By Misty DUPLESSIS

Once a year, the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts encourages Scouts to participate in World Thinking Day that celebrates the cultures of troops around the world. To that end, the CV/Glendale Girl Scouts took the community for a trip around the world on Sunday, Feb. 20 for the 27th Annual International Tasting Bee – and they did not even have to leave the foothills.

Troops from La Crescenta, La Cañada, Glendale and even Burbank got together to transform an area at Holy Redeemer Church in Montrose into a multi-cultural experience for its troop members as well as family and friends.

Twelve troops were in attendance ranging in level from Brownies to Cadettes. Each troop represented a different country and used pictures, decorations, drawings, costumes, fun facts and food to introduce visitors to the various regions.

As guests made their way around the room to the different stations they were able to ask questions about the various countries, snap photos of the festively dressed Scouts and have their “passport” stamped after they sampled popular dishes from around the globe.

In Argentina the crowd sampled empanadas, in Austria strudel was served, Brazil offered feijoada, China presented mini pot stickers, white rice and fortune cookies while France provided chocolate truffles and Germany made lebkuchen.

Guests also tasted mango smoothies and salad from Jamaica, mochi cake from Japan, mung bean stew from Kenya, egg rolls and sauce from the Philippines.

Ideas for the delicious dishes came from research done by each troop as well as family recipes, Internet sites and cookbooks.

The Scotland booth belonged to Brownie/Junior troop 1490. They chose to make a shortbread cookie because they wanted to have something that everyone would like and they found the cookies fit the cause.

Cadettes from troop 6261, representing Italy, got their recipe for their fettuccine alfredo from one of the Scout’s fathers and their tiramisu came from an online cooking site. The girls were excited to have visitors return for their fettuccine alfredo.

Troops used the opportunity to work together. Many of the girls sewed the clothes and table cloths, painted the various displays and worked with their friends and family members to make sure to have at least 400 servings of food.

The Arcadia History Committee was also on hand to inform local Scouts about the countries that offer Scouts a “home away from home.”

Chairperson Kaila Toone said they had a good turn out with more than 500 people expected to pass through the 2011 Tasting Bee. She added that she hopes that the girls take away valuable cultural lessons about troops and guides from different backgrounds.

Funds raised from the event will go towards the CV/Glendale Girl Scouts service unit to help the girls participate in future events.

  girl scouts, tasting bee