by Zachary Boetto
The Islands Café celebrated its 7th Annual Strawberry Festival on Tuesday, April 17 by providing guests with an all-strawberry themed menu.
“Strawberry this, strawberry that, ribbons everywhere, lots of red, it was beautiful,” Garrett Izuno, a psychology major, said. “I love it, for me, just going into the cafeteria, having the strawberry festival — it’s a dream come true. It’s magical for me and I absolutely love it.”
The strawberry festival is a special time for CI students and faculty when they get to celebrate strawberry season and the agricultural history that surrounds the school.
From strawberry stuffed French toast to citrus mint marinated flank steak with a strawberry BBQ glaze, guests indulged in a wide variety of options including the berry that inspired the CI red.
“I thought it was nice for a change, but I think they should’ve washed the strawberries because a bug came out of one of my strawberries,” Genesis Canal, a communication major, stated. “I think it’s a cool concept but they should wash their strawberries. That’s the only complaint I have.”
The Islands Café also included a fun guessing game for every guest. The game consisted of a container full of strawberries and guests had to guess the amount of strawberries in the container.
Everyone who walked in received a chance to guess how many strawberries were in the container and whoever guessed the correct number won a prize.
Some other items on the menu consisted of strawberry arrabbiata, Baja crispy fish tacos with strawberry pico de gallo, strawberry acai smoothies, chicken strawberry goat cheese sando, chocolate dipped strawberries, strawberry shortcake and strawberry pie.
“I think they’re cool and I think strawberries are cool but I wouldn’t necessarily want to mix them in with some of the foods,” Bhavin Bhavsar, an English major, said. “There’s this burger that’s got strawberries in it as one of the toppings and then there’s chicken with strawberry sauce over it and it doesn’t sound appealing to me.”
The strawberry festival is a special time for CI students and faculty when they get to celebrate strawberry season and the agricultural history that surrounds the school.
Strawberries are celebrated across the California coast during springtime. Places like Oxnard and Garden Grove also have festivals that participate in celebrating the red berry.
