized version of Asian food. Still, that's not the important part. It's just a nice gesture that they try to add a little bit of diversity to their food. As I adjust to my new life here, it's nice that there's something that even resembles what I had back home. My tongue and I are both thankful.
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