One of life's great pleasures is eating. What's more, cooking for one's family can be a way of expressing one's love for them. I always am rewarded with the "oohs" and "aahs" from my children and grandchildren when I bring a favorite family dish to the table.

A Passport of Tastes
My favorite foods had their beginnings with my grandmothers: one from Russia and the other from Hungary. Naturally, my family benefits from those recipes. But America is a boiling pot of ethnic groups and, fortunately, we are sharing and enjoying foods from nearly every place in the world.

As people travel more often and the world seems to get smaller – and the children more sophisticated – we can enjoy the tastes of other countries. Perhaps through food we can learn about and create an understanding for people who are not within our own ethnic backgrounds.

Lessons at the Table
Pleasantly enough, I have a choice of ethnic restaurants in my community. On any given night I can enjoy an Italian, Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Vietnamese or American dinner. Recently, while we were eating spaghetti in the local Italian restaurant I suggested a game to my grandchildren. My eldest granddaughter began with, "What's the capital of Italy?"

Her brother asked, "Where's Italy?" Then the questions progressed: name the other cities, name a river. Which countries border Italy? How do you say hello in Italian? At that point a waiter came to our table and we asked him. He said he didn't know. He was from Indiana.

A few weeks later we went to a Chinese restaurant and my 6-year-old granddaughter was intrigued with trying to use chopsticks. "Can we play the game?" she wanted to know.

Trying Something New
It wasn't until we tried a Japanese restaurant that I was in for a totally new experience, and because my grandchildren were already familiar with Japanese food they had to teach me. When a large dish of what looked liked unshelled pea pods arrived at the table everyone dug in as I watched. I decided to follow their example and found that the beans inside the shells were delicious. I recognized the bean immediately after tasting and was told that the name was Edamame.

After that, the sushi arrived exquisitely decorated and tempting. I was willing to try it but I first had to be assured that there was no raw fish, although there was raw tuna on the side that my granddaughter indulged in. We also ordered vegetable tempura (vegetables dipped in batter and deep fried) and rice and tea. My introduction to Japanese food was fascinating. Our quiz game did not turn up many right answers, however, and our little one was still struggling with the chopsticks.

On the way home I told my family that I would be making Sunday dinner and I had a few requests for noodle pudding with raisins, cinnamon and apples. I suppose good old grandma's cooking still holds a special place.

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