For a moment, home didn't seem so far away for Maja Jechorek and two other Polish exchange students at Casper College.

French fries, hamburgers and other American fare were off the menu at the Roberts Commons cafeteria Thursday night and were replaced with cabbage rolls, potato dumplings, pickle soup and other Polish delicacies.

"I think the cabbage roll tastes just the same," said Jechorek, 20, a psychology major, of the home-cooked taste of the food. "I'm so glad."

Polish students like Jechorek and others from Wyoming enjoyed the taste of Poland during the final ethnic dinner for the school year hosted by the Casper College Diversity Committee. The other dinners held this year were Italian, Brazilian, Cuban and German.

Inside the cafeteria, the smell of cabbage, ground beef and onion baked in a spicy tomato sauce filled the air. A steady stream of people formed a line to sample a little bit of everything. As they ate, Polka music played in the background helped set the mood.

At one point, a little girl danced along to the music as her parents finished their meal.

The menu for the Polish dinner consisted of radish green onion salad, rolled cabbage, potato salad, potato dumplings, beets in sour cream, Polish sausage and sauerkraut, beer rye bread, fruit custard and Polish tea cookies.

For Agata Dawidowicz, 21, another student from Poland, the pickle soup was one of the menu items she was looking forward to the most. She grabbed three of the small cups of soup and brought them back to where her friends were eating.

Other young women were trying for the first time what seemed like exotic foods.

Jennifer Crandall, 21, of Pine Bluffs, opted to just sample the dumplings and the cookies, which she said she liked. Her friend Sierra Barber, 20, of Wheatland, tried the cabbage rolls.

"It wasn't bad," she said. "I never had one before."

Some of the recipes for the event came from suggestions from staff and faculty who have Polish heritages. Dagmara Motriuk-Smith, who teaches biology/zoology for University of Wyoming/Casper College, suggested the pickle soup. The soup is made out of diced pickles, sour cream and chicken stock and was served cold.

"It was something my grandma used to make," Motriuk-Smith said. "It's kind of a thick soup."

Art Washut, a criminal justice instructor at the college who has Polish roots, suggested the cabbage rolls and a few other recipes. He said his family has a traditional Wigilia, or vigil, on Christmas Eve, where they eat a dinner of traditional Polish foods.

The meal was prepared by the staff at Sodexho, the company that makes the food every day for the students. The company also is responsible for making the food for the other international dinner nights and works in conjunction with the diversity committee, said Tim Hammerschmitt, general manager with Sodexho.

Although nothing officially has been set, Hammerschmitt said next year's dinners could include a Vietnamese meal and other tempting cuisines.

Dianne Dorsey, diversity committee member, said the idea behind the dinners is to promote diversity on the campus by exposing people to different cultures and foods. The college has 25 students from 17 different countries this year and many are from Poland.

The Italian dinner, which was held recently, attracted about 293 people of which 133 were students, Dorsey said.

"It's more than food," Dorsey said. "It's also a social event."

Reach reporter Aimee Tabor at (307) 266-0593 or aimee.tabor@casperstartribune.net.