Pulse Editor Elina Vaysbeyn reminded me during the “eating” part of the International Fiesta on Friday night that we could probably have something like this a whole lot more often. That would make me feel a lot better than I do now, after trying to eat a sandwich I got from the food court in the student union. An amalgamation of mushy old chicken product pounded inside a microwaved hamburger bun. Served with fries, six bucks. On the can in a record three minutes.

Friday’s buffet cost five dollars. The buffet style dinner opened its doors at 5 p.m. to hundreds of hungry students (the line went around the proverbial block). I was served two Styrofoam plates of what was easily the best food I’ve eaten at this university. From lo mein to beef patties, shawarma to eggplant to cumin-infused rice, piled high until I feared their sheer mass would collapse my plate. Five dollars.

The events’ servers, from about a dozen international clubs, wore chef hats as they served tong-fulls of food onto my already full plate. I wanted to stay the week. Guiltily I nodded my head, interrupting my servers in full speech as they announced the names of so many foods. As if I needed to be asked.

My standard answer: Yes. I will take as much of that as you will serve me, and everything in those trays there, too.

Some other favorites included Gulab Jamun, a sweet Indian dessert that comes in the form of...well...balls. I also had a collection of noodles, which eventually intertwined into one super-Asian noodle dish, which was good.

I overate, I think, while I sat in the upstairs dining room after accepting my complimentary cups of cola, and it felt so good. There were so many people there, I felt my heart go aflutter.

Though I missed my chance to get a ticket to the performance part of the fiesta (the entire CFA Mainstage theater was sold out in hours), I got what I needed out of the pre-party. The chance to share food with people I don’t normally get a chance to talk to. UB wants to up its cultural interspersion, there’s your answer right there, thanks to the couple hundred people who make up the Student Association.

Oh, SA. As my father always said to me in praise, “I take back all the bad stuff I said about you.”

Anyway, why can’t we do this all the time? I mean, maybe not the same gigantic undertaking by so many for so few, but why can’t we all eat food that we like on campus on a more regular basis? An annual event shouldn’t be necessary to eat well, and it’s important to remember that people who live on campus don’t have the same dining options that Buffalo-dwellers enjoy.

It wouldn’t even be that big a deal to set up some sort of system. I know that a lot of the funding came from the student organization’s budgets, and therefore from the student activity fee. I’d like to think students would be happy to have a little Jamaican jerk chicken along with their turkey-loaf sandwich, even if it might cost them a little more.

The sad part of the food program at UB is that the money made by Campus Dining and Shops doesn’t go into making food better, it goes into UB’s endowment. Not better food. Drag.

Many thanks to the international clubs. Good stuff.