Cultural foods and people were at the center of the International Potluck hosted by the Christian Campus House on Saturday.

The event is in conjunction with Ugadi, the New Year’s Day for the Telugu and Kannada communities in India.

A variety of cultural dishes were served such as Puri, Chapati, Vegetable Byrani, white rice, Rasam, Appalam, and multiple kinds of chicken curries.

Krishna Thomas, chair of the Asian Committee, said the event showed ancient and contemporary Asian wear.

Venkata Basavar Goriparthi,a graduate sustainable energy major who hosted the event, said the purpose of the potluck is to bring together people from different cultures.

He said he wished more people of different cultures came because a majority of the attendees were Indian.

“It feels very good to see so many people around and I can make out from their faces that they really enjoyed the food,” Goriparthi said.

Heather Moore, a senior communication studies major, said she enjoyed the foods from other cultures and would come to another event like this. She said it is a great opportunity to try new foods that are not always easily accessible.

Moore said she was able to see the cultural differences between this and her culture, which involves a lot of homestead American cooking.

Events like the potluck have multiple purposes because there are many different groups of people that it will affect, Moore said.

She said events like these allow people from different walks of life to share their culture and expand their own minds with other cultures.

“There’s people here who are not students, there are people here from the community and every other sort of variety of life and it’s an amazing experience,” Moore said.

Jacob Gulso, a junior sociology major, said he believed the event allowed people to see new perspectives, be around different people and experience something new.

He said when people learn about other cultures they grow as a person and it breaks them out of their comfort zone.

“I think it’s a way to experience other cultures and not only the food, but like other people’s perspectives and other people’s viewpoints,” Gulso said.

Lavanya Methuku, a graduate student, said during Ugadi, mothers make two dishes for the festival, a liquid made out of Tambdi and Bhakshalu, an Indian sweet.

“We take this occasion, Asian heritage, as the base to celebrate our South Indian New Year and we can gather a lot of people at one place,” Methuku said. “We take much pleasure in meeting everyone at our festival.”

Methuku said the food was made in around 30 different apartments and each household brought two dishes.

Amber Rigsby, a senior adult and community education major, modeled a traditional Arabic dance dress in front of everyone. Rigsby said part of her reason for modeling the dress is because she is taking a Modern East Asian class with Jinhee Lee.

“What I think keeps people coming back is great food, great atmosphere, fashion obviously, because everyone has an interest in clothes and basically just a fun and friendly environment,” Rigsby said.

Rigsby went to last year’s potluck and she said this time around, it was more intimate, with close quarters and friendly.

 Alex Seidler can be reached at 581-2812 or ajseidler@eiu.edu