The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
4B - Thursday, October 27, 2011
5
ERIN KIRKLAND/Daily
Cafe Havana provides students with a Latin fusion experience.
GLOBAL FOOD
From Page 1B
Cuban culture at home. Moreno-
Koehler recalled the delicious
Cuban food her father would
make when he returned home
from work - her favorites include
tostones (fried plantains), picadil-
lo, Cuban sandwiches and paella.
Now that she's living in Ann
Arbor and no longer can depend
on her father's meals, she pre-
pares Cuban food herself and
occasionally eats out at Cuban-
like restaurants. And since she
doesn't live too far away, she also
has the luxury of being able to
drive home if the food cravings
are too much to control.
For the most part, her go-to
meal to make is rice and beans,
in addition to meals that require
plantains.
Unfortunately for Moreno-
Koehler, her ability to cook Cuban
food has become more difficult
since she decided to become a
vegetarian. Thanks to her grand-
mother's advice, she was able to
come up with a few meals that
incorporate beans, rice, eggplant
and typical Cuban spices.
A common problem these stu-
dents face arises from shopping at
international markets - the pric-
es of goods often change. Engi-
neering graduate student Hyeon
Joo, who came to Ann Arbor in
2009 from South Korea, said he
enjoyed buying foods like kimchi,
bulgogi, samsang, gochujand, fish
and choco pie at Manna Oriental
Market and Galleria Asian Mar-
ket, but he was frustrated by the
often-fluctuating prices.
The solution to this problem
lies in a surprising location. Some
international students found a
wide availability of international
foods in chain grocery stores like
Meijer and Kroger, praising these
big-box markets for their cheap-
ness and proximity. Bukhari said
he found most of his spices there,
and Moreno-Koehler cited Mei-
jer as a convenient place, since it
was not as far and less expensive
than a typical international food
market.
There's no taste like home
Though these individuals enjoy
and prefer eating their typical
cultural foods, sometimes they
can't find the time to cook. The
solution to this predicament is to
go out to restaurants, usually ones
similar to those found at home.
When Kamath goes out to eat,
the spicier the food, the better.
Her favorite Indian restaurants
that fulfill this requirement are
Shalimar Restaurant and Taste of
India Suvai.
Where and what she chooses
depends on her appetite: If she's
not particularly hungry, she'll go
for Southern Indian food, since
it's typically more snacky. But for
dinner, she said she enjoys North-
ern and Southern Indian food
equally.
Her typical meals at restau-
rants are chicken tikka masala (a
curry dish with chicken chunks),
seekh kebab, dal and naan (a leav-
ened oven-baked flatbread).
Still, these restaurant's takes
on dishes do not quite resemble
the ones in her native India.
"It's the best of what we can
get here," Kamath said. "I think
it has to do with the palate here.
Sometimes it won't be really
spicy. They kind of alter the spic-
es to make sure it's not too spicy
or too bland."
Moreno-Koehler had the
opposite reaction to the restau-
rants of Ann Arbor in regards to
their spice level. She said many
of the Latin restaurants on cam-
pus, particularly Cafe Habana,
are a fusion of a few Latin cul-
tures, which results in a hybrid
flavor not completely familiar to
her.
"It's as authentic as you can
get in Ann Arbor, Michigan,"
Moreno-Koehler said. "They do a
lot that's authentic, but it's meant
to be a fusion of things, so some
of the stuff is spicy. Cuban food
isn't spicy necessarily; our spic-
es are for flavor not for burning
your tongue off."
She added: "They're pandering
to a customer base that doesn't
know that and expects Mexican-
style spicy."
Cross-culture eating
A main difference Joo found
between meals in Ann Arbor
compared to those found in his
home country is the amount
of food served. When he first
arrived in America, Joo said he
could barely finish a full meal
since the American portions
were so large. Though the taste
of the food was comparable to
that of his native Korea, the larg-
er bowls and plates he encoun-
tered were unfamiliar.
But some students have grown
used to the American way of life.
Engineering sophomore Ken
Ling was born in China and grew
up with a variety of Chinese food.
Ling called Panda Express and
other "Americanized Chinese
restaurants" not as authentic or
"attractive" since their meals are
tailored more to American taste
buds.
Ling usually likes to go to
Great Shanghai, Asian Legend,
Evergreen Restaurant, Asia City,
Middle Kingdom and Chia Shi-
ang Restaurant for their authen-
ticity. However, he admitted he
still goes to Panda Express from
time to time.
Dyer has noticed this shift
in mindset. She has seen her
international students gradually
incorporating some of the food
customs native to America in
their daily lives, be ita cup of cof-
fee in the morning or fast food.
"They're adapting a whole
new food culture while they're
here," she said. "They're being
acculturated into our American
way of eating."
Ultimately, food's most impor-
tant aspect is its communal qual-
ity. Dyer has had many potlucks
with her students throughout the
years and praises food's capabil-
ity to be shared.
"It's not just sharing within
your own culture, but sharing
across cultures," she said. "We're
actually very similar sometimes,
so the whole act of sharing food
is important."
I4
PAUL SHERMAN/Daily
The Northern Lights are visible from the top of the Angell Hall Observatory.
Ofskies and stories.
Connecting with
the human history
of astronomy
By KAYLA UPADHYAYA
Daily Arts Writer
Physicists, rocket scientists and
mathematicians aren't the only
people who appreciate astronomy
- humans have always been fas-
cinated by the night sky. Its allur-
ing beauty, its mystery, its sheer
vastness - it's hard not to look to
the stars and yearn to know more.
