Nation2Nation or let’s get to know each other cultures!

Nation2Nation is a traditional event of ESN Košice during which we give our Erasmus students from different parts of the world a special opportunity to get to present and talk more about their cultures and traditions. This semester we had Italian, French, Turkish, Spanish and Portuguese nights.

We opened our summer semester with Italian night. Italian students from both winter and summer semester got together and prepared educational presentation about Italy, its geography, history and famous Italian sportsman, actors and musicians. As for dinner our friends prepared original Italian pizza, panzerotti (a delicious turnover filled with tomatoes and mozzarella) and as a desert, tiramisu.

Following Nation2Nation introduced us culture and traditions of Turkey. The big surprise of the evening was the dance that Turkish students prepared for us. Well done, guys! Food tasting brought us unusual tastes of Turkish kitchen in the form of gozleme, traditional Turkish savory flatbread; vegetarian mercimek koftesi and as a dessert, lokum tatlisi, which is made of gel, starch and sugar and it tastes very similar to Raffaello sweets.

Bonsoir! French presentation made us jealous of their beautiful country, Eiffel tower and Disneyland. And food? Simply delicious! Quiche Lorraine, which was very cheesy and flavoured with bacon made us want to visit France right away. It was followed by Brie, soft cow’s milk cheese named after French region, Brie; and crêpes were served as the desert.

During the Portuguese night we tasted Bacalhau á Braz, one of the most famous Portuguese dish made with salt cod, potatoes and eggs; Bola de carne also known as “Meat Bread”, followed by Portugal cheese, Queijo da Serra. Also one of our Portuguese friends brought the original port wine directly from Portugal for us to taste it. Thanks a lot!

Our Nation2Nation experience was finished by Spanish night. Spanish didn’t hesitate and provided us with a lot of information about their beautiful country; food tasting wasn’t an exception. We were served Spanish omelette, filled eggs with tuna and maionese; Tapas in form of jam, cheese and bread; garlic soup; Sangria and wonderful end to food tasting was coffee flan.

 

This semester brought us amazing people who represented their countries the best they could. We are very thankful for your willingness to share your cultures and traditions with us! Thanks! J

Author: Viktória Bančanská
Photos: ESN Košice