It was a kaleidoscope of culture, color and culinary delight.

With booths representing 10 international student associations and students from many more countries, the International Food Fair brought a little bit of the outside world to the Memorial Union Sunday.

The Great Hall buzzed with activity as students from a plethora of backgrounds banded together to arrange tables, spread out food and set up displays.

When the doors opened at 5 p.m., more than 100 hungry people streamed in, eager to sample the food that had been teasing them with its delicious aroma.

Zeina Zaatari, a graduate student in anthropology, proudly showed me her harisah, a dessert made with coconut and Cream of Wheat. “I’ve been cooking since 10 this morning,” Zaatari said, whose hometown is Beirut, Lebanon.

She said she made her dish by grinding coconut, blending it with sugar, butter, yogurt and Cream of Wheat, spreading the mix into a pan, and baking it until the top turned brown.

It was smooth and sweet on my tongue, and a little syrup drizzled over the crunchy top made it even better.

“It’s a tedious task. We were up until [4 a.m.],” said Jeanda Cavan, publicity director for the Laotian/Thaidam Student Association, as she offered me some of her egg rolls.

Of course I accepted. How could I refuse those crispy morsels which were full of ground pork and spicy carrots, cabbage and onions? The price made them even tastier: three egg rolls for only two 50-cent tickets.

Three smiling children greeted me at the booth of the African Student Association. Julius Maina, from Kenya, asked whether I would like to try some of the mandazis in the bowl in front of him. I took some of the little dough balls. Id also picked up some spiced beef and sadza, a creamy cornmeal pastry, from Onward Mandebvu, who said he was from Zimbabwe.

Ethnic music filled my ears, I picked up a cup of lemonade and searched for a place to set my heaping plate

Seng Cheong, a junior in electrical engineering from Malaysia, was eating some Pakistani beef curry when I joined him at one of the many tables dotting the floor of the Great Hall.

“It’s very good!” he told me, adding that he enjoyed cooking ethnic dishes from his country, even thought he hadn’t made anything for Sunday.

“We just pick it up and eat it,” said Chitae Kim, a junior in computer engineering from Korea, when I asked him what he was eating. He told me it was Greek, but that was all he knew.

The food fair provided an inexpensive meal, as admission was only $2, and most food dishes were priced at only two or three tickets.

Sidi Tandia, staff adviser to the International Student Council, said all proceeds from food sales are given to the student organizations which provided them.

He also said the $2 admission fee funds the International Student Fund, which provides scholarships to international students who would not otherwise be able to afford the cost of attending Iowa State.

The International Food Fair is an annual event at ISU, said Sandra Gui, co-chair of the food fair, who said she has been planning for Sunday’s festivities since January.