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World Culture Activities for Kids

Around the World in 12 Dishes: Mexico

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Hola and welcome to Mexico!

Our virtual trip around the world has landed in Mexico this month and we were eager to start cooking.

We’re not strangers to Mexican food and actually eat it quite often, so this month’s food challenge didn’t require any research on my part. The challenge was deciding.

We finally came up with the idea of taquitos. Taquitos are actually quite easy to make and the girls were able to do a lot of the work themselves.

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

I set out all the ingredients for our Chicken & Salsa Verde Taquitos, shredded chicken, salsa verde, and crumbled up queso fresco cheese.

Our local grocery store has a wide variety of authentic Mexican ingredients, so instead of our usual cheddar, I decided to try a traditional Mexican cheese. The choice was perfect. The queso fresco melted well and was a perfect compliment to the salsa verde, which is a salsa made from tomatillos.

The girls got to work pouring and mixing. I had already premeasured the ingredients, so the girls were able to work independently on this part.

Once the filling was all mixed up, we started filling and wrapping our taquitos.

Once rolled up tight, we placed them all on a lightly oiled sheet pan.

Before putting them in the oven, spray the tops with a bit of cooking spray to help them crisp up.

We paired our taquitos with some sour cream for dipping and a side of refried beans. Yum! We loved visiting Mexico!

Chicken & Salsa Verde Taquitos

1 c shredded cooked chicken
6 oz. queso fresco cheese
8 oz. can salsa verde
10 flour tortillas

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Mix the first three ingredients together. Scoop approximately 3 tablespoons of the mixture into the center of each taquito. Roll up tightly and place on a lightly greased sheet pan. Lightly spray tops of taquitos with cooking spray. Bake in oven for 10-12 minutes or until tortillas are lightly browned.

Welcome to “Around The World in 12 Dishes”. We will be taking you on a journey around the world, (loosely) following in Phileas Fogg’s footsteps, exploring 12 different countries with our children, by cooking 12 dishes with them. One for each country visited.
 
The world is such a wonderfully diverse and colorful place. Our children see maps, flags and books. They see postcards and maybe they see films about the world.. but let’s really bring it to life through food! Taste and smell don’t often get explored, we think this would be wonderfully fun and interesting for you and your children.
 
Not only is it an exciting and different way to learn about cultures, but cooking with children brings a host of benefits – from numeracy to science. How can you beat that?

Around the World in 12 Dishes

We had started our journey the same way Phileas Fogg did in London, UK, and Stockholm, Sweden, then continued on to Moscow in Russia and via Indian New Delhi reached Tokyo in Japan. After making a stop in the exotic location of Papeete, capital of French Polynesia, we have now reached Mexico City!

  • March 4 – First country was the UK
  • April 1 – The second country was Sweden
  • May 6 – The third country was Russia
  • June 3 – The fourth country was India
  • July 7 – The fifth country was Japan
  • August 5 – The sixth country was Australia
  • September 2 – The seventh country was French Polynesia
  • October 7 – The eight country is Mexico!

How to join the fun!

  • The only mandatory part is the dish, the rest is all up to you, we just thought it would be fun and more concrete to the kids as to why we are making a unusual dish.
  • Cook a dish from Mexico: The goal is to explore this country through FOOD and activities if you wish. Make a typical dish (sweet or savoury) from the country with the kids, take photos and have fun!
  • Typical dishes: Tacos, Enchiladas, Quesadillas and more.
  • Print your passport: Click here to download, comes with space for a photo of the child with the dish. Here is a little cover for it if you wish 🙂
  • Color a placemat: Once colored/painted or whatever other way you want to do this, you can laminate it or put it between clear contact paper to use it over and over. Great conversation piece for you and your kids. Click here to download it.
  • Make a craft: you can make a country related craft with the kids [optional!]
    • Fun fact: The Chihuahua is the world’s smallest dog and is named for a Mexican state.

Around the World in 12 Dishes: French Polynesia

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We’ve been whisking around the world via our taste buds and this month we landed in French Polynesia.

French Polynesia is a group of islands located west of Australia. One of the most well-known islands in French Polynesia is Tahiti, which is where we decided to land.

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

Because of it’s tropical island location, Tahitians eat a lot of fish and fruit. We decided to focus on fruit while learning about Tahiti.

We searched our local grocery stores and found a selection of fruit for our tropical fruit tasting. We had banana, mango, pineapple, papaya, and coconut.

