Latino Cultural Center to demonstrate cooking

Many Hoosiers have a large appetite, but they might not have time to prepare a delicious meal. To help change that, the IU Latino Cultural Center is hosting a series of food demonstrations to teach students how to cook a quick and inexpensive dish while learning about Latino culture in the process.\nAll students are invited to the Latino Cultural Center, located at 715 E. Seventh St., at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday to learn how to make Mexican breakfast pizza.\nMichael Huerta , an employee of Student Legal Services, will be the head chef of the evening, and said the dish should appeal to students on a budget.\n"It's easy to make, cheap to do, and I think students might actually make it themselves," he said. "This takes probably 20 minutes to get it into the oven, and in 30 minutes (total) you're eating."\nIngredients can vary by personal taste, but Huerta said he will use Boboli pizza dough, refried beans, salsa, eggs, cilantro, cheese, and "chorizo," a spicy pork sausage. Though Huerta said students probably won't find this dish in dining rooms south of the border, La Casa Director Lillian Casillas said featuring this food item is good for dispelling stereotypes about Latino culture. \n"The dish that he's chosen is to show that we don't eat what people think Mexicans eat," she said. "We do use other (than traditional Mexican) ingredients and we adapt recipes from other cultures to make it unique." \nCasillas said the cooking demonstrations are a way to involve members of the Bloomington community in Latino culture, and still keep them in their comfort zone. \n"It's a great opportunity to learn about the culture in a setting that's different from a lecture format," she said. \nShe said some dishes featured at the demonstrations come from various ethnicities within Latino culture, and other dishes highlight the evolution of food from a combination of cultures.\nOn Oct. 26, students can learn how to make a dish from Chile called "Cazuela de vacuno (o pollo) con ensalada a la Chilena," and on Nov. 16, La Casa will feature "Pastelón de carne y queso, ensalada, and piña colada" from Puerto Rico.\nTo have a general idea of how many people to expect and how much food to provide at the demonstration, the planners request that interested students notify the La Casa office at 855-0174 or e-mail lacasa@indiana.edu.