Jamaican Flavors of our Neighborhood

The American journalist, Mark Kurlansky, put it best when he said, “Food is a central activity of mankind and one of the single most significant trademarks of a culture.”

This is why Anita Ellis, director of Hofstra University’s Office of Off-Campus Living and Commuting Student Services was excited to team up with the Office of Multicultural and International Student Programs this past week to celebrate Black History Month with another “Flavors of our Neighborhood” event.

This month, about 22 Hofstra students shared stories and laughs over Jamaican cuisine. The delicious meal was ordered from Sam’s Marketplace, a local restaurant of Hempstead, NY that can supply all of your Jamaican grocery needs and dining desires. This group of diverse students tried a fried whiting fish meal with a side of Jamaican beef patties and chicken-vegetable patties. For dessert, classic Jamaican biscuit cookies and a Caribbean favorite, banana chips, were offered. The meal was tropically delicious down to the drink, with a choice of pineapple or Jamaican ginger beer soda.

As tasty as this all was, the day wouldn’t be complete without some cultural knowledge to feed the students’ minds along with their appetites. For this reason, Novia Whyte of Residential Programs (and an international student alumni of Jamaica herself), was invited to join and share both historical and present-day information on her beloved island. The students left with a new found knowledge on Jamaica’s political system, cultural traditions, and an interest in visiting. Many of the students, specifically the ones that were from China, were happy to notice similarities between Jamaican cuisine and the cuisine of their own culture. It was exciting to converse about how these similarities came to be, as many seemingly different cultures actually have intertwining historical roots.

Overall, “Flavors of Our Neighborhood” was a successful event where Black History was honored, Jamaica was celebrated, and the local gem, Sam’s Marketplace, was appreciated.

If you have yet to experience this complimentary series of community, dining, and multicultural fun, be sure to not miss the next opportunity, which will be on Friday, April 19! Contact the Off-Campus Living and Commuting Student Services or Office of Multicultural and International Student Programs for more details.

Guest Blogger: Joanna Soares, Class of 2016

The Big Game at Hof USA

Hopefully you made it out to Hof USA last night to enjoy the end of WinterBlast weekend with your friends watching the Game! Whether you were there for the game, the commercials, the halftime show or the camadraderie everyone had a blast! Student Leadership and Activities collaborated with Resident Student Association (RSA) and Lackmann Dining to put on a great event for all Hofstra Students. The event began at 5pm with FREE appetizers and continued with many great food specials offered from Lackmann each quarter.

Whether you wanted wings, sliders or, a meatball hero they had it all for a deal; although I had it from a good sources that the brownie sundae is the BEST at Hof USA :) We ended the night how we started with FREE food...icecream sundaes and rootbeer floats!It was great to see over 300 students throughout the event. Over 150 stayed for all 5 hours of the event to enjoy the festivities with friends.

Even after the game a group of students continued to discuss the game and got to see The Voice. I had a great time meeting new students, and dissecting the halftime show (was it good, was it bad...) and catching what ended up to me a very exciting game throughout the night. As a football fan dating back to elementary school (I am from Buffalo so you are either a Bills fan or you have nothing to do for the winter :) )I sure enjoyed the safety, the drives and the dropped balls at critical moments.

I hope you came out and if you didn't I hope you are able to join us at Hof USA as we continue to build programming in the newly renovated space. We have a special "First Friday" program each first Friday of the month (in March it's cookie and cupcake decorating) and every other Fridays of the month we have Karaoke (all Friday programming starts at 7pm). Plus look out for our special St. Patty's Day Friday event; Friday March 9 at 7pm. This is the prelude event to the Irish Fest on campus being hosted on March 11. A great game was played last night by both teams and we are looking forward to this becoming a traditional event on campus...so, see you next year!