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This is part of an ongoing series on the life of Ohio University graduate student (and soon alumnus) Carlos E., and other legal aliens in the USA.
She brought a bag of Quinua from Peru as the tiny red symbol in the lower left hand corner on the bag indicates. For three people she uses about a cup of the raw seeds.
Before boiling them, it is necessary to wash them several times, which can best be done with a colandor or sieve (unlike in the picture where a hand and later bowl had to suffice).
After that the washed Quinua needs another cup of water to boil the seeds for about twenty minutes until they have grown about twice their size and have become more yellow and softer.
Meanwhile the seeds boil, she chopped a medium-sized onion into tiny cubes and fried them in a separate pan with a little bit of oil golden brown. Add the fried onions to the Quinua pot after the seeds have cooked for about ten minutes.
Toward the end of the Quinua's cooking time add some black pepper, salt, fresh garlic (or garlic powder), and Maggi spice (either as boullion or liquid). Y esta es!
Quinua (upper half of the plate) similar to rice tastes great with chicken and veggies!
Que aproveche!
In a nutshell, for 3 servings of Quinua you need:- 1 cup Quinua seeds
- 1 cup of water
- 1 medium-sized onion
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 pinch of black pepper
- 1 pinch of garlic powder
- 1 maggi boullion or a dash of liquid maggi spice
How did you come to the USA? With which red tape did you have to deal as a legal alien? Are you on the path to U.S. citizenship? What do you miss about your own culture living in the USA? Please share your stories, questions, and comments!
Tapash -- All the Way From Bangladesh
This is part of an ongoing series on the life of Ohio University graduate student Tapash Deb, and other legal aliens in the USA.
Tapash is a PhD student in chemistry who started at OU last August after finishing his BS in chemistry and computer science in Indiana. On September 16, 2008 I met him in Clippinger Hall where he spends lots of time as a student and graduate assistant and talked to him about his first in Athens. (Read more about Tapash's adventurous journey from Bangladesh to the USA or watch him tell it on video.)
Stine Eckert: You’ve been studying at OU [Ohio University, Athens, Ohio) for a year now. How do you reflect upon the last twelve months in Athens?
Tapash Deb: Past twelve months in Athens… It was a pretty good experience; it had some good sides, some bad sides. Overall it was a good experience. I had some good friends but at the same times there can be complaints that there are not enough friends.
S.E.: What was your best experience?
T.D.: The best experience I would say was working with my advisor. Things are going very well with him. I would say he is a pretty good advisor so I am happy working for him.
S.E.: And outside OU?
T.D.: Outside OU I have good friends, which is very good and I get to do a lot of outdoor activities.
S.E.: Which ones?
T.D.: Going out, hiking, biking. I haven’t had a chance to go swimming yet, but some day I’ll make myself jump into this chlorinated water.
S.E: In how far have you had any bad experiences?
T.D.: There are a couple of bad experiences I want to mention. I want to mention the friendship side; there is a lot of segregation going on. If I look at any program that is organized by a particular group, an international group, there are some Caucasians but not many of other groups such as Hispanics or African-American groups; they never show up to those programs. Vice versa. I don’t see a lot of many of other people from other races to go their programs such as African-American or Multicultural programs, which are organized by OU. There are not many other people other than the intended audience for this program.
Then when I talk about making friends, most grad students in my department … making friends in my apartment is kind of hard … except for a couple of students. Most of the students there are from a Chinese background. I have two lab mates and to tell the truth I haven’t been to program they’ve been because every time I asked them what is going on, they would tell me what is going on but then later on they say: ‘Oh, you won’t like it because it’s all going to be in Chinese and you’re not going to be enjoying it and you’re going to feel left out.’ I mean that’s a good point but on the other hand I can go there and learn something and make new friends but instead of doing that they’re thinking that they would leave me out. It’s a good consideration from their part but at the same time I believe what they’re doing to themselves is that they’re keeping to themselves to their own little circle and don’t get acquainted to other people of other cultures.
Then I want to talk about OU because it is an important part of Athens. At OU I think things are generally good except for a couple of things, for example the health insurance part. If I look into health insurance then I can see Blue Shield or Blue Cross is one of the best health insurance providers. They have very good coverage and they actually cost less than the OU insurance and I don’t know why they do not let us [international students] go for one of these insurances. They force us to take the OU insurance and I am not happy with their experiences.
When I talk in general about Athens for example apartments what happens we have to pay our own utility. The utility companies bill only one person and sometimes one of the persons in the apartment has to be responsible for the bill when it comes in; they have to collect the money. What happens is, as the landlord is not taking care of this utility part sometimes it’s hard for that person to collect the money from everybody. Sometimes a person moves in and another person moves out and once the person moves out then you can’t get the money from them because the electric bill comes one month later. Whoever used the electricity move out; that’s it and the money has to come out of my pocket.
Another thing about Hudson, our health care provider at OU, they’re charging us this well-being fee of $40 and they’re supposed to increase their hours but the problem is, it doesn’t help us as international students that much. Because most of us live off-campus and we get sick on the weekends then we have to actually find somebody who is with us to make the phone call or drive us to the hospital. Hudson is closed so there is no way to call them to ask for information. In the insurance brochure it says we need to call them to let them know if we need to go to the hospital beforehand, which is really a ridiculous thing because when somebody is sick, the person needs immediate care. The person doesn’t have the time to think about: ‘Oh, I have to make this phone call.’ That just doesn’t make sense. These kinds of things are there; there is room for improvement. They can probably do better than this.
S.E.: Was there any surprise in Athens; something you didn’t expect?
T.D.: Mmh…not really.
S.E.: What do you expect or hope for during your second year in Athens and at Ohio University?
T.D.: The second year is a pretty tough one because I have to write my thesis proposal and that will take most of my time. I also have to finish up with all of my classes before I can start with my proposal. Once I’m done with my proposal I will focus more on the research and currently the research sometimes works really good and sometimes it doesn’t work and it’s frustrating. But I’m expecting that things should be going well hopefully. [Laughs]
S.E.: Thank you for the interview.
T.D.: Thank you very much.
How did you come to the USA? With which red tape do you have to deal as a legal alien? Are you on the path to U.S. citizenship? What is special about your home country? Please share your stories, questions, and comments!
She brought a bag of Quinua from Peru as the tiny red symbol in the lower left hand corner on the bag indicates. For three people she uses about a cup of the raw seeds.
Before boiling them, it is necessary to wash them several times, which can best be done with a colandor or sieve (unlike in the picture where a hand and later bowl had to suffice).
After that the washed Quinua needs another cup of water to boil the seeds for about twenty minutes until they have grown about twice their size and have become more yellow and softer.
Meanwhile the seeds boil, she chopped a medium-sized onion into tiny cubes and fried them in a separate pan with a little bit of oil golden brown. Add the fried onions to the Quinua pot after the seeds have cooked for about ten minutes.
Toward the end of the Quinua's cooking time add some black pepper, salt, fresh garlic (or garlic powder), and Maggi spice (either as boullion or liquid). Y esta es!
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