On Wednesday June 7th, students from Chippewa’s travel and tourism class embarked on a walking cultural food tour of downtown North Bay. Their mission was to explore culture through the food served at several North Bay establishments that specialize in bringing international culinary offerings to the city.
The students visited Arugula, The Cedar Tree, Dave’s Green Papaya, and the North Bay Farmer’s Market.
"Over the course of the day, they walked all over our city and learned plenty about the cultural background of many of the foods they were served, including common ways of cooking and preparing food in each culture, eating traditions and customs practiced in each culture, and the influence of geography on food," said Mike Brisson of Chippewa's Canadian and World Studies department.
Their first stop was Arugula Restaurant, where students tasted three kinds of authentic Italian pizza!
"They were also told about the importance assigned to quality ingredients in Italian cooking, as well as the fascinating story behind their pizza oven and why it was important to fly in a pizza-oven-builder straight from Italy," explained Brisson.
Next, students tasted Lebanese foods at The Cedar Tree Restaurant, including fresh baked thyme pie, roasted chicken shawarma, and piping hot falafel. Students were told about the importance of fresh ingredients and authentic flavours as well as the influence of climate on the availability of ingredients.
For their third stop, students completed a scavenger hunt through the North Bay Farmer’s Market where they asked questions of the vendors so that they could explain the benefits of buying local, identify the locations of several vendors in the community, and learn about new fruits, vegetables, or other products they’d not seen before.
Lastly, the students stopped at Dave’s Green Papaya, where they were served many uniquely Asian foods including spring rolls, General Tao chicken, and pad Thai with rice noodles. Here they smelled and tasted fragrant Asian herbs and they also tried their best to use chopsticks while enjoying their cultural experience.
“The best way to explore a culture is through its food,” believes Brisson, “and we’d like to thank all the establishments that our students visited today for offering them a chance to try new and wonderful flavours, to learn about different cultures, and to become involved in our diverse cultural community.”
