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🌍 Country of the Week · A Spin the Globe Teacher's Guide
Guyana
GuyanaSouth America · This week's dish comes from Demerara (Georgetown)
About Guyana
Guyana is culturally Caribbean but geographically South American, and its food shows it, pepperpot (an Indigenous cassava-based stew), curry and roti, and cook-up rice. Indian, African, and Amerindian roots meet in one pot.
Cassareep is what makes pepperpot work and it is a chemistry lesson: the juice of bitter cassava, which carries cyanogenic compounds and is dangerous raw, boiled down for hours with spices until it is a black syrup that is both safe and antibacterial. That is why the pot can sit out and be reheated day after day.
The Lokono original is an everyday pot, replenished with whatever meat comes in and boiled up again each day, rather than the Christmas dish it has become for many Guyanese households. Guyana names three national dishes rather than one: pepperpot, chicken curry and cook-up rice, which is a fair summary of a country with Amerindian, Indian and African kitchens side by side.
The wider picture: Andes, Amazon, and Atlantic all on one plate.
This week's dish: Guyanese Chicken Chow Mein
Seasoned noodles tossed with cassareep-marinated chicken, bora beans, and crisp vegetables in a savoury five-spice and soy sauce.
Serves 4 · Prep 25 min · Cook 20 min · Difficulty: easy
See the full recipe: ingredients, steps and dietary swaps →
Grown-up jobs: any step that uses a hot stove, oven, boiling water, or a sharp knife is for a teacher or parent. Children can measure, mix, and assemble.
Discussion prompts
1. Find Guyana on a world map or globe. It sits in South America. Which oceans or neighboring countries does it touch, and roughly how far is it from where you live?
2. Guyanese Chicken Chow Mein comes from Demerara (Georgetown), in Guyana. Read its ingredient list together. Which of those foods do you think are grown or raised nearby, and how might the country's climate and landscape explain that?
3. Read the short story behind Guyanese Chicken Chow Mein. How have the people, trade routes, and history of Guyana shaped what ends up on the plate there?
4. Compare Guyanese Chicken Chow Mein to a dish your own family cooks. What is similar, what is different, and what one question would you ask a family in Guyana about how they make and share it?
5. After you cook Guyanese Chicken Chow Mein, add Guyana to a classroom map and give it a stamp. Write down one fact about its food or geography that you did not know this morning.
🌍 Spin the Globe · Geography through food · spintheglobeofficial.com/for-teachers