Imagine if scientists wanted to put things into a space capsule to share information about Earth with any aliens that might encounter it. Your job is to find foods that represent different parts of Earth. (Fortunately, the capsule has a special seal that prevents food from spoiling, so the aliens won’t end up with a tube of fuzzy green mold!)
Some parts of the planet are easy to represent. For example, rice for Asia. Other parts of the world, however, might be tougher, like Australia. Why is this? Why do some areas have traditional foods?
Most likely, it’s because some cultures have developed around specific foods. Rice has been central to Asian culture for about 10,000 years. It’s so important that, in many Asian languages, the words for rice and food are identical. Rice is also a common theme in Asian art.
Rice needs warm weather and plenty of water to grow. In some areas, the fields of rice are actually flooded with water. These fields are called rice paddies. Farmers often work knee- or thigh-deep in water as they tend their crops in the paddies.
It is easy to choose a food to represent Ireland. The potato comes from South America, where it was first grown by the ancient Incas. In the early 1500s, European explorers looking for gold discovered the potato, and brought it back across the Atlantic.
Very quickly, the potato became essential to the diets of the people of Ireland. It was filling, cheap, and easy to prepare. Potatoes were especially important to the poor.
The problem is that potatoes were at risk from diseases in the new land that were not found in South America. When diseases hit the potato crops in the 1700s and early 1800s, there were many years that the potato crop failed. The farmers and the economy managed to recover from these failures.
On average, a person in Asia eats about 300 pounds of rice every year. The average American eats about 25 pounds of rice every year.
Between 1845 and 1852, the potato crop was attacked by a devastating disease called the potato blight. It destroyed the potato crop to the point that many people starved and the economy collapsed. This period is known as “The Great Famine.”
By the end of the famine, almost a million people had died of starvation. Another million had fled Ireland, seeking food and jobs in North America and Australia. During the Great Famine, the population of Ireland dropped from about nine million to just over four million people.
If you’re looking for a food from Africa to put into the space capsule, you might try cornmeal. Also called maize, cornmeal is made from ground dried corn. Maize is central to people’s diets in many African countries. It is often served as porridge, with vegetables like yams, cabbage, or turnips added to it for flavor. In countries like Zimbabwe, people either buy pre-ground cornmeal or grind their own from their crops.
The potato is grown in more places than any other food crop.
Cornmeal is called different things in different African communities:
Zimbabwe: sadza
Kenya: ugali
Uganda: posho
Malawi: nsima
South Africa: mealie pap
Now think about your own family. Do you have a staple food item, something that forms the base for just about every meal you eat? Probably not. Like most Americans, you eat a variety of foods. You might dine on fried rice and sweet-and-sour chicken one night, and then have pizza and salad or barbecued chicken and mashed potatoes another night.
There are a few reasons for this. Since the United States covers a wide range of climates, farmers can grow different things. We have a reliable transportation network capable of bringing these foods across the country.
In addition, people from all over the world have settled in the United States. They’ve brought many different types of foods with them. If you like to eat a variety of foods, you’re fortunate to live here!
What your family eats can be influenced by your heritage, your financial status, and where you live. If you live in the country, you may have fewer choices than if you live in a big city.
National and world events affect what you eat too. Immigrants settling in different areas of America during the early 1900s opened a variety of restaurants. That’s why there are so many Italian pizzerias in New York City and Creole establishments in New Orleans.
During World War II, rationing influenced eating patterns. Meat, sugar, and butter was available only in limited quantities to the general population. Why? These foods needed to be sent to soldiers fighting the war.
potato blight: a disease that destroys potato crops.
famine: aperiod of great hunger and lack of food for a large population of people.
immigrant: someone settling in a new country.
rationing: when the supply of something is limited and it is distributed carefully among people.
The lowly potato has fed millions of people and become an important part of many cultures’ diets. Make this maze to help a potato find its way …
1 Cut two pieces of cardboard that will fit very snugly as dividers inside the shoebox.
2 Using the scissors, cut a small hole, about half an inch wide, in a different place on each divider. These holes will be the way your potato works its way through the “maze.”
3 Using the duct tape, secure the dividers into the shoebox, spacing them evenly. Your shoebox should now have three sections. The potato’s sprouts will work its way through the holes, so make sure there aren’t any other openings in your shoebox.
4 Cut a large hole about 1 inch wide in the end of the shoebox. Make sure the lid won’t cover it up. This is where the sunlight will expose the potato.
5 Place your potato in the first compartment of the shoebox, the one farthest from the sunlight hole.
6 Put the lid on the shoebox. Tape it securely if you need to. Place the shoebox where the sunlight will shine on it.
7 Keep checking your box. After several days, the potato should have found its way through the maze and out the hole at the end of the box! Take off the lid, and you can see how it navigated its way. The sprout was growing toward the light, like all plants do.
During World War II, bakers got creative to meet the challenges of rationing. They came up with ways to make things like eggless cakes and meatless meals. This recipe was a base for whatever else was on hand, like fruit, pudding, or ice cream.
1 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (175 degrees Celsius).
2 In a small saucepan, mix together the water, raisins, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, sugar, shortening, and salt.
3 Bring this mixture to a boil and boil for 3 minutes. Remove it from the heat and allow it to cool.
4 In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, and baking powder, and then stir in the mixture from the saucepan. Pour the combined mixture into the pan.
5 Bake for about 50 minutes, checking for doneness every so often.
Gali Akpono is an African cornmeal cookie flavored with nutmeg.
1 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (175 degrees Celsius).
2 In a small bowl, mix the cornmeal with the water. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, salt, and nutmeg.
3 Add the cornmeal mixture to the flour mixture and stir together. Mash the margarine into the flour-cornmeal mixture with a pastry cutter or fork.
4 In the small bowl, whisk together the eggs and the milk. Save the white from one of the eggs for later. Add the milk and eggs to the flour/cornmeal mixture.
5 Roll the dough out about quarter inch thick. Use a biscuit cutter or the top of a glass to cut the dough into small circles, about 3 inches across. Brush the top of each cookie with egg white.
6 Bake the cookies on a cookie sheet for about 12 minutes, until they are golden-brown.