The Community Integration Cross-Cultural Food Party

While El was visiting me in Раздолное for a week we had a dinner party. Here is the story…
The idea morphed a few times over the past week or two, but during El’s visit I wanted to try to incorporate her love of cooking, my love of eating her cooking, and my interest in introducing new foods and flavors to the people I live and work with. I think we succeeded. At first I wanted to invite people over for a dinner, but when I started to think about who I would want to invite I realized that I also needed to line up an interpreter for each dinner. Sadly, as I did not recently move into a new apartment, I am stuck at my old apartment which is not ready to host dinner parties. The idea of trying to schedule people for small dinner parties started to get beyond my comfort level in terms of language and logistical abilities. After more discussion, Erin offered for us to use her apartment as a hosting site. I figured I would help El buy all of the food and supplies. She would then cook what she could at my apartment and arrange to cook the rest at Erin’s. We chose the day of Wednesday October 12 at 5:30. I printed up a guest list which included pretty much everyone that I have had positive experiences with since moving here 4 months ago. This included people I work with, friends from the sauna, Lenara’s friends and family, English Club, and people who I have worked with on projects. I made an invitation for 32 Russian speakers and 6 English speakers.
Кто: Сим и Элеонора Моррелл и Эрин Эгберт приглашают Вас
Who: Sim and Eleonora Morrell and Erin Egbert want to invite you to
Что: на ужин в непринужденной обстановке, где Вы сможете попробовать американские блюда
What: Casual dinner get together featuring recipes from North America
Когда: в среду, 12 октября, в 17:30
When: Wednesday October 12, 2011 at 5:30
Где: в квартире Эрин Эгберт
Where: Erin’s apartment
Почему: Мы все любим готовить и мы хотели бы угостить Вас своими любимыми блюдами
Why: We all love to cook and the three of us want to share some of the food from home that we loved before coming to Ukraine and learning about new foods.
Пожалуйста, приносите свои напитки
PLEASE BRING YOUR OWN DRINK
Мы надеемся, что Вы присоединитесь к нам в этот вечер. Спасибо!
We hope you will join us. Thank you.
Next, I worked with El on a menu. We wanted to make foods that are classically American that would hopefully be new to the people who came.
What we came up with were:
chili and rice
mac-n-cheese
eggplant parmesan
fried potato skins with bacon and cheese
bleu cheese dip for raw veggies
deviled eggs
roasted red peppers
JIF extra crunchy peanut butter and strawberry jelly sandwiches
Nestlé Toll House chocolate chip cookies
Betty Crocker peanut butter cookies
and a deep dish apple pie.
We invited upwards of 40 people, but had no idea how many people would actually show. I was really worried about not wanting to overbuy or underbuy. The plan started well with El and I going to the bazaar to get the food on Monday. On Tuesday, El stayed home and started working on what she could. She was able to make the chili and do some prep of other foods. Then, on Tuesday night we went over to Erin’s to start working on some of the stuff that we needed an oven for, since I do not have an oven. On Wednesday morning I took El over to Erin’s apartment where she was able to cook all day while Erin and I worked. I worked a half day and Erin was done at noon so we met back at her place to help El finish her stuff and I could work on the things I was assigned to work on. Erin put in some cleaning time and also helped in the kitchen, but the cooking show was all El. She did such an awesome job with everything to make this party work for those who would come.
On Monday, after I had printed up the invitations, I had to hand them out. At this point, Lenara jumped in and seemed to be as excited about the party as we were. She helped me get them handed out and even drummed up excitement in others by asking them if they were going to be able to come. All was good and we were able to get a few commitments so we knew at least a couple people would come. At 5:00 on Wednesday I got a text that said that the mayor was indeed planning to attend our party. Around this time I looked out the window to see a few of the people from work standing at the door. Not entering, but waiting for others to arrive. I looked out every minute or so and saw more and more people gathering. None seeing me, just waiting. Then, right on time, like a scene out of “The Music Man”, Lenara comes around the corner with about 8 more gusts following her. She makes it to the door and everyone enters at once. Seconds later a knock at the door signals a majority of the night’s guests arrival. This was a little overwhelming at first as you now have 15 people standing in the hallway waiting to take their shoes off and move into the apartment where the food is. On the other hand I was able to thank everyone for coming and give a brief explanation of the dishes to everyone at once. The mayor is a bit of an inpatient man and in the middle of my introduction he basically told me to hurry up because he was hungry. I took his plate from him and prepared it to show others who have never eaten chili, how to layer the rice, chili, and toppings. After this, there was a brief pause while some of the guests presented Erin, El, and I with some hosting gifts. Afterwards, it was a free-for-all at the food. We had set up the appetizers and dinner in the living room and the desserts in the other side room for fear that people would just eat the cookies and pie and be too full for chili and mac-n-cheese. From the first minutes everyone seemed to love everything they had. Everyone had their favorites of course, but no one seemed to be too skeptical to try the new foods. To be fair to our guests, we made ingredient cards for the dishes so that everyone knew what was in each dish. There was one thing with pork, so the non-pork eaters could avoid that. And a couple of things with nuts with signs, in case of allergies. With the exception of peanut butter, the peanut butter cookie mix, and brown sugar, everything was made from ingredients that we bought at the local bazaar. People were asking for recipes and really enjoying themselves. It was nice that a large group came early and left early. The whole party was done around 8:45, giving just enough time to get the leftover food put away and get some of the cookware soaking for easier cleanup. In retrospect, I think we bought just the perfect amount of food. There were enough leftovers to eat the next day, but not so much that our expectations were grossly exaggerated.
We had approximately 25 people show up to the party and everyone seemed quite happy to have been part of it. Against my better judgment, I tried to match the mayor shot for shot with the vodka and cognac which wound up putting us both in very rough shape. I am certain that my behavior did not get out of control to the point that I couldn’t go into work with my head held high, but it was a difficult following day. 
The party was a great success all around and even lead to multiple invites to Ukrainian feasts the following Saturday, our last full day in town before heading on my vacation to Kiev for a week.
Looking back, I think it is times like these that show just how much a part of this community I am becoming. I hope the next time I can get even more people to come. 

Deep dish apple pie. One of the party's hits.

 El, me, Stas, Katya, Mayor Viktor Mihailovich, Alla, and Erin

Party goers Ira and Lenara enjoying chili and mac-n-cheese