food

Virtual Field Trip: Historic Mexican Cookbooks

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Lately, many museums have been setting up virtual tours of their galleries or opening up archives online that were previously closed. One very interesting example of this the University of Texas at San Antonio, which just posted scans of some historic Mexican cookbooks, some dating back to the mid-1800s! 8th grade social studies people: this is an example of a primary source! Also, 8th grade recently finished a unit on Mexican food and ingredient vocab. Some of these ingredients should look familiar (mantequilla, cebolla, naranja, etc.)… assuming you can read the handwriting, that is!

Check it out!

The collection is available here.

There is also an article in Smithsonian Magazine here.

8th Grade Class Work 5.29.15: La Comida y el Internet

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In class on Friday, you will be assigned a restaurant in Barcelona, and will spend time in class exploring the website to answer questions about that restaurant.  The links to the restaurants are below:

  1. Disfrutar: http://es.disfrutarbarcelona.com/
  1. Los Caracoles: http://www.loscaracoles.es/index.php/es.html
  1. Casa Calvet: http://www.casacalvet.es/index.php?lang=es
  1. 4 Gats: http://4gats.com/es/
  1. Barceloneta: http://www.restaurantbarceloneta.com/inicio/
  1. Els Pescadors: http://www.elspescadors.com/es/home
  1. 7 Portes: http://www.7portes.com/castellano/index.php

 

Many of the homepages for these websites offer the option of “English, Castellano, Catalá” (“English, Spanish, Catalán, each in the respective languages).  Remember, Catalán is the other language spoken in Catalunya, the region of Spain where Barcelona is located.  Be sure to select “Castellano,” which means “Castillian,” another way of referring to the Spanish language. Be honest.  If your website offers an English option and you do the assignment through that link, you may complete the worksheet, but you haven’t gotten the practice.  When you travel, this is exactly the kind of thing you need to be able to figure out en epañol!

  • ¿Cómo se llama el restaurante?   ¿Es un nombre en español o Catalán?  Qué significa el  nombre?
  • ¿Dónde está el restaurante?
  • ¿Cuál es el número de teléfono del restaurante?
  • ¿Cuándo está abierto (los días de la semana/horas)
  • ¿Qué tipo de comida hay?
  • ¿Quieres visitar este restaurante?  ¿Por qué? (o por qué no?)

When you are finished with your questions, give your completed paper to the substitute and either work on one of the extra credit assignments, or play Spanish games on Quia.

Pan de Muertos Recipe

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This weekend, many Mexican and Mexican-American families will be celebrating el Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead.  This holiday was adapted from the Catholic tradition of All Saint’s Day (as was our Halloween, which is derived from “All Hallow’s Eve” the day before All Saint’s (or Hallows) Day).

On Día de los Muertos, familes clean the grave sites of their loved ones who have passed away, and set up altars in their homes with candles, cempazuchitl (marigold), incense, photos, and trinkets that represent what their family members enjoyed during their lives.

Another important tradition is baking pan de muertos, or bread of the dead.  Here is a recipe for pan de muertos if you are interested in trying it at home (from allrecipes.com, link to the recipe here).  Note: one of the comments states that if you have a bread machine, it works great making the dough in the machine on the dough cycle, and following the rest of the instructions after the first rise.

Pan de Muertos

1/4 cup margarine
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45
degrees C)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons anise seed
1/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 teaspoons orange zest
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon orange zest
2 tablespoons white sugar
1. Heat the milk and the butter together in a medium saucepan, until the butter melts. Remove from the heat and add them warm water. The mixture should be around 110 degrees F (43 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl combine 1 cup of the flour, yeast, salt, anise seed and 1/4 cup of the sugar. Beat in the warm milk mixture then add the eggs and orange zest and beat until well combined. Stir in 1/2 cup of flour and continue adding more flour until the dough is soft.
3. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic.
4. Place the dough into a lightly greased bowl cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size. This will take about 1 to 2 hours. Punch the dough down and shape it into a large round loaf with a round knob on top. Place dough onto a baking sheet, loosely cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for about 1 hour or until just about doubled in size.
5. Bake in a preheated 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) oven for about 35 to 45 minutes. Remove from oven let cool slightly then brush with glaze.
6. To make glaze: In a small saucepan combine the 1/4 cup sugar, orange juice and orange zest. Bring to a boil over medium heat and boil for 2 minutes. Brush over top of bread while still warm. Sprinkle glazed bread with white sugar.

8th Grade Enrichment: El Desayuno (Breakfast)

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By now, nearly everyone has heard back from their pen pals in Barcelona!  If you have your login and password with you (or memorized), you may log in to ePals to check for any new messages any time you like.  As always, no messages can go in or out without my and the other teacher’s approval.  However, you can check it if you’d like to see if you have heard back.

This week, many of your pen pals shared what they eat as a typical breakfast, and some have sent pictures of their breakfast (sometimes as a selfie!).  You may be interested to see what people in Spain typically eat to start the day.