Some of the fruits were very familiar to my girls and there were others we had never tried before.

After talking a bit about the island of Tahiti, we grabbed our forks and dug in.

Lizzie’s favorites were mango and coconut, while AJ preferred pineapple and bananas.

I loved the papaya!

Yum, yum good!

It was fun to imagine being able to dig in to this fabulous fruit on a daily basis.

In addition to eating our tropical fruits, we also learned about Tahitian dance and music. YouTube was a big help.

We listened to some Tahitian drummers and then watched several examples of Tahitian dance. And when we were finished watched, the girls put on their grass skirts and danced the afternoon away!

Around the World in 12 Dishes: Australia

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This month Around the World in 12 Dishes traveled to Australia.

My girls were thrilled to learn about Australia and make what is now our favorite cookie, ANZAC biscuits. Where have you been all my life?

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

We started out by locating Australia on our globe.

We talked about how it is currently winter in Australia and that Christmas occurs in the summer.

We learned about Mem Fox, a famous children’s book author from Australia, and read two of her books, Koala Lou and Possum Magic.

We love to learn about animals and this virtual trip to Australia provided us with the perfect opportunity to learn about some fun animals such as the kangaroo, wombat, and koala.

Then, it was time to cook. While researching recipes, I found the book Easy Desserts From Around the World (Easy Cookbooks for Kids) by Heather Alexander.

I wanted to make ANZAC biscuits, but the ingredient golden syrup was causing problems. You just can’t find it anywhere around here! The cookbook suggested replacing the syrup with honey and it worked perfectly.

I can’t reprint the recipe for you here, but I found a similar version of the recipe. Click here for the recipe. You can replace the golden syrup with honey. Be sure to line your cookie sheets with parchment paper or grease them; Anzac biscuits will stick to your cookie sheet if you don’t.

The recipe was very simple to make.

The girls were able to help every step of the way. They measured, stirred, and formed balls of dough.

We were very eager to try these!

Luckily the wait wasn’t very long and we were able to enjoy a yummy afternoon snack. We loved ANZAC biscuits and Australia. We had another fun virtual trip!

Around the World in 12 Dishes: Japanese Curry Rice

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I have to confess that coming up with a dish for Japan that I thought the whole family would eat was difficult.

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

I searched through books and all over the Internet until I finally stumbled upon the idea of curry rice. I was surprised to learn that curry was one of the most popular dishes in Japan. Usually it’s made with an instant curry roux. But, I knew I would never find that in my small town. Luckily, I happened across this recipe for homemade Japanese curry rice from No Recipes.

I discovered that making the curry rice was going to be a long process. It took me about 1.5 hours from start to finish. Since our typical meal usually take about 30 minutes, I really had to plan ahead.

We made plans for a special night of Japanese food and by the time that night got here, everyone was excited.

But, no one wanted to help. So I chopped… and I chopped. I tossed veggies in a pan. I cooked up a batch of rice. Finally, a little helper came to the kitchen to help.

I had AJ (age 3) stand at the stove and help stir. There’s a lot of stirring involved, so it helps to have a helper.

So, we worked and worked softening up all of our veggies.

We added the chicken, the potatoes, and the carrots. Finally it was time to make the roux. Yum… did the kitchen ever smell good!

AJ and I gathered the family and it was time to eat.

My little kitchen helper gobbled her curry. Boy, was it good!

Unfortunately, it turned out the the other two members of the family weren’t fans of curry. Oh well. We still had fun on our culinary trip to Japan.

I hope you’ll consider joining us by making a Japanese dish of your own!

Welcome to “Around The World in 12 Dishes”. We will be taking you on a journey around the world, (loosely) following in Phileas Fogg’s footsteps, exploring 12 different countries with our children, by cooking 12 dishes with them. One for each country visited.

The world is such a wonderfully diverse and colorful place. Our children see maps, flags and books. They see postcards and maybe they see films about the world.. but let’s really bring it to life through food! Taste and smell don’t often get explored, we think this would be wonderfully fun and interesting for you and your children.

Not only is it an exciting and different way to learn about cultures, but cooking with children brings a host of benefits – from numeracy to science. How can you beat that?

We had started our journey the same way Phileas Fogg did in London, UK, and Stockholm, Sweden continued on to Moscow in Russia. Now our next stop is New Delhi, capital of the exotic sub-continent of India!

  • March 4 – First country was the UK
  • April 1 – The second country was Sweden
  • May 6 – The third country was Russia
  • June 3 – The fourth country was India
  • July 1 – The fifth country is Japan!

