The Multicultural Greek Council, with the help of the Hispanic and Asian fraternities underneath it, presented their first ever “Learn How to Make Sushi Night” as a part of Asian Council’s CelebrASIAN on Thursday, April 2.
Sushi Night attracted more than 120 participants to the Varsity of the Hughes Trigg Student Center, where they were treated to a special show of Japanese culture and some homemade sushi.
CelebrASIAN is a month long event celebrating Asian heritage and culture, and the Multicultural Greek Council (MGC) certainly did its part teaching SMU students about Japanese society and food. In fact, MGC was forced to divide the audience into five groups to avoid overcrowding at the tables.
“I thought it was a lot of fun,” said Laura Tudor, a sophomore Music Education major. “I always wanted to learn how to make sushi.”
The chefs that were brought in to teach students how to make the rolls were from Mr. Sushi, a restaurant located in Addison for over 25 years. The chefs taught participants how to make two types of sushi: California and Spicy Tuna rolls.
However, the most exciting part of the night came before the sushi making. MGC brought in members from the Kendo Club of Dallas to perform for the viewers.
“I brought in the dojo because it is so integrally Japanese,” said Keith Lee, President of the Multicultural Greek Council. “This event is supposed to spread the knowledge of Japanese culture and sushi and kendo fighting just came hand in hand.”
Onlookers watched as the students from the dojo unsheathed actual Japanese katanas and ran through several katas, practiced forms and steps in martial arts and swordsmanship. Then, onlookers got to witness combat as the dojo members donned armor and sparred with bamboo swords called shinai.
Lee said the night was a group effort between the Greek and multicultural community.
“This event was a great chance for the Greek students to mingle with the non-Greek multicultural students,” said Lee. “There were numerous members of Panhellenic and IFC talking to members of Asian Council.”
