CookingÉEcuadorian Food

Unit Topic: The Galapagos Islands

Grade Level: Middle School

Basic Concepts: Culture, appreciation of different foods

Content Areas: History, Home Economics, Foreign Language

Time: 1 1/2 hours

• Students will gain an appreciation of the culture in Latin America through cooking and sampling traditional food.
  
  
• Students will learn the Spanish words for the food they are cooking.

Activity

Students will help to prepare a traditional Ecuadorian meal consisting of fresh pineapple (pina) to start with, then lettuce (lechuga), a fried egg (juevo frito), and llapingachas. (There is no English Translation).

Recipe for Llapingachas

• Bring peeled potatoes (papas) to a boil and cook until very tender.
  
  
• Drain the water and mash the potatoes. Add a bit of orange food coloring for appearance.
  
  
• Cut mozzarella (queso) into cubical squares.
  
  
• Take a small handful of potatoes and role them into a bit of a flat circle with the square of cheese inside.
  
  
• Once there is a batch rolled, fry each side of the llapingacha in a frying pan.

Discussion: Have the students reflect on what they thought of the meal. Were there any connection between the traditional meal and the folktales that they read a couple days before?

Evaluation: The teacher will evaluate the students according to the Observation Rubric. Each student needs to receive a 3 or 4 in order to be successful.