Students in International Cultural Organization (ICO) came together in room 230 to carry bags of groceries filled with raw chicken, rice and spices downstairs to an available culinary classroom after school Sept. 20. There, they met with Zainab Al-Taie, a doctoral student at the University of Missouri—Columbia (MU) from Baghdad, Iraq, to learn about Iraqi culture and prepare a traditional dish called biryani.
“There is like, and if you go to Indian restaurant you will find also biryani, but it is Indian biryani, but there is Iraqi biryani, which is the one that I’m trying to make today, and I think it is better than Indian biryani,” Al-Taie said. “I’m just kidding. It is based on, like, everyone has different tastes of things.”
ICO member junior Jocelyn Ash coordinated hosting Al-Taie and communicated with MU’s International Center to find college students willing to speak to high school students about their culture. Ash joined the club at the end of her sophomore year and proposed inviting guests to RBHS to prepare food, talk about their lives and help enlighten the student body to experiences of people from other cultures.
“She said that [biryani is] from Pakistan,” Ash said, “but in her country they eat it a lot, too, and they just customize it to the Iraquian culture.”
After the university’s International Center contacted her, Al-Taie said it asked if she would be interested in cooking for high school students studying Iraqi culture. She was intrigued by the request and wanted to learn why students in the United States would go out of their way to learn about such a topic. Al-Taie said it sounded fun, especially since she enjoys cooking, and quickly agreed.
During her freshman year, sophomore Hannah Cantin became involved with ICO as a way to spread cultural diversity and awareness throughout the school. In the past she said the club has helped with Global Village, and Cantin personally created maps of various world regions so students could visually record their country or state of birth. Along with hosting speakers and contributing to cultural education, Cantin said the group also collects donations for the organization Charity: Water, which helps provide clean water to various regions around the world without access.
“I remember in middle school I was part of — for at least a year or a couple years — in a sort of culture club they had there. . . We did cool stuff there,” Cantin said, “and I ended up sort of breaking that streak for a little bit, but I decided to jump in freshman year and sort of restart on that path.”
While club members peeled potatoes and assisted Al-Taie as honorary prep cooks, Al-Taie explained to Cantin that she will use her eyes, rather than specific measuring tools, to decide how much spice to add. Al-Taie said families in Iraq commonly serve biryani to guests. She aimed to prepare a culinary sample representative of both special events and daily life in her culture.
“Because they told me I have one hour to make the dish, and for Iraqi dishes it is really difficult to find, to finish something in one hour because, especially these big meals, it takes more than, like, two hours or something,” Al-Taie said. “So this is the one, since I divide the stuff so I can get some help from others, so maybe it will finish in one hour.”
Both Cantin and Ash use ICO as a way to educate themselves on the unique aspects of cultures from around the world. Cantin said the idea of cultural mixing and learning about the intricacies of how cultures affect one another interests her. Along with Cantin, Ash also appreciated the chance working with Al-Taie gave her to understand cultural interactions and deepen her knowledge of Iraqi customs.
“I’m really interested in different cultures and languages, and when I grow up I want to be able to go travel the world and explore it,” Ash said, “but before I thought it would be a good idea to actually understand people’s cultures and where they’re coming from.”
How do you think students can learn more about other cultures? Let us know in the comments below.
