Taste Station Rotation: Mesopotamia
As an Designer in Residence for Jackson Middle School, I designed a unit about the cultivation of civilization in the fertile crescent through food. It was an exploration of tastes, place (where the foods originate from), memory (how they related to the students), and community (how civilizations formed through agriculture and farming).
Day 1: Taste Station Rotation I made six posters that corresponded with what was going to be tasted at each station. Each station had five foods to taste. A corresponding picture of the food in its original form was on the poster as well as world map with latitude and longitude lines. The posters had a latitude/longitude coordinate for one of the foods at each station that needed to be found on the map by the students. Each student was presented with their “passport” to take with them to each station. On the passport was the same image of the world map and six lines to write down the answer of the country from the latitude/longitude coordinate found on the poster at each taste-station, of the food that is found growing in that place. The colors correlated with the ancient tradition of Ayurveda. According to Ayurveda, each flavor is related to a specific color. It was important to have them reflect on their taste-station experiences so on the back of their passports, the students wrote down one thing they noticed, one thing they felt, and one thing they wondered about each taste station.
Sweet Station 1: -Map Prompt: color is violet; China -Tastes: banana, rice, butter, mango, wheat bread
Sour Station 2: - Map Prompt: color is yellow; Mexico - Tastes: lemons, lime juice, yogurt, apple cider vinegar, soy sauce
Salty Station 3: -Map Prompt: color is blue; Red Sea (boarders on Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan) -Tastes: seaweed, sea salt, potato chips, pickles, table salt,
Pungent Station 4: -Map Prompt: color is red; Indonesia -Tastes: garlic, onions, ginger, black pepper, nutmeg
Bitter Station 5: -Map Prompt: color is green; Greece -Tastes: kale, spinach, turmeric, grapefruit, olives
Astringent Station 6: -Map Prompt: color is orange; Northeastern USA -Tastes: apple, white beans, broccoli, cranberries, turnip
Day 2: Maza Plates This was a synthesis of tastes from the previous day’s activities. After the kids prepared the simple salads, we ate the food and talked about how the flavors went together, what each individual taste was, why they liked it or did not like it, and how simple it was to put together these salads in their own kitchens. The nutrition levels of these dishes are high and the kids were surprised how easy it was to make them. Each student received the recipes to take home with them to try in their own kitchen.
4 small plates (or mezze’s) were created in mind for the students to help finish prepping the food a.couscous salad (tomatoes, parsley, onion, lemon, vinegar) b.chick peas with cilantro and yogurt (mix chick peas with yogurt) c.mixed olives, hummus on crackers (put hummus and olives on cracker) d.pomegranate seeds and blood orange slices (tossing together the seeds and slices)
Day 3: Metaphorical Cookbook The final day the kids made a metaphorical cookbook about their lives: how do their lives taste? Or, what is the recipe of their life? A wide array of textured, colored, and printed papers were provided along with colored pencils, paints, collage materials, markers, and pens. The students will have creative autonomy on how each of their spreads will look. All students will be given one sheet of paper to be folded in half and will then be incorporated into a book which I will hand bind.
