Opinion| My family's Thanksgiving dinner is the symbol of our multicultural American story

From chana masala to lasagna, my family's Thanksgiving table tells our American story

. Within those walls, inside of the many heated pots and pans, sit simmering stories of pride and plights.As a multiracial American — of Indian, Puerto Rican and Italian descent — food was the strongest bond connecting my richly diverse family, as well as guests. Raised in a suburb outside New York City with my dad, Roop, mom, Loretta, and brother, Ravi, our taste buds were indulged even if we never had much money.

As I assisted the master chefs, I learned more about my own identity — like how my mom, a Puerto Rican and Italian American, learned to make chicken curry and chana masala from recipes she learned from my Indian immigrant father’s mother, Gopi, back in Mumbai and by studying early books published by pioneer Indian cook and author Madhur Jaffrey. These were two dishes that earned her acceptance into the local Indian community in Queens when she was just a young outsider marrying an immigrant.

Once, when I was around 10, I invited a friend from around the corner to eat with us. “What’s that brown blob covering the chicken?” he commented as platters were being placed in the center.“You’ve had chicken marsala before, haven’t you?”His head nodded. He wasn’t even Italian American but chicken marsala had become so common, it was being offered during school lunches and you could buy it in the supermarket freezer section.

Almost a decade ago, when I started dating my now-wife Michelle — an Italian, French and German American — her adventurous appetite impressed me. The open-mindedness of her parents, Susan and Jim, toward food surprised me, too. Once I got to know them, I wasn’t surprised why she was so tolerant — it was taught in her house from an early age to explore various cultures and their cuisines.

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