Students get taste of world’s cuisine
Sixth-graders go international with displays and foods from countries they studied in teams.
The West End Elementary gymnasium was bursting with happy chatter, native songs and the aroma of exotic foods during the school’s culture showcase Monday night.
Sixth-graders spent about two weeks in teams studying countries ranging from Sri Lanka to Germany, then invited friends and family for an international tour. Each booth featured a display with facts about the country and a sampling of some national dishes. At the Vietnam booth, where Johnny Tran was serving up fried rice, his fellow student Allison Tanksley was rattling off details about the country’s government, people and land.
“Something I really found interesting is that Vietnam contains 60 percent of all the kinds of animals in the world,” Allison said.
McKenzie Breeden shared a piece of trivia at the Ireland booth, where classmates Carson Floyd and Elliott Mayo handed out cups of Irish coddle, a potato stew with sausage, bacon and onion.
“The Titanic was made in Ireland,” McKenzie said.
At the Kenya booth staffed by Sydnee Whatley and Reagan Robinson, visitors tasted plantains. Yui Michie’s mother made some dishes for the Japan booth and Trinity Swanson added some miyabi onion soup. The lands of Australia, El Salvador, Italy and Jamaica also were among those represented. The hourlong event kicked off with songs from Spanish I and II students from Rome High — “Vivir Mi Vida” (Live My Life) by Marc Anthony and “Soy Yo” (I’m Me) — that set the whole gym clapping and singing along. Teacher Desiree Jones said many of her students at the Freshman Academy are former West End students who wanted to give back to their school. Her husband, Gary Jones, teaches at East Central Elementary but said a lot of his students are now at West End.
“This is a great idea,” he said, looking around the room. “It’s really important for the community to get together like this.”