A year's worth of dumplings in one day!

Today is Dec 25' 25.  Very funny know! Well please consider this format DD/MM/YY -- 25/12/25 😁. 

I do not know why it  feels so oddly special, but it does. -- we won't see  this date again until 2125 ---- a whole century from now.  A Christmas that starts and ends with 25. Did you ever wonder? If NO just keep wondering.

Authors Mood:  Cocoon in hot chocolate! ☕🧣🛋️ I am wrapped up , feeling utterly snugly! Being as lazy as possible just for sake of being busy! Perhaps perfect time to write.

OK OK Dumplings first !! Feelings later. Coming to the point.

If you have ever been a graduate student, you will understand this instinctively: sometimes, you just... don't eat. And that's unintentionally! It happens somewhere between classes, labs, deadline, exhaustion, and sheer laziness. In my earlier grad school days, this was just very common. Over time, as I became more focused on research, I got better at taking care of myself. But still --- there are days when you feel like making homemade food a burden.  A  ton of thanks goes to schools here for free food (I do not eat 'American Pizzas' though 😅)  and endless campus events that quietly attempts to save students like me.

I genuinely enjoy the events organized by the College Activities Board (CAB). When life feels mundane and overwhelming, these lil moments of community feel like someone gently pressing a pause. I will be describing one such event now, atleast in my long tenure at RIT, I have never seen such an event.

Thanks to Aisha (a good friend of mine from Imaging  Sc. department),  for forwarding me the emails that I receive too,  but never get bothered to open them. Asking me "Interested?"

And this one truely was! The event was named 'Wicked For Good'.  Since this was an off-campus trip, we were charged thirty bucks, honestly it was a great deal. The plan was sweet  and simple, first dinner at OG Dumpling house, followed by the movie 'Wicked for Good'  at Tinseltown, indeed a lovely theatre with several private mini theatres inside.

Before the event,  we were actually asked to fill out a google form sent out by the organisers to choose two appetizers and a entree from the menu and both me and Aisha chose such that we could share and submitted the google forms.

The Main Day of the event:

We all gathered near the Sentinel (it's a large outdoor scuplture by Albert Paley), on campus. The Rochester sky was gloomy as usual, late Fall 🍂🍁  here demands strategic layering  along with earmuffs and gloves. We finally had set off, there were around forty people in total. 

The first stop was OG Dumpling House. It's quite close to where I live, yet I had never visited in person, though I had ordered their dumplings long ago. On a sweet note: I love dumplings. In Kolkata, we  Bengalis/Bangalis lovingly call them 'MOMO' .

Ok back to OG Dumpling House, it was a very pretty restaurant. One whole section  had been booked  just for us. This is my second time in the US, where a portion of restaurant is actually booked for a college event. I did feel a little bad, watching walk-in customers turn back because of our loud, happy chaos.

We initially felt and I was having a conversation with Aisha that perhaps we would be given our box that would contain the food that we had just filled two days back, through google forms. But know it was not like that! We were asked to make new orders. And the fun part was we could select from the original menu, the last time we filled out the google forms we were given handful selection of menu to choose from.

Meanwhile, a young lady joined our table. Her name was Momina, she was originally from Pakistan but born and brought up in Dubai. She was an exchange  undergrad  finishing her final semester in Neuroscience.  She was incredibly  sweet, and our table quickly filled with chatter and laughter.

We had to wait as we were given the last chance to place an order.  The wait was over until  a  Chinese waiter with  round eyes came to take my order.  He seemed curious, yet confident with his ipad, to take the note of the endless list that we would be placing. Both the parties actually did not know what's coming up.

 So, I faithfully ordered two appetizers fried calamari,  crab rangoons and  Singapore Vermicelli as an entre as instructed . Most likely the ones  that I selected in the google form. Aisha did the same thing, staying perfectly within the rules.  Then Momina  began ordering , that's when things  started  to change.

Aisha was  much attentive! I was scrolling instagram until I heard  Aisha saying 'Wait.... we can add dessert!' By then, Momina  added chocolate bao.  Aisha added seasame balls that I  absolutely loved so much. It actually had red beans and chocolate as the stuffing . And I being a cheesecake fan ordered a cheesecake (Don't assume I eat sugar all time. I don't. But yes, I love deserts! Be it  a Kolkata's Rosogolla or Canoli from Mike's Pastry.  Who doesn't like desert? Isn't it?).  Then

Aisha went on "Can we add some more?"

The confused, naive waiter said  a very clumsy 'yeah' in a  thick chinese accent.  And just like that,  Aisha added several kind of dumplings that I am gonna reveal later. I might miss out one or two.  But it was a wave of orders. And the eyeball of the ever confused waiter was just revolving around in a sense of disbelief seeing the size of  the three ladies that created this huge wave ! But I must say, to his credit, he did not mess up a single item. And  somehow we were excellent at keeping track of everything we ordered.

