When I feed guests, I’m not only connecting them to my Palestinian culture; I’m reconnecting myself. For people like me who are living away from their home country, hosting can rekindle childhood memories and forge the kind of community that can be hard to find otherwise. Giving people around my table a place where they feel they belong leads me to find my own refuge. Not even the finest restaurant could compare to that.

At the 1999 Anuga Food Fair in Cologne, where bangus bellies were cooked with ube, squash, seaweed or saluyot (Jew's mallow) noodles, foreigners asked: Where has this tasty fish been hiding?

Where?

In the Filipino heart, of course, and in the food memories of many generations.

When MSG is used instead of salt to enhance flavor, “foods can taste just as delicious but without affecting hypertension,” Katherine Burt, a professor of health promotion and nutrition sciences at Lehman College, whose writing on MSG was not industry funded, told me. It’s “a great way to make foods exciting and healthy.”