A Taste of the World: Exploring Global Flavors in Rural America
It is 1964. Imagine, for a moment, being a young student from Korea, Vietnam, or Jamaica. You arrive in an unfamiliar small town in rural America to attend a university with 12,000 other – mostly American – students. The culture is distinctively Midwestern and the food is unusual. You have limited access to familiar and you are completely lost when it comes to cooking with regional ingredients.
Such was the story for international students who arrived in my small university town of Carbondale to attend Southern Illinois University in the 1960s. This was a time when SIU was experiencing growth in nearly every aspect of its existence, including international student enrollment.
In the fall of 1965, SIU had 470 international students enrolled from 75 different countries1 – nearly double that of the previous year2. Three years later, it was over 9003.
There is much information in local newspaper archives documenting the struggle our foreign students had, including housing, food, and general wellbeing. As a result, several efforts from local churches and community organizations to help our new friends make a home here were initiated. Much of these efforts are undocumented, however, surviving only in the stories told and retold by those involved – or their children and grandchildren.
Community Gathers to Help Foreign Students
The Women’s Missionary Union at Elm Street Baptist Church – of which my grandma was a member – was part of one such initiative. Women from several local Southern Baptist churches worked with international students and, more often, the wives of these students. They met weekly, providing a potluck meal in the basement of a church close to campus. My grandma helped these young women practice their English and learn our customs. She also taught them how to cook with ingredients from Southern Illinois.
My mom was about 8 years old when Grandma participated in these efforts. I suspect that this experience, combined with my dad’s career on campus, influenced my parents’ desire to teach me about different cultures through food. Regardless of their specific motivation, my passion for food and culture was instilled in me at an early age. I grew up around people from all over the world; eating foods they brought to parties or just delivered on a Saturday afternoon.
An International Grocery Store Opens
Despite the steady increase in international student enrollment, it was 1988 before Carbondale’s International Groceries market opened.
Our grocery stores stocked some basic international ingredients, but the selection was limited until I was in high school. When International Groceries opened, ingredients with strange labels and names became available from all over Asia. Today, the store is in a different, bigger location and offers ingredients from all over the world.
Between the needs of international students of the 1960s and the availability of global ingredients in 2025, food trends have ebbed and flowed. Even into the 1980s, the rural Midwest was largely unfamiliar with cuisines from other parts of the U.S. – Cajun, for example – let alone the World. I consider myself fortunate growing up in a university town. It afforded me opportunities to experience the world through the people who lived here.
Bringing Global Flavors Home
My upbringing and love of cultural heritage is also the impetus for this year’s broader theme for The Davises Eat.
Much like my grandma taught our foreign friends how to use local ingredients in their own meals, our plan is to teach you how to incorporate global flavors into your cooking using local ingredients.
It’s about expanding your palate and trying something maybe a bit unfamiliar. It’s about having a culinary and cultural adventure without leaving your home, maybe inspiring a trip in the future. And, it’s about continuing to support our local farmers, producers, and purveyors while learning the stories of different people and their cuisine. Mostly, it’s about our own little community of folks who love to cook, whether for themselves or others.
I hope you join us this year as we travel the world through food from the comforts of our own kitchen.
See what countries and regions will be featured each month: Show Line-up
Get monthly recaps of the show and links to recipes: Culinary Travelers Newsletter
Watch our first live broadcast of the year on January 13, 2025 at 6:30 PM central – Facebook and YouTube.
