Rachael's blog

Lesson number 19 of Food is Elementary focused on China. In this lesson, students learned about using a wok as a way to cook food. They also discovered soy beans and their great versatility. Students also participated in the creation of a delicious Chinese stir-fry dish!

The lesson began by locating China on a map. The Food Educators explained that China has a huge population of more than one billion people. Because of this large population, starvation has long been a problem in China. As a result, the Chinese people have been very resourceful in developing their traditional cuisine.

During week eighteen of Food is Elementary, students were able to learn about the island of Japan, the artistic presentation of food through a sushi making exercise, and about some of the ingredients common in Japanese cuisine.

Japanese cooking relies on simple yet beautiful preparations of seasonal foods. Dishes are not covered in heavy sauces, but rather are created with an emphasis on clarity of flavor. During lesson # 18 of Food is Elementary, our students prepared a very delicious vegetable sushi. It was tremendously popular, and very healthy. Don't forget the low sodium say sauce for dipping!

Vegetable Sushi

During lesson # 17 of Food is Elementary, our students returned to Africa for a visit to Egypt! In this lesson students learned that the Egyptian pyramids have a realtionship to the USDA food pyramid, that the first breads were made in ancient Egypt from wheat and barley, and about some of the foods that were used thousands and thousands of years ago in Egypt that are still used today.

Every spring, I wait for that transcendent moment when everything comes together and the season hits its most refreshing, jubilant, birds a-chirping note and there's no looking back to the bleak days of winter. That moment finally arrived last night over a couple of pizzas on the patio of Franny's in Brooklyn. I was with my dear friend John, we could see the Big Dipper, the pies were expertly wood-fired and I discovered the absolutely most perfect pizza wine ever in a glass of Bonarda from Italy's Lombardia region.