The Arabic club had a taste test and recipe contest on Friday, February 27. The winning recipe was to be recreated in the Bellevue College cafeteria as an entrée featured for one day during spring quarter.
“The winner was a dessert item,” said Todd Juvrud, director of Food Services. Because the cafeteria on campus doesn’t have an in-house baker, Juvrud decided to choose the runner-up as the meal to be featured in the cafeteria. The plan is to “offer it as a special one day next quarter for the students,” he said.
Along with the dish, information about its origin will be included in the description posted at the daily entrée section in the cafeteria.
“We’re giving back to the clubs a little bit,” Juvrud said. “A lot of [the recipes] come from their mom, dad or grandma or [are] something that’s been passed down. We would put that information next to it when we serve it.” He said that whether the dish is kosher or halal will also be included in the description.
The dish would be served only once, but Juvrud said that he would like to continue getting clubs on campus involved in similar projects that could bring new entrees to Bellevue College. “What I’d like to do is start getting the clubs involved in stuff like that,” Juvrud said, which would allow other cultural foods or homemade recipes to be featured in the cafeteria.
Right now in the cafeteria there are some kosher and halal foods, which are labeled on the packaging.
Juvrud said that kosher and halal foods are available from the vendor food services has partnered with, and when such products are prepared on campus, new or sterilized equipment will be used to process it, and it will be labeled as such.