By Madilyn Cataloni, Staff Writer
On Friday, the third “Around the Table” event was hosted at the Center for Public Service to showcase cultural food from Vietnam. The event had numerous collaborators, including the International Student Services, CPS, River Pham ’26 and the Vietnamese Student Association.
Prior to Pham’s and the Vietnamese Student Association’s collaboration for the Around the Table event, other cultural foods from Morocco and Bangladesh had been celebrated.
When asked about how the event got started, assistant director of ISS Becca Hurwitz ’19 responded with, “We have such a large cohort of international students, and so wanting to, kind of work with some international students to highlight their
The sandwich was made from Italian bread, which is the closest variation to the traditional Vietnamese bread, thinly sliced cucumbers, Chả lụa, which is a sausage made of starch, ground pork, and some seasonings, and lastly, thinly sliced fried egg. There was also a vegetarian option, which had tofu covered in a sauce that was made from lemongrass powder, soy sauce, hot sauce, and sugar.
Pham was in charge of making the sandwiches and leading the discussion about Vietnamese culture.
Pham explained, “It’s an infusion dish from a past colonial time in Vietnam. You know, Vietnam was colonized by the French for almost a century, and they brought the French Baguette to the scene. But then the Vietnamese people find their own way to modify the bread themselves and make the Vietnamese bread that is a little different from French bread. But then the sausage is really Vietnamese because it was cooked by wrapping around a banana leaf, and if it was steamed, which is really traditional.”
Throughout the semester, the three students who have been asked to showcase their cultural food have all been handpicked by CPS. Pham was asked because he had previously worked with CPS as a Painted Turtle Farm summer intern and had already had a connection to CPS.
When looking towards the future, Carly Auchey, the assistant director for CPS, said, “Our hope for the spring is that through word of mouth, students either approach us that they want to host one, but if not, we’ll keep leaning on our relationships.”
There will be future Vietnamese cultural events coming to Gettysburg next spring.
Sabrina Huynh ’28, the president of the Vietnamese Student Association, said, “Mid-February, we will have the Lunar New Year, which is, I would say, the biggest event and the most important one. That is when we are transitioning to a new year, and then everything will be resetting from the first.
