I’m not likely to be accused of being a hipster anytime soon, but this evening I did Instagram a picture of part of my dinner. Brown bread from a can is a central part of a “traditional Maine suppah” of baked beans, red hot dogs, and brown bread. Some folks wash it down with Moxie too (I forgot the Moxie today). My Instagrammed picture sparked a bunch of questions on Twitter. This got me thinking about how much fun it could be to learn about various parts of the world through pictures of food.

Applications for Education
You wouldn’t have to use Instagram or Twitter to spark your students’ questions about foods from different parts of the world, but it might be a more authentic method than simply Googling “foods from place X.” Reach out to your personal learning network on Twitter, Google+, or Facebook and ask people to share a picture of a “traditional meal” or “traditional ingredient” from their region. You might be surprised what your students ask and what they find out about other parts of their countries and the world. This activity could pair nicely with these maps of 128 dialect differences in the United States.