for Malaysian students

On March 3, the Drake Malaysian Students’ Association (MASA) hosted Mamak: The Night That Never Sleeps. The event spanned three houses: La Casa, the Black Cultural House, and the CAYA House. Arrivals were served authentic Malaysian cuisine and drinks and could play some eSports.

The event was an attempt to emulate the feel of a common restaurant in Malaysia.

“In Malaysia, mamak is a 24hour restaurant where you can get anything, like the rice and noodles you saw here. You can get random western foods, soup, you name it,” said Vidya Velloo, vice president of Drake MASA. “We just wanted to replicate that whole atmosphere here at Drake because it’s something that’s really close to all of our hearts. You’d never find someone (in Malaysia) who said ‘Oh, I’ve never been to a mamak, I don’t know what it is.’ People go there at least a few times a week.”

The president of Drake MASA, Grace Linn, said that they held the event to give Malaysians a piece of their home and spread their culture with others.

“We wanted to show what this was all about,” Linn said. “When we talk about our culture, we get so excited, but nobody knows what you’re really talking about, so we wanted to show it.”

The two said that their event, while crowded and busy, was just a small representation of what a mamak stall in Malaysia is like.

“When we were yelling, ‘Number 85, order 85,’ that’s something that they would do, but what we did was like a fraction of that,” said Velloo. “They would be shouting from the beginning. It’s chaotic, but it’s fun, and we tried to replicate that.”

Some of the added chaos may come from actual mamak stalls being a larger-scale operation. Linn said that the stalls are typical hang out spots to watch sports and meet up with friends, and they have a lot more food than the five dishes served at Drake’s mamak event.

“There’s a large selection of food and drinks,” Linn said. “What we had tonight is less than a fraction of what they really have at a real mamak,” she said.

This isn’t the first food-based event that MASA has held.

“We did a (preliminary version) where we actually sold food,” Linn said. “We got good feedback from that. We had a large crowd, maybe a bit bigger than the one today, because we did that in Olmsted breezeway so we had more space.”

Linn said that Drake MASA generally has free food at their various events, because they want to share Malaysian cuisine with others.

“It’s also a big part of who we are as Malaysians,” said Velloo.

“We get really excited about our food. If you ask a Malaysian to tell you about themselves, they will come up with something to do with food.”