My mum (a Malay woman, married to a New Zealander and living in Australia) used to do something like this with her Hari Raya (end of the Muslim fasting month) open house days. Aside from her own “village” of assorted friends (Malay-Australian, Indonesian-Australian, Indian, Persian, European – and some plain old Aussies) and sometimes visiting relatives, she would invite random people she met out and about (banks, shopping centres, rug stores etc) to come join. People brought plates to share, but there was always plenty prepared beforehand. When my husband (Swiss-German/Australian heritage) and I were married in my parents backyard, over ten years ago, my mum’s “village” was again in attendance, along with Malay/Australian/New Zealand relatives (my side) and Australian/Swiss/Italian relatives (his side), and then our friends – including a multicultural assortment of workmates, and an old friend of mine from Dublin, travelling the world, who altered his plans to attend! I think being a child of two quite different cultures, and spending time living overseas in SE Asia when I was young (and otherwise in Australia), means multicultural gatherings have been almost a way of life, and something I took for granted. Caroline DePalatis - great to see you promoting the importance of getting to know ‘the other’ – and what better way, through food – to see we’re all much the same, after all!