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Northern Illinois University

NIU Office of Public Affairs


News Release

Contact: Mark McGowan, NIU Office of Public Affairs
(815) 753-9472

April 7, 2004

NIU students enjoy global tastes
in revived ‘Cultural Foods’ course

DeKalb — Sixteen students in the Northern Illinois University School of Family, Consumer and Nutrition Sciences are taking an international journey of the taste buds this semester in “Cultural Foods,” an elective offered for the first time in years.

The classmates learn about various cultures of the world and their cuisine, and spend their Thursday nights either cooking and eating the topic du jour or visiting one of the area’s many ethnic restaurants for a chef-prepared meal with explanations of each dish and stories from the homelands.

“It’s a very popular class. It sounds like they’re having a lot of fun, and I’m sure they’re learning a lot, too. There are just so many more types of foods than most people have experienced by the time they get to college,” said Laura Smart, acting chair of the school inside the NIU College of Health and Human Sciences.

“There are a lot of restaurants where people can go to sample things, but here our students are learning how to make the foods and about the nutritional values of the foods,” Smart added. “Our students will be serving diverse clients, and I think most people today are interested in trying new foods from different cultures.”

Instructor Joan Quinn, coordinator of the FCNS food systems labs, said the growing popularity of the hospitality major persuaded the provost’s office to fund an additional class in the school. Cultural Foods, listed in the catalogue for years but rarely offered, got the nod. It’s provided a smorgasbord of new tastes, even for Quinn, who considers her palate well-versed.

The semester’s menu includes foods from Africa, Brazil, China, Cuba, Germany, Greece, India, Japan, Mexico, the former Soviet Union and Thailand. So far, the class has sampled cactus (served as a vegetable in Mexico), bean cake (a Korean dessert made with sweet beans and rice flour, which created a gelatinous texture) and juniper berry tea (a Native American beverage).

One field trip took the group to Taxco Restaurant in Sycamore, where owner Jesus Romero prepared and presented a seven-course meal. (Students pay their own bills while eating out.) Many of the dishes are not found on Romero’s menu, but reflect what is served in a normal Mexican home.

While at Taxco, the NIU group also experienced the first of many surprises: Only one of the foods was spicy, although the students expected most of the foods would come with a kick.

At It’s Greek to Me in DeKalb, owner Thedore Panourgias served an 11-course dinner including saganaki, pastichio (baked macaroni with ground beef, topped with béchamel sauce); mousaka (baked eggplant with potato and ground beef, topped with béchamel sauce); gyros; chicken roletini (stuffed chicken breast with spinach and feta cheese, topped with egg lemon or marinara sauce), and baklava, a rolled pastry with nuts, almonds and honey.

One week, the FCNS foods lab within Wirtz Hall came alive with the aromas of Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, courtesy of NIU’s Center for Southeast Asian Studies.

Julie Lamb, the center’s outreach coordinator, found a group of graduate students willing to cook some foods from their native countries and to talk about their homelands. That evening brought Surprise No. 2: Many of the dishes packed an extra spicy punch.

“I really enjoyed our evening with the Southeast Asian students. They just brought such excitement,” Quinn said. “Foods are so much more than body-fulfilling nourishment. They are who we are. They tell so much about us.”

Students have visited ethnic markets, where they marveled at the diversity of foods for sale, from meat, canned goods and produce to exotic seasonings and spices. Quinn herself has shopped in small markets from Elgin and Aurora to Rockford in search of just the right, but often rare, ingredients needed to prepare the recipes.

Quinn hopes she can teach the course again, and soon.

The class is an important one as the United States grows more diverse, she said. College graduates who are bilingual are in high demand, she added, and those who can top that off with a knowledge of the culture are even more marketable.

And with three new textbooks available, plus the power of the Internet to track and possibly purchase ingredients, the borders stand wide open.

“Our graduates will become either dietitians or hospitality managers, and they need to recognize that they foods they think of as normal may not be acceptable to people of other cultures. There are food preferences. There are religious beliefs,” Quinn said. “One big difference is that we work our meals around the protein source – usually meat, red meat – whereas around the world they start with vegetables and grains and then their proteins are added, usually beans.”

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