On Thursday, we will be replying again.  Start thinking about what a typical breakfast consists of for you.  Also, if you would like to take a picture to send back, you may take one at some point this week (with or without your breakfast) and have your parent or guardian email it to me in an attachment, with a note that they approve you to send it to your pen pal.

Influencias Africanas en América Latina

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Thanks to its diverse history, Latin American culture and language is a mix of many influences from nearly everywhere in the world.  One element in this mix is especially important in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba; African culture.  Because so many slaves were brought to the Caribbean to work on sugar plantations, African culture became a part of Caribbean language and culture that exists to this day.  In some areas, African languages even mixed with Spanish, French and Portuguese to form “creoles,” or languages that are a mix of two or more original languages (for example, Haitian creole, which is a mix of African influences and French).

Source: searchdominica.com

African culture is still visible in the Caribbean today.  Santería, for example, is a religion that formed from a combination of catholicism and African religions.  Slaves re-named their gods with the names of Christian saints so they could continue to worship, even in slavery, and combined their religious practices from home with the Catholic rituals of the Spanish.  African drumming also influenced music in the islands, and many styles of Latin music have African names.  And lastly, African food impacted Caribbean cuisine, especially dishes with African staple foods such as plantains and yams.

Below is a list of some words in Spanish that come from African languages, all of which are still used in Latin American Spanish (and even in U.S. English!) today:

Música:

  • bachata, conga, mambo, rumba (all styles of music and dance)
  • bongo (a type of drum)
  • marimba (an instrument similar to a xylophone)

Comida/Food:

  • fufú  (a dish typical of Western Africa, made from boiled and mashed plantains)
  • guarapo (sweet sugar cane juice)
  • mofongo (fried plantain)
  • mangú (a Dominican dish similar to fufú)
  • mondongo (tripe soup typical of la República Dominicana)
  • mabí (a tree-bark drink; a soda of a similar name also exists: Mauby Fizzz)
  • ñame (yam)
  • banana

For more information about dominican cooking, as well as some recipes, click here
Also, did you know that tasty Caribbean food is only fifteen minutes away?  Sazón Restaurant in Norwich has great Cuban food!  Here’s the address and menu and a review of the restaurant in the Norwich Bulletin.
7th Grade Homework Questions (Answer in English):
1.  How can we see African influences in Caribbean food?
2.  How can we see African influences in Caribbean religion?
3.  How can we see African influences in Caribbean music?
4.  Haitian Creole is a mix of what two languages?

Please Pass the Chapulines

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istock-7089431-cricket_wide-876a81eaf54c8927e726c7393ee1dfccc2b593ed-s40-c85In the video we recently watched about Mexico, we saw several occasions where the host saw bugs being eaten (and even tried some herself).  Coincidentally, the article below was published last week on NPR about entomophagy, the practice of eating insects.  In the story, the founder of Little Herds, which raises insects as food, brings up some interesting points as to why eating bugs may be good for you… and the Earth! (*That being said, please don’t go outside and start eating any bugs you see… they aren’t ALL edible, FYI)

NPR story here: http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2014/04/03/297853835/the-joys-and-ethics-of-insect-eating

Link to the Little Herds website: http://littleherds.org/

1.  What are some of the reasons that that eating insects is better for the environment than eating other “traditional” meat, such as chicken or beef?

2.  The article discusses whether or not insects are “sentient.”  What do you think that means?

3.  What are some things that most Americans eat that would be considered dirty by other cultures?

4.  Would you ever eat insects?  If so, would you prefer trying chapulines or something baked with the insect-based flour described in the article?  Why?

Recipe: Tostones (Fried Plantain)

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Plantains

One of the staples of Caribbean food is the plantain. You’ve probably seen them in the grocery store: similar to a banana, this fruit is larger, greenish-brown and starchier (I wouldn’t recommend peeling one and eating it straight!).  Plantains are used in many Caribbean dishes, especially tostones (fried crispy plantain) and mofongo (mashed plantain).  In many ways, it can be used the way U.S. cuisine used the potato.

Tostones are a great first recipe if you’re interested making Latin American food at home.  Some of you may remember making these in class last year, especially how great they smell!  This recipe does involve heating oil in a frying pan, so I recommend you ask a parent to help you out.

Ingredientes:

-Plantains (you’ll want them to be greenish in color and firm- once they are black they are sweeter)

-Vegetable oil

-Salt

Instrucciones:

-Peel the plantains.  Again, they’re tougher than a banana, so you may need to slice the peels lengthwise first with a knife to get it started.

-Slice the peeled plantains into “coins” about ½ inch thick.

-Heat a little vegetable oil in the bottom of a frying pan and place the plantains carefully in the pan.

-Fry the plantains for about 2 to 3 minutes, turning them over midway through.

-When plantains are golden-brown, remove them carefully from the pan with a spatula and place them on a paper towel.

-With another couple paper towels, blot the excess oil and press down so they get slightly squished.

-Ideally, the outside should be crispy and the inside soft.  Sprinkle a little salt on them, and once they’ve cooled off, enjoy!

Tostones… ¡qué rico!