I’ve been Irish for as long as I know. Seconds after I was born, my grandmother had my family defect from “William” and gave me my nickname, “Liam.” Soon after, she was cooking vichyssoise and Pops started packing wild blueberry jam peanut butter sandwiches for lunch.

Much like the main ingredients for these meals, the food I cook talks about where it comes from and diffuses a piece of its culture. I love talking to my friends about what goes around the table at family dinners.

Take Thanksgiving. Everyone celebrates it a bit differently. Having a turkey is most common in America, but some South American cultures serve pernil or a baked ham. The sides are different too. It takes patience, but hearing about what people eat at the table expands my view on other cultures.

Besides the kitchen table, you can also learn about other cultures at restaurants. It’s an introduction to an unexplored world. Now, it’s up to you and your own research to figure out whether or not fried chicken and pork fried rice is a staple in Hong Kong restaurants, but trying new restaurants is like entering the house of a chef. The chef may have his restaurant in your city, but the aim is to introduce you to a city from another country.

Main Street usually has a fusion of restaurants that’ll take your taste buds to another culture. In Nyack, go to Tom Lynch’s restaurant, Casa del Sol. He’s a graduate of Nyack College and on Tuesday’s, you can try a handful of chef Chris Machacek’s 14 tasty tacos for $10. It’s incredible to see how Mr. Lynch came from working at the restaurant to owning it. He’s an outstanding citizen of the town and the restaurant allows you to see his passion.

Try it out in your own kitchen. Start at the supermarket. The aisles of a supermarket are like highways for a chef. Driving the cart through the produce section, you can see on the stickers that not all produce starts in America. Finding ingredients for your dish is like hearing about genealogy from grandparents; at first it may seem boring, but when everything is said and done, it becomes a part of your pride.

Taste is perhaps the strongest sense for the human brain. What I mean by that is that our most prevalent memories come from meals that we’ve had before. Think about the good times you’ve had with close friends and family. There were drinks and appetizers. When you get directions from a friend they may not know the names of every other street but I guarantee you’ve gotten, “Make a right at the deli.” Somehow, the food your neighborhood spot makes registers that place as a landmark.

With the Fourth of July coming up, and everyone bringing their platters, I encourage you to find out who cooked your favorite. Excite their passion and talk about where the inspiration for the dish came from. Find culture through the dishes you eat.