The International dinner experience for Spanish students

At Instituto Hemingway we don’t only teach Spanish classes, but also offer a bunch of activities to enjoy with friends or new people from all around the world.

One of these activities is the “international dinner”; a dinner with friends where everyone brings traditional food from their own country to share with other students in the language school after class.

At the last dinner there were students from Belgium, France, Italy, Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil and Spain. The food on offer displayed a wide variety of different flavours and ingredients.

We were able to sample Venezuelan empanadas, tequeños, and arepas, filled with meat or cheese. Other dishes included pasta with tomatoes, tuna and mozzarella made by an Italian; Mexican tortillas with rice and vegetables all cooked according to grandma’s recipe - always the best! We also ate a vegetarian alternative of a Belgian dish made with smashed potatoes, onion, and leek and sausage. The original recipe is with meat but we didn’t taste the difference in the vegetarian sausage and it was delicious. Moving onto the desserts, we tried a caramelized Brazilian apple cake and strawberries with cream from France and to wash it all down we had Instituto Hemingway´s red wine.

You might think that putting so many people together, all with different cultures, sitting at a single table would be near impossible but this wasn’t the case as there’s no better way to get to know traditions from other countries than by sharing a meal. There wasn’t a single moment of silence during the dinner and when everyone quietened down to listen to people´s stories from cities around the world it felt like for a few seconds that you were truly visiting the place described in the story. The fundamental question is who wouldn’t want to eat something new from another corner of the globe? It means having the opportunity to say “I´ve eaten Venezuelan food before” even when you have never stepped foot in that country.

Naturally, when you are with people you don’t know that, like you, have taken the decision to go abroad, the first question that comes up is: why are you here? The gastronomic event started out with these types of conversations and we listened to people’s stories. Some were in the city to study, others were doing volunteer work teaching English to children and some people came to Bilbao as Au Pairs. Afterwards we talked about the city’s most interesting spots and traded advice and tips about Bilbao.

Later the conversation focussed on the prettiest cities from our own countries like, for example, the student from Brazil telling us that he preferred the coast to inland. Our Italian friend shared that she liked it more in southern Italy and the Islands such as Sardinia. We also learned that in Venezuela people eat empanadas as breakfast or dinner with tartar sauce.

In brief, it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience once everyone started to get to know each other and the stories started to really liven up.