Impressions:

The group I was in went to the two Oriental Markets as well as the Italian Grocery. In the first oriental market, we found a lot of dried plants and roots such as ginseng, mushrooms, white fungus, prunella, and bamboo. In the fresh produce area we saw fresh seaweed, lemon grass stalks, banana blossoms, taro root, thai basil, chinese eggplant, bitter melon, plantain, yuca, and chayote just to name a few. In the second oriental market we saw many of the same in addition to persimmons, aloe vera desset, fresh bamboo, a coconut drink, and canned jack fruit. Many of these were interesting forms, shapes, and colors that we had never seen before. Dr. Frazier told us that many of the tropical fruits like the durian are pollinated by bats which was new information to me.

I think that we were all surprised of the layout of the stores.Even that was different than the Price Chopper we are used to. The produce was displayed in cardboard boxes near the cuts of meat and seafood. There also seemed to be a lack of refrigeration that we see in supermarkets.
The Italian Grocery must have had every kind of olive available. There were also many tomato products ideal for use pasta sauces. Our group was adventurous and tasted a cactus pear. It tasted like a sweet cucumber with seeds.
Overall, the trip to the City Market was interesting to me. Even though, I had been there many times I had never ventured into the stores that offer such diverse foods. I would definitely like to go back again to explore them further.

J took most of the notes for our group. I think something else that we all found interesting was the smell in each of the stores. Some of the meats and fish were laying out on display (without refrigeration) and that was coupled with many vegetables and fruits that weren't packaged. We learned quite a bit from our trip including the fact that aloe vera can be a drink as well as a healing gel! I am not sure if Erika has tried it yet but she did buy some that day! Overall, this was a great cultural experience. I have also been to the City Market many times, usually in the summer because some of our family friends have a produce stand there. I have never taken such a close look around before. I really looked at items in stores I hadn't seen before. I noticed that most of what was processed, dried and packaged contained sugar. That seemed to be the common ingredient. I saw things such as Kantsao Mei, Pa Sen Kua, Juice Ginger, pickled mango (?), many kinds of tea, lotus cake, banana cake (looked like a bar of soap) and something called walnut kernel peanut cake!

. . .our group found some very interesting things that we had never taken the time to really look at before. I had no idea that the stores were the way they were. Jam packed with everything imaginable with very little refrigeration for the meats. (YIKES!) Don't think I'll be doing my meat shopping there, Price Chopper will have to do it for me. Yes, I bought some Aloe Vera but haven't had the guts to drink any yet. I tried to get my husband to, but no luck so far. He did burn his hand and I used some on it, so it has come in handy. Later . . .

I thought it was interesting the way the oriental stores use space. They put the maximum amount of stuff in the minimum amount of space! All the isles were very narrow and things were stacked to the ceiling. I took someone there once and he didn't feel comfortable in the narrow isles.

Also, the way they put the vegetables out in the open for everyone to touch was different. I just can't see that happening at Hy-Vee.

We went to a lot of places and looked at different types of things. I thought the oriental market was the most interesting. There were fish and vegetables, and other types of raw food out in the open. It reminded me a lot of Tahiti, and the marketplace there. They have all of the seafood and fish sitting out like this.

My group went to a various of stores and concentrated on finding different things from different countries. For example, at the different plant stores we wrote down all the diffrent plants from other countries. We did this at every store we went to. We also visited the Asian Markets and that was very interesting to me. I had never been to a market like that before.

Teaching ideas:

I found it interesting to see all the diverse foods that we are not accustomed too. There were things I had never heard of or plants presented in ways I'd never seen (ex. aloe vera dessert). I think that speaks not only to scientific differences but also cultural. What sort of climate and conditions are necessary for certain plants to grow. How does that prevent growth in U.S.? How does this plant effect the economics of a culture or country? Why is a certain plant important for other reasons? These are all questions that are interesting and I had never really considered. Perhaps for your short course students could choose a couple of these plants unique in the U.S., but prevalent elsewhere, and pursue some of these topics. Skills such as interviewing, observing, research,etc. could be employed in a fair amount of time.

I think that elementary children could also consider some of the same ideas. They just might need more guidance. One thing I thought would be exciting for younger grades was to practice observation skills with some of the more unique plant foods. That could describe texture, feel, color, size, taste, smell etc. and maybe even begin basic classification. This would be a fun way for them to learn an important science skill. I had a friend that did this in her class with common fruits and vegetables like oranges, apples, cucumbers, eggplant. She said her students loved this activity and enjoyed tasting all the foods. This could be even more exciting with some of these plant foods that are not native or ordinary in our culture.

Possibly give each group a area of study, such as the plant itself or its products. You could even give each group a culture. It could also be fun to set up a scavenger hunt to find certain plants or products. It could also be interesting to find the plants, research them, and then prepare them.

I think for the younger children the scavenger hunt would work and then they could see some of the different fruits and vegetables available. This would open their eyes to new ones that are offered in the stores fresh that their parent's have never let them try. This could open up a sense, texture, taste unit. Children will often try different foods at school with friends that they would not try at home.

I think these ideas are all great. A treasure/scavenger hunt would be a lot of fun and doable. I was a bit overwhelmed at the various tasks we were to follow. I didn't feel we had enough time in one day to accomplish everything. The main idea is to recognize the different cultural aspects in our own back yard--The organization of the stores, the packaging of items in the stores, the displaying of the items, cost comparisons, etc. There are so many things to think about. I was interested in the items that may not be produced here...how are they shipped? How are they grown? How are they prepared? I am all for the tasting of the experience. It would be interesting to find out how some of the things found in the stores actually are prepared and what they taste like. I also think it would be interesting to interview some of the store owners or employees. Is this their livelihood or a seasonal job? Is it family owned? Interviewing skills could be used easily. There are so many fascinating people there.
A younger focus could be as simple as identifying and classifying according to color, texture etc. Finding the "American" equivalent to certain plants, foods etc. Growing some in the classroom and work on observation skills.