Illustration by Joaquin Kunkel

Graphic by Pranav Mehta

Grega Ulen, Ljubljana, Slovenia Junior Lasagna (Origin: Italy)

I encountered lasagna rather late in my youth, but it was love at first taste. Lasagna is a combination of all of my favorite ingredients: ground beef, with which I was obsessed throughout my childhood, pasta and mozzarella cheese. My mother makes the best lasagna, as is often the case with food, and makes me one whenever I come back home — a habit some of my culinary-talented friends have picked up for when they want to spoil me.

Graphic by Pranav Mehta

Yi Yi Yeap, Melbourne, Australia Junior Avocado smash with poached eggs (Origin: Australia)

I was missing home, my mum and my friends, and hating my time in NYC, but one day, my American friend sent me a list of things to do before leaving, and an Australian café was one of them. The moment I got to the café, I realised how much I had missed Australia. The waiters had the accent, the menu had the coffees, the food was covered in avo. It was one of the few times that I really felt like I identified as an Australian. Too bad the waiters didn't think so (I had lost my accent for a bit).

Graphic by Koh Terai

Warda Malik, Abbottabad, Pakistan Freshman Parathas with cream and honey (Origin: Parathas originated somewhere in the subcontinent quite a few centuries ago.)

My mom and I share a love for traditional breakfast, so it was something we did together when we woke up early on weekends and savor parathas with cream and chai. Our love for breakfast food only continued to grow, and we would sometimes adopt it either for lunch or dinner after a tiresome day and share gossips and secrets over warm parathas and chai to relish the quality time.

Graphic by Pranav Mehta

Sebastián Rojas Cabal, Cali, Colombia Junior Spring rolls (Origin: They come in many different forms; recipes change as you go around East and Southeast Asia)

An afternoon in Myanmar after a day of waking up before sunrise and driving our motorcycles through dusty roads and abandoned temples. It was just me, my best friend, 30 spring rolls and two beers.

Graphic by Pranav Mehta

Rend Beiruti, Dubai, UAE Junior Dolma (Origin: Ottoman Empire)

Dolma means coming home; it's comprised of stuffed vegetables, which is a metaphor for how I feel every time my mother makes it for me.

Graphic by Pranav Mehta

Pranav Mehta, Mumbai, India Freshman Rajma chawal (Origin: Punjab, India)

Had it for 4 days straight. It was not a good idea.

Graphic by Pranav Mehta

Joaquín Kunkel, Mexico City, Mexico Freshman Tacos (Origin: Mexico)

On weekends, deviating my trip home late at night from a party for some 24/7 street tacos would always make waking up the next day much better.

Graphic by Pranav Mehta

Muhammad Usman, Gujranwala, Pakistan Junior Biryani (Persian origin)

In the Maldives, just like in the UAE, Friday was a day off. So after Jummah prayers, my father, my brother and I would return home and find the most delicious biryani, made by my mother, on the dining table. It was a connection to home like no other.

Graphic by Pranav Mehta

Carlos Escobar, El Salvador Sophomore Huevos a la turca or Turkish eggs (Origin: family recipe)

Every time I would go visit my grandfather for breakfast, he would make it for me only because he knew how much I liked it. Now that he passed away, the smell of "huevos a la turca" reminds me of him and the endless conversations we had over breakfast about Salvadoran politics and his time abroad in Europe.

Graphic by Pranav Mehta

Larayb Abrar, Saudi Arabia, Canada, Pakistan, UAE Freshman Biryani — but it has to be the kind my mother makes, otherwise it's just another food

While most of my biryani memories are full of love and joy, I will say I have had one terrible experience where a family friend invited my family over for dinner and served the most salty biryani I have tasted to date. In fact, the salt content probably overrode the actual biryani. When I warned my mother about it, she didn't believe me. Then she tasted it and told me I was exaggerating. This was the moment my mother and I developed trust issues.

Graphic by Pranav Mehta

Josefina Dumay Neder, Chile Freshman Chileanized sushi (Origin: Japan, but Josefina prefers the sushi adaptation in Chile)

Every Friday, I used to go to an all-you-can-eat sushi place and eat four or five eight-piece rolls. Then I’d feel very full, but it was the best moment of my entire week.

Graphic by Pranav Mehta

Supriya Kamath, Mumbai, India Freshman Coconut-flavored rice (Origin: The Kamath household)

My mother would pack it for me to have it for lunch in school. Unfortunately, I hardly ever got to eat it, because it was hugely popular with my classmates. It is a hard choice to make: a decent social life, or coconut-flavored rice? The question still plagues me.

Graphic by Pranav Mehta

Jocilyn Estes, Texas, U.S.A. Freshman Southern-style, Estes homemade, Paula Dean butter-drenched biscuits — biscuits in this sense are not equal to cookies. (Origin: Biscuits are a staple food of the southern United States. They are incredibly simple to make, and widely underappreciated. I have no idea where they come from exactly, but biscuits have been made on the Estes family farm for generations.)

Saturday mornings with my Dad. We would make biscuits and black coffee, sit on the porch together and talk for hours. Some form of country music was always playing in the background, and in the winter we would light a fire together and watch the day begin.

Graphic by Pranav Mehta

Khadeeja Farooqui, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Pakistan Junior Rusk soaked in chai aka chairus (Origin: Probably somewhere at a khokha in the streets of Karachi or Bombay, but I’ll say the Farooqui household)

Growing up, we were always stationed in cold areas in the north of Pakistan — Skardu, Gilgit, Quetta, Murree… My mother would soak rusk, which is called twice-baked bread in the English language, in the last two sips of her cup of chai because it’s a healthier snack than instant noodles. Eventually, it became my family's comfort food on cold Saturday mornings and every single day in evenings after the Maghreb prayer. I still sometimes have a box of rusk from Bread ‘n’ Butter, our local bakery in Saddar, Rawalpindi, delivered to Saadiyat, and I happily consume copious amounts of chairus at 4 a.m. in the morning.