East Lansing resident Jessica Thompson tries the traditional Thailand food during Thai Food and Culture Night on Saturday evening at East Lansing High School. Thompson’s mother is from Thailand and her father met her mother while in the Army and stationed in Thailand. Thompson said she wants to know more about her mother’s culture and her own Thai roots.
The aroma of pad Thai, spring rolls and fried rice filled East Lansing High School on Saturday during the third annual Thai Food and Culture Night.
Monthien Satimanon, president of MSU’s Thai Student Association, said the group originally created the event to share Thai culture with the area, but has turned it into a way to help students in need.
“The northern and eastern parts of Thailand are the most impoverished parts,” said Satimanon, an economics graduate student. “They lack books, equipment, blackboards and technology. We wanted to do something to benefit them.”
To provide students living in impoverished areas of Thailand with the materials they need, the group will donate event profits to the cause. The group raised more than $1,000 at the event last year, and Satimanon said he is expecting the profits to be significantly higher this year.
Malinee Vontsakulkasem, the group’s adviser, said rather than sending money to the students, the organization will purchase items the students need, including computers, clothing and food.
“We don’t just raise money and give it to them, because you can’t always trust people with money,” Vontsakulkasem said.
“We find out what they need, buy it and then bring it to them in person.”
About five students will make the trip to Thailand in the next few months.
While admission was free, the group collected donations for the traditional Thai food served throughout the evening.
Seven restaurants in the Lansing area donated Thai food and other Asian cuisine to the group’s cause.
“Restaurants were happy to help because they know how important this is,” Satimanon said.
The event did not end with stir-fried vegetables and noodles, as dessert is the most important part of any meal in Thailand, said Nok Siripattarapravat, a veterinary medicine graduate student.
Siripattarapravat spent the majority of the evening making look choobs, which are brightly colored miniature desserts made with bean paste, coconut milk, sugar and gelatin. She said they are most commonly shaped like fruits, vegetables and animals.
As she dunked a watermelon-shaped look choob in its last coat of gelatin, Siripattarapravat said the desserts are very common in Thailand because they are inexpensive and usually made in bulk.
She made a lot of watermelon-shaped look choobs because it is one of the easier shapes to construct, she said.
Dessert was only one of many colorful traditions featured at Thai Food and Culture Night.
Toward the end of the festivities, the 400 people at the event were treated to a brief fashion show where members of the group modeled outfits from different time periods and regions in Thailand.
“The fashion show was a nice presentation of our culture from our past to our present,” Satimanon said.
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