Having her knees covered in dirt and hands full of what may look like weeds (but are actually herbs) is a norm for Tracy Lu, a junior double majoring in Economics and Philosophy.
“I guess you could say I’m a foodie,” she said.
It is her involvement in Real Food, a BC club focused on promoting sustainable food on campus, which gets her deep in the dirt. Tracy spends most of her Sunday afternoons working in the garden on Brighton Campus– planting, weeding, and watering. The best part? She gets to take home some of the produce,which includes delicious and healthy things like cherry tomatoes, zucchini, grapes, sunflowers, cucumbers, squash, broccoli, and sweet potatoes.
Tracy first got involved in Real Food spring semester of her freshman year after going to a general information session. “I’ve always been into cooking and food culture, and I was into the whole environmental and local side, too. I didn’t realize that BC had anything to offer that related to that,” Tracy commented. She explained that Real Food was a perfect fit in this sense, and it was really the only fit that catered to her interests in food.
Last spring semester, Tracy was in charge of planting and growing plants in the greenhouse located in Higgins. She then had the difficult task of moving all the seedlings to Brighton as the weather became warmer. Now as an upperclassman, Tracy’s role in the club becomes more prominent as she plans to continue her efforts in planning and organizing events. Watch out for upcoming events, such as visiting the local food festival in downtown Boston! Appointed Head Chef this year, she will also be holding regular cooking classes for all the “Real Food-ers” out there or those wishing to learn how to cook.
Originally from Suzhou, China, and now a North Potomac, Maryland resident, Tracy began to cultivate her interest in food at an early age. She recalls watching food shows and reading recipes before her high school years began. This habit soon developed into a need for more information. “I had this obsession with cookbooks for a while,” she laughed. “I realized I could make what the people on the shows were making.” Tracy came to admire MKF Fisher, who she describes as the predecessor of Julia Child, and Anthony Bourdain. Since she wanted to eat healthy- and local foods are better for the environment and local economy- gardening is a branch of her food interests.
Most recently, Tracy has taken an interest in food’s role in different cultures, the similarities between each culture with respect to food and food traditions. “When I was little and lived in China, that was a different food culture, and then America is like a random combination of things,” she commented, “and then I went to Europe and that was very different, too.” She realized from her experiences abroad that as far as preparation goes and the process of how a culture sits down to eat, there might be more similarities between Europe and Asia than either of those between America. “They are similar in deep ways even though they’re culturally really different,” Tracy added. “American food culture is a combination of so many older cultures, but then there are new things being born here, too.”
Among her favorite meals, Tracy lists raw oysters with Tabasco sauce and lobster with butter. She misses a meal she described as “dumpling soup,” with each dumpling filled with a tiny amount of meat, that she ate frequently in China. Another traditionally Chinese street vendor snack: sticky rice filled with either pork or sweet red bean paste (so it can either be a sweet or savory meal) wrapped in huge bamboo leaves and steamed, tied with a string. Delicious? I think yes.
“I love street food in general,” Tracy said. Crèpes from a street vendor in Paris were a delightful experience when she was there this past summer. “I had never had them in a huge size and all wrapped up!”
Food in the future? Tracy’s always wanted to go to culinary school, specifically the CIA. Her main goal in doing this would be to find out more about what people do with culinary degrees and experience in food. “Not everyone goes into restaurants to be chefs,” she said.
“I also want to travel around to see different things about food: how other cultures eat, make, and feel about food,” Tracy added.
But for the moment, she contents herself with working at Addies, which Real Food helped start, and dabbling in her various—and not so common—past times: equestrian, impressionist art, Russian literature, and finishing the Boston Marathon last spring. And of course, a newly acquired endeavor, an intermediate ballet class.