Students of the World Share Delicious Recipes

Whether you are gathering to celebrate or just take a lunch break, food connects people. The food we eat tells a story about our culture, our environment, and our lives. Food is home, and by sharing their favorite foods, students can learn a lot about cultures around the world.

This week, we celebrate Anisha from Thailand, Alondra from the United States, Ellenor from the United Kingdom, and Aqilah from Malaysia who recently completed A World of Food. Our PenPals of the Week shared the foods that make their community home.

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In A World of Food, students not only share their favorite foods, they also create a food diary to learn more about the types of food they eat throughout their day. PenPals are even sharing recipes and experiencing culinary traditions from around the world.

View A World of Food Syllabus

Through the reading, video, and conversations with PenPals, Ellenor explored different foods around the world. ​

“Our community food is similar to other countries. Scotland's popular food is haggis Neeps and tatties which we celebrate on Robert Burns day. My favourite food is Chicken Nuggets because I love how it is crunchy on the outside. When I watched the video it inspired me to eat more vegetables and try more things I haven't tried. Know I’ve watched the video again and again I now know where some foods are made. There is a few kind of food I don't like for example sushi, I don't like sushi because I don't like sea food that much, my second dislike food is some of the flavour in the pie especially apple, I don't like apple pie because the apple inside is to big and they need to cut it more smaller. I love some of the spices from India because I love to taste other spices and I love spiciness.”
​-Ellenor from the United Kingdom

Aqilah shared her favorite dessert.

“Today, I want to share about pulut inti. Pulut Inti is a traditional Malaysian dessert of steamed glutinous rice with a sweet coconut topping. They are usually wrapped in banana leaf. Inside the small pyramid shaped package is a mound of steamed glutinous rice topped with sweet coconut. It is hard to determine the origin of this dessert. This is my childhood favourite dessert stands back when I was a kid. Pulut Inti is usually eaten at room temperature but it is also delicious served slightly warm. Hope you like it!”
​-Aqilah from Malaysia

Pulut Inti (Source: www.keyingredient.com)

Alondra and Aqilah told their PenPals about food that is popular in their countries.

“My community is Mexico but I live in the United States. Mexico has many great foods such as vegetables, and a lot of fruits to make juice . In Mexico a lot of popular foods are rice, beans , tamales and a lot more. Also, fruits are used to make drinks like tamarind juice and mango juice . Some people are used to eating spicy stuff because in my community we eat a lot of hot stuff which gives our food better taste. During the summer or spring fruits start growing from trees and people go out and get them to eat. Even if you,re not close to a tree that has fruits you can smell the fresh fruit from where you are .Have you ever wanted to try something from my community? I want to learn about your community?”
-Alondra from the United States

“Malaysia is a multicultural country. They are many traditional cuisine that we can try and some of our food serve in a unique way. The first one is Nasi Lemak. It is popular among malay people. Nasi Lemak is the most common food in Malaysia. Sometimes, it can be serve in a banana leaf. They serve it in banana leaf to get some aroma from the food. As we know, aroma from the food can attract people to taste it. Basically, the traditional Nasi Lemak contain pandan rice, shrimp paste, anchovies, boiled eggs, slice cucumber, salty fish and peanuts. Now, people invent it by putting some fried chicken but they still using the traditional recipe of Nasi Lemak to keep the same test as it is. Nasi Lemak have variation of taste such as spicy that come from the sambal belacan, and salty that come from the salty fish and peanuts. This is a must-try food if you came to Malaysia. What I like about this food is because of the taste and the aroma that can make you calm right away.”
-Aqilah from Malaysia

Anisha compared foods in different countries.

“I live in Thailand and they have many different foods similar and different to other countries around the world. In Thailand, they have many different types of food using coconut. I come from Sri Lanka and Sri Lankan food can be very similar to foods in Thailand. In Sri Lanka, one of the most famous food is 'Kiribath' which in english means 'coconut rice'. Thailand has food including coconut like, sticky rice with mango and coconut milk, coconut soup and more.

​Thailand food can be very different to other foods around the world. For example, food in Japan. Thai food, is mostly rice, curries, Thai soups and more however we barely have any raw fish (except in Japanese restaurants). Also, another similarity, is that Thailand has many fast food chains and American-style restaurants which are continuing to grow all around the world. McDonald and Burger King is another example of fast food restaurants around the world. Another similarity is that Thailand has many curries like green curry, yellow curry, Kaeng Pa, Kaeng Som and more. Overall, Thailand is a great country with many different types of food from around the world, as well as unique food from it's own country.”
​-Anisha from Thailand

Anisha told us that she "likes connecting with other people around the world and finding out what they're interested in and what their thoughts are. Food is such a famous aspect of the two countries I've lived in, Thailand and Sri Lanka." These PenPals did a great job of describing the food in their home country while learning more about foods from their PenPals’ countries. 

Food brings people together, and in A World of Food students explore the recipes, foods, and culinary traditions that make communities special. Want to explore the flavors of the world? Invite your students to join the conversation and enroll in A World of Food today!

Enroll in A World of Food