How to join the fun!

    • The only mandatory part is the dish, the rest is all up to you, we just thought it would be fun and more concrete to the kids as to why we are making a unusual dish.
    • Cook a dish from Japan: The goal is to explore this country through FOOD and activities if you wish. Make a typical dish (sweet or savoury) from the country with the kids, take photos and have fun!
    • Typical dishes: Sushi, Gohan, Chicken Yakitori, Gyoza, Sukiyaki, Yakisoba.
    • Print your passport: Click here to download, comes with space for a photo of the child with the dish. Here is a little cover for it if you wish 🙂
    • Color a placemat: Once colored/painted or whatever other way you want to do this, you can laminate it or put it between clear contact paper to use it over and over. Great conversation piece for you and your kids. Click here to download it.
    • Make a craft: you can make a country related craft with the kids [optional!]
    • Read a book: We recommend “K is for Kabuki”.
    • Fun fact: Many of the western style toilets in Japan have a built-in bidet system for spraying your backside.

Around the World in 12 Dishes: India

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I’ve been looking forward to exploring India through food ever since we started the Around the World in 12 Dishes challenge.

The girls and I have already exploring India through books and crafts, so this time we focused on food and music.

Our food of choice was the mango lassi. A lassi is a very common and popular drink in India. I knew the girls would enjoy it.

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

Throughout our food journey, I’ve been trying to keep things simple and appealing. Both of my girls can be picky eaters and I’m trying to help them learn to eat different foods from different cultures by using recipes that had some familiar ingredients.

The familiar ingredient in the lassi was yogurt, a favorite in our household.

To make our mango lassis, I cut up one fresh mango and added it to the blender. (If you’re like me and don’t know how to even start cutting up a fresh mango, you can use this simple tutorial.)

The girls then added 1/2 cup of milk and an 8 oz. carton of plain yogurt. Then they took turns blending until our drink was smooth and creamy.

That’s it! It was that simple.

This is probably one of the easiest recipes for Indian food you can find.

By the time we were done blending, the girls were excited to try it. We poured, added straws, and slurped away. Yummy!

While we were enjoying our lassis, I searched YouTube for some examples of traditional and contemporary Indian music. This example of Indian folk music and dance was one of our favorites and we also enjoyed this example.

I hope you have fun exploring India and all of the other countries we’ll be visiting!

Welcome to “Around The World in 12 Dishes”. We will be taking you on a journey around the world, (loosely) following in Phileas Fogg’s footsteps, exploring 12 different countries with our children, by cooking 12 dishes with them. One for each country visited. The world is such a wonderfully diverse and colorful place. Our children see maps, flags and books. They see postcards and maybe they see films about the world.. but let’s really bring it to life through food! Taste and smell don’t often get explored, we think this would be wonderfully fun and interesting for you and your children.

 
Not only is it an exciting and different way to learn about cultures, but cooking with children brings a host of benefits – from numeracy to science. How can you beat that?

Around the World in 12 Dishes

We had started our journey the same way Phileas Fogg did in London, UK, and Stockholm, Sweden continued on to Moscow in Russia. Now our next stop is New Delhi, capital of the exotic sub-continent of India!

  • March 4 – First country was the UK
  • April 1 – The second country was Sweden
  • May 6 – The third country was Russia
  • June 3 – The fourth country is India

How to join the fun!

  • The only mandatory part is the dish, the rest is all up to you, we just thought it would be fun and more concrete to the kids as to why we are making a unusual dish.
  • Cook a dish from India: The goal is to explore this country through FOOD and activities if you wish. Make a typical dish (sweet or savoury) from the country with the kids, take photos and have fun!
  • Typical dishes: Butter chicken, Tandoori Chicken, Chicken Tikka Masala, Rogan Josh and Naan.
  • Print your passport: Click here to download, comes with space for a photo of the child with the dish. Here is a little cover for it if you wish 🙂
  • Color a placemat: Once colored/painted or whatever other way you want to do this, you can laminate it or put it between clear contact paper to use it over and over. Great conversation piece for you and your kids. Click here to download it.
  • Make a craft: you can make a country related craft with the kids [optional!]
  • Read a book: Check in at Glittering Muffins for a review for “T is for Taj Mahal”.
  • Fun fact: India actually is the birthplace of the number zero! The rule for its use was first shown in Brahmagupta’s book “Brahamasputha Siddhanta” in 624 AD!