Once I left home, restaurants were an education in the exotica of mainland America. At times, restaurants were salvation. When I was a broke graduate student who barely knew how to cook, the one Indian place in town kept me alive. — scavenging rounds of charred naan and trying to eat enough to last me the whole week. I’ll never forget the unexpected weight of those dirty beat-up dollar bills in my hand, and the power.

Source: New York Times December 28, 2020 19:07 UTC