LESSON 2: CULTURAL TIES TO FOOD
In Chapter 2, students learn about celebrating New Year’s through the eyes of Barbara Bruecher, whose mother has Hawai’ian, Chinese and
Portuguese ancestry and whose father has Chinese ancestry.
This chapter addresses food and how it’s strongly connected to family and cultural celebrations. Food can be seen as a “family tree” of
delicious cuisine, an important legacy of food that can be passed down from one generation to the next, connecting the past and present.
Pre-Reading Discussion
Have students take 10–15 minutes to write a journal entry for the following questions:
1. In your own family traditions, when are special meals prepared for close family and friends? What do you remember about the meal(s)
you had during these events? What made them extra special?
2. Food is powerful. It brings people together, connects cultures, ethnic identities and good memories. What are the smells in your family’s
kitchen that bring back the most memories? Why?
3. Write a list of “all-American” foods? Why are they connected to being American (for example, hot dogs at a baseball game)?
4. Why are family and food connected?
5. What are your favorite family foods? Are they made frequently, or are they prepared only on special occasions? Are they connected to
your culture?
6. Are there any special recipes that have been passed down from elders in your family? What are they?
7. Interview a family member about what they remember about the special foods they ate when they were young.
• What smells can they still remember?
• What were their favorite foods that were prepared?
• Did they bring that tradition to their own family and continue to have these same foods in their home now? Why or why not?
READ CHAPTER 2
Compare & Contrast Activity
4
HOLIDAY CULTURAL CUISINE COMPARISON CHART
Ethnic Group
Name of Food
Main ingredients and/or how it is made
Holiday or reason for making
1. Fill in the Native Hawai’ian foods mentioned in Chapter 2 and what they are made of.
2. Add some of your own holiday cuisine, with a description of what they are made of or how they are made, and which holiday or
special event they are made for. Fill in the ethnic community that the food is from, if you know its origins.
3. Share your foods with some classmates and exchange information so you can learn about their cultural foods and add more dishes
to your chart.
