I agree whole-heartedly! I teach first-grade and for several years, before cooking was banned in our classrooms due to allergies, we would make dumplings in class during Chinese New Year. I would prepare the dumpling filling (yes, raw meat) at home and in class, parent volunteers and I would teach the kids how to wrap the dumpling skins around the meat. After the kids were done wrapping the dumplings, we would throw them in a pot of boiling water and then eat them! The kids LOVED it, as did I! It was a fantastic cultural experience for our kids and a great way to get Asian parents involved in our classroom.

Using food to teach different cultures is good and interesting tool to teach about other cultures. I can discuss whats going into the food and instructions how to prepare it. i can contrast and compare what foods that they are use to (for example the dumplings to a mexican quesadilla). People will always remember the things they eat if they love it or hate they will remember why.

Helping children prepare an ethnic recipe is a great way to introduce them to customs and traditions of another country. If you can't prepare it in class, you could at least talk about its origins and bring samples of it to class for students to taste it. I found two great websites that go into great detail about how to introduce students to Chinese cuisine. The first website: http://chinesefood.about.com/od/resourceschinesecooking/a/teachingcooking.htm features sections titled "child friendly" recipes, Chinese table manners (including directions on how to use chopsticks), and symbolic foods associated with traditional Chinese festivals. In addition, it has links to a Chinese food glossary, Chinese ingredients and cooking terms.
The second website: http://www.china-family-adventure.com/chinese-culture.html#.VHTPQBxpFJk, is very child friendly. It has a section dedicated to Chinese Food for Kids. The best part is that it goes into detail about the five major styles of Chinese food: Sichuan and the West, Hunan, Beijing and the North, Canton and the South, and Fujian and the East.

Cooking or presenting multicultural food in a classroom is a good way to have parent involvement. I have noticed that many parents take pride and enjoyment in volunteering in the classroom and providing food from their culture. This is evident when introducing the unit of Chinese New Year in my classroom.

13. I agree with you, food is an essential part of teaching about any culture. Currently are doing the China unit-(now)- I bring an electrical rice cooker to the classroom and chopsticks with soy sauce. The unit on China cannot be taught or be accessible without integrating the food, regional cuisines and traditional universal dishes inherent to China. Culture and food are inseparable. Part of the unit on China includes engaging all the senses or total physical response, by smelling and sampling a variety of spices, including tasting ginger root, an excellent anti-inflammatory natural herbal remedy. For example tomorrow is Pasta day, where I bring pasta to share with my students, since it is another item introduced to Italy by Marco Polo from his travels to China. Food is an integral component to the unit and central to motivating students to engage in classroom discussions about the historical and ancient trade routes and Silk Road.

When I was teaching 2nd grade I made fortune cookies with my students.  They wrote inspirational messages and we put them in the cookies.  Great fun!