Diaspora dish*: food that migrants bring from their homeland, blending cultural essence and local ingredients, old flavors and new surroundings.
The “Diaspora Dishes” activity invites students and audience to explore and celebrate cultural heritage through food, focusing on how migrants carry and adapt traditional recipes in new places. Each student group selects a culturally significant dish from a migrant community, whether from personal family connections or researched cuisines. By investigating the dish’s background, students learn about its historical and cultural importance, reflecting on how food bridges cultures and traditions even in unfamiliar environments.
On November 16 2024, students present their dishes at Middlebury College, where they introduce the food to visitors, sharing insights into its origins and significance to the migrant community it represents. This event, a blend of snacking and learning, offers students and audience a chance to embody cultural hospitality, welcoming others into the cultural and historical world of their chosen dishes.
Below, we share students’ dishes with ingredients and stories, so that you can also learn about, and perhaps create, them. Would you like to share your diaspora dish recipe and its cultural significance with us? Please fill out this form.
Images from the “Diaspora Dishes” gathering:
Beyond Borders 