Flavours of the world
You’ll need
- Ingredients (see recipe)
- Paper cups
- Knives
- International foods
- Napkins
Foods to use
You can use anything from another country. If you’re struggling for ideas, it should be easy to find:
- Croissant, madeleine cakes, brie, or camembert cheese from France.
- Pakoras, onion bhajis, or plantain chips from India.
- Kiwi fruit or pavlova from New Zealand.
- Manchego cheese, olives, or tortilla (Spanish omelette) from Spain.
Before you begin
- Gather your foods and cut them into bitesized pieces.
- Put each food in a different bowl (or on a different plate).
- Fill the cups with water.
Taste time
- Everyone should wash their hands.
- The person leading the activity should give everyone a napkin and a cup of water.
- The person leading the activity should show everyone the first food. Everyone should try to guess what it’s called, and describe how it looks.
- Everyone should take a piece, and describe how it feels to touch, and how it smells.
- Everyone should taste the food, and describe what it tastes like and what its texture is like in their mouth.
- Everyone should talk about the food, and the country it comes from. Is it a surprising that the food comes from that country? What other foods come from that country?
- Everyone should take a sip of water.
- Repeat steps two to seven until the group has tried and talked about all of the foods.
Reflection
This activity helped to remind you that you’re a local, national, and international citizen. What food would represent your local area? How about your country? Which of the foods did you like the most? Do you think you’d like to visit another country and try the food there?
This activity was also a chance to try new things. Did you enjoy trying new things? How did you feel before you tried a food? What about afterwards? What made it easier to try new things—for example, did your friends encourage you, or did someone brave have a go first? Sometimes it can be scary to try something new, but when we give it a go it’s often not as bad as we think (even if it’s not our favourite). If you gave it a go and challenged yourself, well done!
Safety
All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.
- Food
Remember to check for allergies, eating problems, fasting or dietary requirements and adjust the recipe as needed. Make sure you’ve suitable areas for storing and preparing food and avoid cross contamination of different foods. Take a look at our guidance on food safety and hygiene.
No one has to touch, smell, or taste anything they don’t want to. They can still describe how it looks (or touches or smells, if they want to), and they can predict the senses they don’t want to try. Friends who have tasted the food can describe what it’s like, so people can see if their predictions were right.
Make sure anyone with dietary requirements can try as many of the foods as possible.
All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.
Why not plan an international meal or evening, and cook or bring dishes to share? Parents or carers who have lived in other countries may like to join to talk to the group about food, culture, customs, and language. If everyone cooks, it could count towards their Cook Activity Badge or My World Challenge Award—we’ve included some recipe cards to give you some ideas.
Young people could vote on the countries they’d like to try food from. They could have a discussion or play a game. Some people might know lots about food from another country; they could share what they know with everyone else.