5 minutes presentation

In this project you will visit a restaurant or grocery store that serves food from a culture that is different from your own. Eat a meal and select the dish that you find most interesting, or purchase one or more prepared food items (frozen or deli style).

Take a picture of the dish. Research the origins of that dish, how it migrated to California and how it (may) have been modified from its original form in the migration. You are encouraged to be creative with your research. You may include interviews, internet and library searches.

Your final product will be a short (5 minute) recorded oral presentation or Sway infographic.

What you will do in this part of the project

In this part of the project you will visit the resturant or ethnic grocery store that you selected and try one or more dishes. Select one dish to focus your presentation on. You will present a short (5 minute) recorded presentation or create a Sway infographic to share with the class that summarizes the dish, its country of origin, its history and your reaction to it. This project is not a restaurant or food critique, it is a summary of a the Geography of a specific dish.

Instructions

Your meal

Meals are more fun with friends. I encourage you to take several friends on this adventure. Be open minded and respectful of the culture you are visiting.

Take notes and pictures

Take notes during your meal or right afterwards. Jot down your impressions of the food, the restaurant decor, and the neighborhood that the restaurant is located in. Take several pictures of your dish (you will need them in your presentation)

Follow up

Google the dish. Look at several different recipes for it. What are the defining ingredients? These might be the primary grain or protein in the dish, or it might be defined by a specific spice or other ingredient.

If possible, try to talk with someone who cooks the dish. You could explain to your server at the restaurant that you are doing a project for a college class and would like to talk with the chef about their dish. See if you can call the restaurant or visit at a later time to chat with the chef. Ask them about how they make their dish and why it is important to them. This is actually pretty easy – chefs love to talk about their food, and it is an opportunity to meet an interesting new person and learn first-hand about the dish!

Your presentation

You have two options to present:

Record a 3-5 minute narrated slideshow (using Google Slides or Power Point) and Studio or another screen capture software of your choice. NOTE: I will stop watching the video after 6 minutes. Material presented in the video after 6 minutes will not be considered in grading.

A Sway or Story Maps infographic

Content of your presentation

You are encouraged to conduct first person interviews and include quotes from your primary sources in your paper.

• Specifically, your presentation must address:

At least two photos of your dish

• A QUESTION of the dish

The defining ingredients in the dish

How it is presented

How it is consumed

Note if any of the above have been modified in the dish’s migration to California

The country of origin

• climate

dominant starches and proteins in the culture’s diet

• How or when the dish migrated to California (or where ever you are currently located)

How the dish has been modified in its migration

Your overall impressions viewed through your geographer’s cultural lens.

• Consider who consumes the dish (people from the dish’s source culture? others?)
• Where or when is it usually consumed? Is this an ”anytime” food, or something specific to a holiday, season or time of day?
• How is your perception of the culture from where the dish is from shape or inform your feelings about the dish?
• How you view the dish, and if your perceptions of it changed between your first introduction to it and now.