The Importance Of Food To American Culture

For this first intercultural activity we all decided as a class, to have a wide variety of different foods shared in the classroom based upon everyone’s culture. America is a very diverse country. There are many religions and cultures that have different foods which play a big role in celebrations and every day life. This activity allowed everyone to get to know eachother on a more personal level by tasting foods from their culture. As in most cultures, any kind of celebration includes a great emphasis on food and by doing this activity we all learned the collection of diverse foods from all of our cultures and what they symbolize. The United States is sometimes described as a “melting pot” in which different cultures have contributed their own distinct “flavors” to American culture. This group activity really made me value and relish the different foods that my classmates shared with me and it helped me appreciate the many food choices we have in America. The cultures that were revealed all varied including; Chinese, Lithuanian, Cicilian, Italian, Dutch, and German. Many of the food items I ate were foods I’ve had before and some foods I tried for the first time and enjoyed. The purpose of this activity was to get everyone out of their element and try different foods so they can …show more content…
This food was brought in by a girl named Erika who is Italian. Erika educated the class with explaining that rice balls are coated in breadcrumbs, and fried. Arancini is usually filled with rice, sauce, mozzarella, and peas. Although, she explained that as a young girl she didn’t like the peas that were inside them and her mother now makes them with rice, cheese, and meat. Being Italian, I have had rice balls before and I enjoyed trying Erika’s recipe. I also do not like the peas that are in most of the rice balls which are served at Italian restaurants, I found it more enjoyable to try them without