Then  came  the wave  of the  food  😵‍💫  --  an overload of dumplings  and  a carb fueled  of pure happiness.  By now , you know what I had ordered!  But  beyond that the table kept on filling up with Scallion Pancake, Szechuan Wontons, Shrimp Dumplings,  Xiao Long Bao, the special dumpling with the soup inside (sorry I don't recall its name). Aisha had to teach us how to eat those properly, otherwise you would simply destroy them. This particular item was ordered twice.

They were actually served in a steaming basket, and after four pieces, I genuinely thought we were done. I told Aisha I had not tried one. I was honestly overwhelmed by food coma  then. I kept on trying out what's new and I did not notice what is out there.  She informed me with a smile that the basket was actually two-tiered😁 .

Just after this revelation another basket arrived! TADAAA!

Imagine these are only the starters. And there  we were -- three thin rope like ladies sitting infront mountain of food 🍜🍜🍜 . I literally said it looks as if we are eating after whole year of fasting.  We ordered so much that there was a  guy looking at our table and probably was wondering how much  a person can actually eat. 

Believe me I do not eat that much. Infact, since childhood, I have been complained about not eating enough, but this day was  certainly an exception.

Meanwhile dessert arrived. Yes! before the main course. I insisted I did not want dessert beforethe main food, but I was forced by Aisha just to carry on. I had the chocolate dumplings for the first time and had enough fun of having that.

I must say, the food arrived at an impressive fast pace, It reminded me of a very old famous Bangla/Bengali cinema, Golpo Holeyo Sottyi, where the  main character of Dhanonjoy  was  played by Rabi Ghosh (the comedy master!), a lengendary actor portraying  some unforgettable characters, including the iconic  Bagha Bayen  from the movie 'Gupi Gayen O Bagha Bayen', the characters were originally developed by one of my most  favorite authors Upendrakishore Roychowdhury in his write up, and the movie was originally directed by his  equally legendary grandson,  the  versatile  Satyajit Ray ----- another favorite author of mine and  a true auteur. Sorry for all these detour, I would compose one more blog about my favorite pieces of literature, authors from my perspectives and my view point, and why I like them.

For now let me attempt finishing  this blog first! So we are heading back to the world of carbs again.

Soon after, the main courses arrived:  Sigaporean vermicelli  noodle, General  Tso's  shrimp  (which was  Momina's order and it was absolutely delicious)  and the chicken coconut curry, ordered by Aisha, that was yummm... too. Since I am complimenting  everyone's main course I must say  I liked  the  taste of  the vermicelli noodles very much.

Our table was officially  full. In fact, there was no space  left at all. We began placing plates along the small architectural ledge, a shelf -like  structure  near  the  entrance  of a section, that was just next to our table.

We are now very very full. 

We headed out  finally, eating a meal that was perhaps meant for a year. And  the leftovers are literally more than enough for next two days.  We were probably the only people in the  trip who  were carrying several  black Chinese tupperwares with leftover food !!!

After that, we went to Tinseltown. Here I must say few words about Tinseltown. It's a great theatre. It was very crowded. We were given our own mini private theatre that was actually booked for RIT students (for the event). It was my first experience of this kind.  Also I understood that you can actually book a theatre for your private event. In my hometown, we generally do not get such experience. Moreover I have been just thrice to a theatre in Kolkata! I do have one in our graduate student residence, but I have never watched a movie there. Also when I say 'mini'  here, I should clarify, it was not anything small, rather quite huge. It looked like normal sized movie theatre. 

It was fun to watch  the movie 'Wicked for Good'. I  won't disclose much. I enjoyed the movie  and  would recommend  people watching it (well you need to watch the first part, 'Wicked' too, in order to understand this movie), only if your taste is like mine.  Dear reader! you may not  like  it (the movie), and I totally respect your choice too! You may not like my choices either! And that's okay :) 

Here I must say, there was a lady  who sat beside me at the theatre and asked,

"Was it you guys who ordered so much food?"

Just imagine, we were  that noticeable!
⋯ ☕ ⋯

On the shuttle ride back, Aisha and I slipped into one of those beautiful conversations -- the kind where, every now and then, you burst into laughter for no reason at all. Mostly, we kept circling back to the waiter and that unforgettable look on his face.

I told her that I would never forget this day. It has already etched itself in my good memories.  The one kind that you silently carry for a lifetime. We  honestly had so much fun, and ofcourse the food. I had a lot of fun too. These kind of days are very rare in graduate lifetime, because most of the time you are simply swamped up with so much stuff and on top of that you are away from your family.

Honestly I am not someone who is usually wild or overly eager about food .... nor I think I will ever be like this in future. But this day is actually a rare one, a happy exception. We probably left a few people wondering if we were slightly insane.

 On the way back to my apartment, I stopped by Aisha's apartment and dropped off some food for her roommates as well. And still, the lefovers were so generous that I couldn't finish them even over the next two days 🥟 🥟 🥟

Dear Reader, if you made it this far, thank you for staying with me. And if you are drooling a little right now, do yourself a little favor -- get a plate of hot dumplings for yourself 😊 . I promise the world will feel just a bit kinder afterward❧🤍🥟 🧸

~from Cocoon’s Diary 🐛