The subject of food is never far from our minds here in College Admissions. It is a topic of serious conversation this year on campus, too, with the publication of a book called The Hungry Soul: Eating and the Perfecting of our Nature, by Leon Kass, M.D., a Chicago faculty member who teaches in the College. The book takes a philosophical look at what food, eating, and table manners have to tell us about our human estate. Compose an essay about a memorable meal you have eaten. We are especially interested in the details: the occasion, your company at this meal, its physical setting, the kinds of foods you ate, or their preparation. (University of Chicago)

- It was January, 2011, in Belgium. It was a formal dinner of SAARC countries and some of the European countries. My mother was one of the representatives of Bhutan in Europe. For the first time, I had seen ministers, Vice Presidents and all these other high class officials.  They had body guards, police men, and it felt so ‘movie-like’. The Bhutanese had to wear their national dress and the food was also from Bhutan.

- Most of the food was high-class European delicacies, but the rest wee Bhutanese, although I have no idea how they made the Bhutanese delicacies. The first hour was waiting for the guests to arrive. It was boring, but I was on security duty. I was like the usher thee, which was kind of fun, as I felt so important but there was a lot of guests and finding their names on the name list was hard and boring. I even laughed at some of them due to their hilarious names.

- The second hour was the appetizers. Waiters, dressed in white, moved around the area with straight backs, formal hair, and those typical steel trays you see them carry. The foods on the trays were awesome. I can’t really name them as most of the appetizers had either a weird French or Italian name. There were small biscuits wrapped in cheese and mutton, omelets wrapped around beef and tied with a vegetable, but my favorite was the Shrimp and sushi dipped in vodka. I was the only young one there and everyone else was on their 30s and above, besides, I didn’t know there was alcohol in the dish. I found out only after a few dozen pieces.

- The next hour was the main course. The tables had no chairs, so we had to stand and eat. It was my first time, and thought it was kind of stupid, but what the hay, it was still good. There were a lot of varieties. There was a typical medium rare stake, Momos, Kewa Datsi (a sort of Bhutan’s specialty which contains chilly, cheese and potato), Barbequed fried duck dipped in some alcohol ( I still ate it though), and my favorite was the huge slice of bread surrounded with chocolate and vegetables. Although I don’t like chocolate, I loved that dish. I was the first and best dish ever in my life.

Then there was the last course, the desert. Here there were a huge variety, and believe it or not, I tried it all. There was the infamous Belgian waffle, with or without toppings, that’s your choice. There was the chocolate banana pancakes mixed with strawberry ice cream.  There was the fruity bliss, which contained a mixture of the chocolate, vanilla and strawberry along with wafers and a pinch of alcohol.

- Each course had alcohol in them. I wasn’t allowed to have them, but then all the good ones had alcohol in them, so I couldn’t resist. I felt drowsy and tired after dinner. I guess I ate a lot. Then as we reached home I fell flat on my bed, with a full stomach, and had the best sleep ever.