Monday, September 15, 2008

Taste of Nevada

What is it about free food that just does my heart good? Lauren (best wife ever!) took me to this event at UIUC called the Taste of Nevada. I have no idea how it got it's name, or how they do it! but I do know that it was great!
Basically, the Taste of Nevada is this even that promotes cultural understanding by giving out free food. Different ethnic centers (Hispanic, Asian, African-American, etc.) give out the food, and get a chance to show students their services and programs. I'm now told that it gets its name from the street its held on. Real original.... Anyway, I'm going to list the free food so it looks like more:

1. pulled pork sandwiches
2. greens
3. macaroni and cheese
4. popsicles
5. chocolate chip and oatmeal rasin cookies
6. water
7. pizza (Papa John's: cheese, pepperoni and sausage)
8. pretzels with nacho cheese
9. empanadas (5 kinds)
10. tacos
11. chips and salsa
12. quesadillas (3 kinds)
13. sushi (4 kinds)
14. meatballs (For some reason these were Asian...apparently if you put sweet and sour sauce on something it's Asian. Just like how putting pineapple on pizza makes it Hawaiian, or how making food taste really bland makes it Brittish.)
15. gyoza (2 kinds)
16. baklava(2 kinds)
17. Probably other things that I can't think of right now.

Lauren and I got some of everything! I'm not rating or describing the food, because it was all decent, but of the "free" quality. The impressive thing is that it was all free! There were also other free things, like pens, Frisbees, pizza cutters, candy and other assorted goodies. We were so full! It was so awesome and so amazing. They even had an giveaway that included tickets to events and ipods.
All that free stuff leads to a lot of trash. The poor volunteers had to ask people to stop throwing stuff into(onto) the trash can so that they could empty it. One girl's reply was "Fine, I'll just wait till you're done." She then placed her plate on the ground and walked away. Classy!

I had a great time getting free stuff, and I'm sure despite me making her roll her eyes at me on multiple occasions, Lauren did as well. It showed me what I missed by not going away for college. I would have really liked the experience of going to a big school away from Hawaii. Still, I did enjoy being close to family and friends, and I don't regret missing out on other things like college debt.
So much free stuff, and all so that a few organizations can get their message out. UIUC even has a monthly event called "Illinites," (get the pun!) where they have free games and food. I guess this shows what you can do when you have people paying $23,026 a year for non-resident tuition. And this is a pretty cheap school. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was ranked 9th by Kiplingers Personal Finance Magazine in Tuition-Value. It would probably go higher on the list if they knew about the Taste of Nevada. Can you imagine what those other, more expensive schools must be giving away? Free high-paying jobs? Free membership to high-powered societies that run the world? Okay, I'm not a conspiracy-theorist, but it kind of makes you wonder....

3 comments:

Chou said...

If only they were giving away what you mentioned. . . You're right about that girl. Class at its finest.

Unknown said...

Your trash story reminds me of the trash policy in my fraternity. We'd pile trash onto the common area trash can as high as it would go. If you were the one who put on the piece of trash that made the pile fall, you had to bag it up and take it out. It combined fairness with a test of skill!

genkitummy said...

c.-yeah, the trash can episode was a bit "uncool"

keane-don't give mike ideas, we might end up having that competition in our apartment. nah, mike actually empties the trash.