Difficulty: Explorer (Level 1)
Food is a delicious way to connect with different cultures. By exploring new flavours and dining styles, you can learn more about the places these foods come from. It is also a good opportunity to think about how we get our food and where it is grown.
Explore your supermarket
1. Choose a supermarket to visit with a family member.
2. Pick out five ingredients that your family usually buys and note where they came from. Take photos or write the countries of origin on a piece of paper.
3. Check out the world map below to see where each of these places of origin is located. How many countries were represented on your plate today?
4. Use an online map to calculate the distance between your home and where your food came from. Which item travelled the furthest to get to you?
5. On your next shopping trip, see if you can find the same type of food but grown closer to home. When food doesn’t have to travel as far, it produces fewer greenhouse gases.
Cuisine tasting
Instructions:
1. Pick one ingredient that you bought while grocery shopping. Use the internet to find a new recipe for that ingredient that you haven’t heard of before. For example, search for “recipes with tomatoes” and browse the results.
2. Check what other ingredients the dish might need and the steps for cooking it.
3. Fill out the chart with information about the recipe. How many ingredients do you need? How many different types of spices will you use? Is it difficult to make this dish?
4. It’s time to get cooking! Follow the recipe and make the dish with your parents. When it’s ready, test your creation. Discuss with your family how it turned out. What did you like best about it? What would you change?
Country of origin: ___________________________
Number of ingredients : ___________________________
Taste: ___________________________
Cooking time: ___________________________
Difficulty level: ___________________________
Cultural meaning of the dish: ___________________________
