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American Museum of Natural History

If you are coming to the Museum on Saturday, May 25, please use one of the following entrances: 79th Street and Central Park West, subway entrance, or Weston Pavilion (Columbus Avenue entrance). The 81st Street entrance will be closed, but the Hayden Planetarium Space Show will be shown on a normal schedule.

Vietnam Educator's Guide Activity: Rice

Rice is Vietnam’s primary agricultural export, planted on more than 80 percent of the country’s total farmland. People eat hundreds of varieties that differ in their flavor, smell, color, and stickiness. Many Vietnamese prefer short-grain white rice, but some ethnic groups prefer glutinous rice (sticky rice). They also eat rice products, such as noodles and wrappers for grilled foods and spring rolls.

  • Look up different Vietnamese recipes for cooking rice either in cookbooks or on Web sites. Ask students to choose a rice dish to prepare as a class.

Vietnamese recipes, including rice dishes, are available at these websites:

http://www.food.com/recipes/vietnamese

http://www.epicurious.com/tools/browseresults?type=browse&att=26

http://www.vietworldkitchen.com/

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A Hmong village in the far north of Vietnam, surrounded by terraced fields. A labor-intensive enterprise in any circumstances, wet-rice cultivation on high mountain land is particularly challenging. Banh chung, boiled, filled rice cakes, are an essential element of a Tet, or Lunar New Year, meal. Wrapped in a broad leaf to make a square green package, the banh chung symbolizes earth. While the production of banh chung was once a time-consuming household task, most families now buy their holiday supply from stalls like these. 
Photo: VME/Nguyen Van Huy

Copyright © 2003 American Museum of Natural History. All rights reserved.

  • More About This Resource...

    • This activity, created to accompany the museum's Vietnam: Journeys of Body, Mind & Spirit exhibition, offers a tasty look at rice.

      • The activity begins by explaining that rice is the primary agricultural export of Vietnam, planted on more than 80 percent of the country's farmland.
      • Students get a sense of the hundreds of varieties of rice and rice products by examining Vietnamese recipes.
      • Then, they select a rice dish to prepare as a class.

    • Completion Time

      Approximately 1 period

    • Topic

      Anthropology

    • Subtopic

      Asia