And thanks to advancements in
technology, just about anyone can
explore space and learn about the
galaxy.
"We seem to have this natu-
ral explorer sense about us," said
Matt Linke, the director of the
planetarium on the fourth floor of
the University's Exhibit Museum
of Natural History. "We're curi-
ous about what's up there. We've
all looked up and seen a bright
something, the twinkling some-
thing, or the shooting something,
and so we want to know what
those things are."
The planetarium serves as a
resource to explore the universe.
On weekends, museum staffers
give star talks in the facility, not
only explaining ways to locate
certain stars and constellations,
but also sharing the mythology
that fills the nighttime sky. Sitting
in the planetarium's plush leather
seats, one can look up in the dome
and see the beautiful night sky
spread above - unlike the dim,
light-polluted sky seen from cam-
pus.
"We try to cover alittle mythol-
ogy and a little astronomy," Linke
said. "A star talk is mostly ground-
based, but then we also leave the
earth and take advantage of the
technology."
Linke has been working in
planetarium education for 33
years and has been at the Univer-
sity for more than 22 years.
"I'm certainly more of a tra-
ditional planetarium educator,"
Linke explained. "I'm not an
astronomer by training."
Linke said the purpose of the
planetariumistoeducate,getpeo-
ple interested in astronomy and
to understand what they're look-
ing at. Sometimes people will ask
him what stars they might be able
to see on their vacations in other
countries. By simply punching
in coordinates, the planetarium
can take its viewers to anywhere
on the globe and show what the
nighttime sky will look like from
that location.
The planetarium also runs
shows that explore specific top-
ics, like black holes, perceptions
of space throughout time and
the motions of the sun, earth and
moon. A show called "Stars of the
Pharaohs" combines history and
astronomy, allowing viewers to
explore the role of the nighttime
sky in ancient civilization. To the
Egyptians, the stars told tales of
their gods.
This sacred connection
between the stars and storytelling
is not lost. Today, people are just
as allured by the sky as they were
in ancient times. Linke called this
interest "ingrained in us."
The dome uses two sets of
graphics to depict constellations
during star talks: redline draw-
ings that connect the stars and
the actual pictures of what they
represent Linke said the physi-
cal drawings are more useful for
storytelling.
Linke reflected upon a time
when people existed in a world
where there wasn't as much light
pollution as there is today.
"We know they were watching
the sky," he said. "We see their
petroglyphs; we see the kind of
things they did in caves, things
they made. They were clearly
visualizing what they saw in the
nighttime sky."
The Exhibit Museum is not
the only place with a planetarium
on campus. A new planetarium
resides in Angell Hall, along with
an observatory that allows stu-
dents to observe the actual sky.
"(Looking at the sky) takes you
to a different mindset than you
would have in your everyday life,"
said LSA junior Mary Holt, presi-
dent of the Student Astronomi-
cal Society. "It's something that's
outside of your world and makes
you think about what else could
be out there."
The Student Astronomical
Society hosts open houses in the
Angell Hall Observatory a couple
oftimes a month, focusing on gen-
erating student interest in astron-
omy. On clear nights, they set up
telescopes in the observatory.'
The Student Astronomical
Society tries to make astron''y
more accessible to people wht
might not necessarily be interest-
ed in science.
The images projected in the
planetarium - brilliant star clus-
ters, expansive nebulae, constel-
lations, planets and the moon
- all have as much artistic value
as they do scientific.
"Sometimes there's art in sci-
ence," Holt said. "I feel thatthere's
a beauty to it. Finding patterns in
the sky is also an art."
Though the planetariums
in Angell Hall and the Exhibit
Museum serve more or less the
same purpose, the shows they
give differ because the sky is a
canvas that can be interpreted.
Linke said he always makes an
effort to work different percep-
tions of common constellations
into his sky programs.
"The mythology, the sky leg-
ends, are an important part
because it's part of our collective
human background and culture,'
Linke said. "If I say constella-
tions and I mention a few names,
people just think right away that
they're Greek and Roman constel-
lations. But the reality is, every
culture on the planet has left their
fingerprints on the sky."
It's clear the night sky is not
just for space geeks and wannabe
astronauts. Its rich history and
artistic beauty make it something
that almost anyone can appreci-
ate. Linke and Holt agreed the
night sky is something we all
share. Though it is the same sky
we see, there are many ways to
enjoy and interpret it.
Engineering sophomore Ken Ling praises Asian Legend for its aut
6
0
The Angell Hall Observatory lets students see the real night sky.
IWednesday, November2
Mkhlgan Theater. 603 E. Lirty
Tickets: Michigan Union Ticket Office
734-763-TK'TS Ticketmaster.com TeArk.org
LUCAS
From Page 3B
rhymes work byestablishing
relationships between words
based on sounds; words that
sound alike purely by accident
become semantically yoked.
Mullen simplyuses a differ-
ent technique to accomplish
the same end. For "burn," read
"born;" for "bend of the ear,"
read "end of the year," and so on.
But then go back and read the
poem asit's written, and notice
how your own mind "corrects"
what's printed into what you
think it should say. The printed
page becomes the poem that
exists and the poem we imagine
instead. No wonder Mullen offers
"came into the word" for "came
into the world."
We too come into the world as
we come into the word. Rhyme is
only one of the ways poets make
something new of both.
"Lucas" really only rhymes
with "mucus." To discuss,
e-mail dwlucas@umich.edv.