Tag Archives: food

Food, Glorious Food & Wonderful Wikimedia

Miss Wyatt set us a challenge this week that we could really sink our teeth into: writing about foods that Canadians (or at least these Canadians) love. Easy-peasy: no one was lost for words. Check out the delicious posts below.

Albert Roosenboom The tempting cakeWe used the opportunity to learn more about how to use images appropriately in our posts. As we were reminded by Miss Wyatt, we can’t just grab any old image from Mrs. Google–we must have the photographer’s permission. People who want their art, writing, images, or videos to be used and shared by others give their work a Creative Commons (cc) license rather than attach a Copyright (c). Wikipedia has a large and growing collection of such images, linked to its articles, called Wikimedia Commons. We learned how to use these files and give attribution (saying whose work it is) by pasting code into the text tab of our blogs. To see attribution (try it on The Tempting Cake, by Albert Roosenboom, right), mouse over the image; to see the license details, click on the image. Should you wish to try it yourself, the document describing the process is below.

But first, the glorious food posts of my hungry Huzzahnians. Who knew they had such a weakness for poutine?

Food Favourites:

Poutine: Ben, Brooke J., Rowan, Tate, Connor, Harley, Ayla
Maple Syrup: Chantal, Cami Bacon: Alinna, Tyler B.  Salmon: Abby D.
Pancakes: Morgan Doughnuts: Nathan, Hayly Oranges: Kalea
Spaghetti: Kasandra, Elijah Pizza: Tyler M. Sushi: Brooke L.
Fajitas: Rylie Buffalo Wings: Owen Waffles: Autumn, Liv, Abbie
Apple SauceAerin Pies: Talia

Here is the how-to document: [embeddoc url=”https://huzzah.edublogs.org/files/2015/11/Add-an-Image-from-Wikimedia-Commons-25521bq.pdf” viewer=”google”]

Please take a look at these excellent posts and leave comments for our dedicated bloggers. If you use this how-to file, let me know how it goes. And please remember to leave your blog url (your blog address) in the comments.

Vegemite: a new taste sensation?

We had the honour of welcoming Miss Wyatt–international superstar of the edublogging world–to our classroom, along with her four-legged friend Davo the Tasmanian Devil. We had a lovely chat about the wonders of Tasmania and she described for us her grand North American Adventure. Since leaving us, he has already written a post about her visit to our class, Mrs. Braidwood’s class and the Comox Valley.

Davo met Mac the Huzzahnian Chicken, and we all had a photo op. We look fab!

Miss Wyatt showered us with gifts! Aussie stamps, books on Tasmania and about “Tassie Devils”, which Mac enjoyed immensely.

Mac learns about Davo

And–what’s this? a tube of Vegemite. It’s a popular spread for toast. Popular in Australia, that is.

Vegemite is this big.

We got out the crackers, did a little spreading, and sniffing, and some of us had a taste. Then we did some writing.

“The container looks like a  small yellow tube of toothpaste. I thought the paste would look like garlic spread, white with specks of green in it. But to my surprise, it looked like chocolate.” –Chelsey

“When I got my Vegemite, it blobbed out of the tube onto my cracker. I had expected it to be humus colored, but it turned out to be a dark, blackish brown goop, sort of like melted chocolate. Before I ate it, I thought that it might have a peanut butter-like texture. I thought that it would taste like peas, cucumber and asparagus mixed in a blender. I was wrong!” –Jared

“Vegemite is a good source of Vitamin B and Folate and is made from fermented yeast, a component found in bread. Funnily enough, Vegemite is usually served on bread. Yeast is grown on barley, by the way. Want some more big words? Vegamite includes Niacin, Thiamine and Riboflavin, three minerals/vitamins that are good for you (maybe…).”  –Griffin

Spreading gets an audience

Some positive reviews and enthusiasm:

“I thought Vegemite would be yellow and like peanut butter, and I thought it would be very yummy. Well, I was right that it’s yummy. But it is nothing like peanut butter–it’s dark black like chocolate. I thought it was super yummy, delicious, but most of the other kids thought it was very different.”  –Kyle

Thumbs up!

Silly thumbs up!

Some dubious faces:

Want mine?

Some were, well, not fans of Vegemite.

No thank you.

More reviews:

“Vegemite,  a gift from the devil. The outside looks like a fattened bottle of tooth paste colored bumble bee yellow, with Vegemite printed big and bold on the front. But don’t be fooled by the outside, it’s the inside that’s the horror.” –Colton

Yuck.

“Apparently it’s been made since 1923 by Kraft foods (sorry Kraft! I like your dinner!) so it must be an acquired taste. However it is not a taste I wish to acquire! This was an off-putting experience, an experience that I wouldn’t do again.” –Colt

“I can tell that I had my salty face on and my sour face on. I could just feel myself starting to swallow and as I did slowly my face was turning up side down and my taste buds stood up right away. Then I knew I didn’t like it. I was in shock! –Julia

“It squelches out of the tube with the consistency of a slug and smells like manure mixed with a dash of burning rubber. According to hapless victims of Vegemite it is very salty. When the Vegemite was placed on my cracker I froze, the blood drained from my face and I shoved my bile back down my throat but only succeeded in making my throat burn. I would rather eat mulched toads than Vegemite. It looks like the offspring of a failed science experiment on the cracker, *sigh*.”  –Max

We did have fun with experiment, and as you can tell it let led to some great writing. Have you ever tasted anything from another country that was new to you? What was it like? What do Canadians eat that is unique to our country? And if you are an international guest, what food is part of your national identity?

Thank you for reading and sharing your thoughts!