Using mouthwatering entrées to promote culture and study abroad programs in Germany is a strategy that both the Global Education Office and Student Dining have been collaborating on for the past two years.

The special meal took place Oct. 6 for German-American Day, featuring ethnic menu items such as spaetzle.

According to the German-American Heritage Foundation of the USA, people began observing the holiday in 1863 when German-Americans from Krefeld first settled in Philadelphia.

Rebecca Parillo, director of Global Education, first encountered German-American Day when she traveled to Germany. Parillo was informed that Oct. 6 is German-American Day, and celebrating it on AU’s campus would provide Global Education an opportunity to promote study abroad programs in Germany.

Parillo contacted Kevin Burke, executive sous chef for student dining, to look over various food options to incorporate into the menu for “German-American Food Day.”

During dinner, Parillo set up a table with informative texts and informed students about the study abroad program in Germany. Students of the study abroad program also shared their experiences.

“It was to promote study abroad programs in general on campus,” Parillo said. “I want them to know that this option is to complement their academic program at Ashland, and they might be surprised that it is less expensive than going to AU for a semester.”

Burke thinks that this German-American Day was better than previous ones.

“The prices are very reasonable,” Burke said. “I’ve done some German food here and there throughout my career and we did some research and made it a little better this time to keep things more interesting. In the past, we’ve done our own Octoberfest and things like that.”

Normally, they would have separate bars for various parts of the day. The Hot Bar items during lunch are usually different from the items at dinner.

However, on German-American Day the side dishes were the same all day. The items consisted of bratwurst and various other meats.

Sautéed pork loin in a mushroom cream sauce and wiener schnitzel were entrée options that were offered.

For dinner, the two entrées switched to sauerbraten, which is beef marinated in red wine and vinegar for four days. There was also breaded, deep-fried spaetzle and German potato salad.

Burke said he is glad to help promote German-American Day through food.

“I think it is important to promote all ethnic cuisines,” Burke said. “It keeps things interesting and makes people become aware of different cultures. I think if someone tastes something [unusual], they start to think about the different history behind it, why it happened, and it makes you more tolerant of other ethnicities.”

German-American Day isn’t the only ethnic cuisine theme Convo has offered.

“We’ve done anything from soul food to Greek,” Burke said. “We do a lot of Asian cuisine and Mexican just to try to keep interest because [of] its reception from the students. Our German cuisine is not as popular as Italian or Chinese.”

Although some students are not fans of ethnic food, Parillo said that she is looking forward to having “German American Food Day” every year due to the high number of students who expressed interest.