My Mex-Amenian New Year

So I don't know how many other people have a multi-culti New Year, a few of my friends that I know of. We made homemade Tamales and homemade Dolmas- stuffed grape leaves, and since my husband is from Texas we had to have Hoppin John or Texas Caviar, made from black eyed peas. You are supposed to eat something green on New Year's Day for good luck, wealth and prosperity, so instead of the usual collard greens we substituted grape leaves. The confusing part is that you are supposed to remove the corn husks from the Tamale and eat what is inside- in the photo you can see the corn husks come off easily, but you are suppose to eat the grape leaves and what is inside them. Some people unfortunately fail to understand this and try and eat the corn husk. We have a friend in southern Idaho who has what he refers to as "The Joy Luck Club New Year" He is half Basque, Half English with a Japanese stepmother and a half brother who is half Japanese who converted to Mormonism. So you see, Idaho is a lot more multi-cultural than many people think. There is a large Basque population here and also a lot of Japanese people were unfortunately interned here during the second world war, and remained on afterwards. So our friend's family has Sushi flown in for New Years Day which the Mormon half of the family celebrates without any alcohol.I bet there are many more multi -cultural stories out there in this great country of ours where we truly seem to be a great melting pot or in the case of Sushi a non melting pot.
Another odd case of food related multiculturalism- I caught my husband the other day making a tuna fish sandwhich, On a Tortilla! Really, "we were out of bread" he said. I can only take this so far. Me, I draw the line- fish tacos, or tuna fish salad on bread. Call me old fashioned, but I can only get my mind around so much . Happy New Year- Feliz Ano Nuevo- Շնորհավոր Նոր Տարի