Reason to feast

"My brother and I dressed up, though after all the hellos we did not figure much into the main social swirl. The women were dressed in rich hues of silk, and sandals slapped the back of their heels. Their black hair was swept up. Jewelry flashed. The men wore dark pants and white shirts, and their greetings included hearty laughs and shoulder slaps.

"Our table was covered from side to side with steaming dishes of rice, chicken curry, aloo copi, and shrimp cutlet. Mom had been in a cooking mood, so chops lined a long glass dish as well. Women standing near the platters dazzled me in their colorful dress, as did the array of foods: red tomato chutney, snappy green beans, golden dal..."

Nina Mukerjee Furstenau in "Biting Through the Skin: An Indian Kitchen in America's Heartland"

All-around goodness

Breakfast might or might not be our favorite meal of the day. That remains a toss-up. It does, however, give us an excellent reason to get out of bed in the morning.

Travel + Leisure offers a compelling look at hotel breakfasts around the world. There are dumplings in China, for example, and parathas in India. There are bangers and bacon in Britain, and biscuits and beignets in the U.S. There is goodness everywhere.

To taste

A brother offers my mother Indian food left over from his take-out lunch: tandoori chicken, chickpea curry, naan. They are items she seldom eats, prepared in ways with which she is not entirely familiar.

"Try it," he says. "It's different. You might like it."

"Taste it," my mother says, correcting his Cantonese. "With food, the word is taste."

It is a small distinction, I realize, between trying something and tasting something. But it is an important one. It is the same subtle distinction perhaps between seeing and knowing, between hearing and listening. "Taste it," she says.