Spanish cooking session provides food for thought

One of the topics in the Form 2 Spanish syllabus is Comida y bebida típica de España, where the students have the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the topic of Spanish food and drink and with a number of Spanish typical recipes.

Lucienne Piek and Angele Calleja, Spanish and Home Economics teachers respectively at M. A. Vassalli Boys' Junior Lyceum, Tal-Handaq l/o Qormi, combined their efforts recently to organise a practical cooking session for Form 2 students to foster connections between different subjects and to move towards interdisciplinary teaching and learning.

The activity comprised a four-course meal prepared and later shared by the whole group of Spanish students.

The first dish consisted of a gazpacho soup, which is a tomato soup with cucumbers, peppers and garlic which is normally served chilled especially during the hot summer months in the Andalusian region.

This was followed by a tortilla, the Spanish equivalent of the English omelette, which is made of onions, eggs and potatoes.

The highlight of the event was the empanada, which is a Spanish pie filled with tuna, capsicums and black olives.

Last but not least, the students helped themselves to the Spanish dessert known as arroz con leche, known in English as "Rice Pudding", which mainly consists of boiled rice, milk, vanilla, cinnamon sticks and lemon rind.

In Spain, arroz con leche is a very popular treat with both adults and children to the extent that it has also been added to the ice-cream list of flavours.

The event not only enabled the students to improve their skills in Spanish cuisine cooking and widen their Spanish culinary vocabulary. It provided hands-on experience, which is a unique and priceless preparation for adult life outside school, and offered an opportunity to rediscover schooling and education as a holistic experience.

Involving students in such interdisciplinary activities is conducive to a more positive perception of learning and education as a whole interconnected experience. Learning becomes an enjoyable experience instead of compartmentalised chunks of memorised knowledge.

Students experiencing the flavour of Spanish cooking