You see, what our vacation taught us was that, there on that beach, we were up against decades of conditioning.
A Mexican vacation taught my mother about lard, and Florence Henderson sang to us about vegetable oil.
Here is a personal selection of favorite dishes and where to find them, based on a long weekend of concentrated eating early this summer and meals enjoyed during dozens of sojourns here in recent decades, whether on vacations, teaching assignments, political-reporting expeditions or visits to children at college.
DIANE CARDWELL IN THE SEATS Michelle Latunio, 25, a sales assistant at a brokerage firm, and Marvin Kwong, 25, who was in New York on vacation from teaching English in Korea.
That vacation also taught me new lessons about the challenge of losing weight.
"It can help build the excitement of the vacation and teach them thrifty habits," Firpo-Cappiello said.
In fact, they had built a whole curriculum around the medical training and were using their vacation days to teach local N.G.O.'s and health care workers how to improve emergency care.
Sure, we taught vacation English courses, planted trees and worked in a health clinic, but the crux of the program was connecting with someone who looks at life through a different lens.
It was from John Robinson, an 85-year-old Austin man whom Smalley taught in vacation Bible school more than 75 years ago.
Ms. Nielsen caught Mr. Lindsay-Abaire's eye when she was in the 1999 black comedy hit "Betty's Summer Vacation" by Christopher Durang, who taught playwriting to Mr. Lindsay-Abaire at the Juilliard School.
