Daniel 1:3

Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, chief of his court officials, to bring in some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility. 

What royal family?  What nobility?  Scripture doesn't tell us.  However there are other writings that do tell us.  In a Jewish writing, Lives of the Prophets (4:1-2), penned in the first century AD are some details.  According to this writing, there was a child taken from the Israelites to the land of the Chaldeans, who was of the tribe of Judah.  This child's name was Daniel.  Similar information can be found in Josephus' Book of Antiquities (18, 186-189).  The king of Babylon took children of nobles, from the family of Zedekiah, who were handsome, showing aptitude for learning to be tutored by the Babylonian officials. One of the children was named Daniel.  Mention is also made from these sources that these young men were made eunuchs.  More details can be found in Isaiah 39:5-7.

Did you catch the qualifications for the young men chosen to enter the king’s service in the first part of the book of Daniel? Daniel and his friends had some pretty impressive credentials, young men without physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of leaning, well informed, quick to serve, and qualified to serve in the king's palace (most likely this referred to castration - most of the time those who served the king were castrated to protect the harem). And as if these weren’t enough, God gave them some additional abilities, knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and all kinds of learning.

Concerning the royal food - Daniel didn't just refuse to eat the rich food, he said, let me prove to you that the vegetables and water will be much better for us. Notice that the test of the food lasted for 10 days and God blessed Daniel and his friends by making them 10 times better than all the others who were in the king's service.

Daniel found himself in a very precarious position.  The king ordered the execution of all the wise men in the kingdom.  Daniel sought out his friends and urged them to plead for mercy from God.  When these prayers were answered, Daniel praised God for the answered prayers. There are times when we forget to give Him the praise for our answered prayers.

When Daniel was taken to the king to interpret the dream, he goes with a very humble attitude and is quick to give God the glory for the interpretation.  Love the verse that God is a "revealer of mysteries".

This dream has such profound and significant meaning. God sets the context for what the statue represents.  The gold stands for Babylon - with Nebuchadnezzar as the head.  The silver represents the Medes and Persians.  The bronze stands for the Greeks.  The iron represents the Romans.  All these parts of the statue are metal.  The feet of the statue are a mixture of iron (government) and clay (religion) representing Greco/Roman principles mixed with and polluted by a much weaker element, not made of metal.  The clay can be and probably will be religion which will mix with legitimate government and weaken it.  This religion could be a mixture of many religions including Christianity, Judaism, Islam (including Sharia and Jihad).

The destruction of the statue in the dream is representative of the destruction of the governments of the earth when Jesus (the rock) returns. This dream is a perfect example of what will happen in the last days and into the Millennium.

Daniel 2:35b
The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.

This verse ties in beautifully with the following.

Isaiah 11:9
They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.

After the destruction will be the Millennial Kingdom. The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord just as the rock became a huge mountain.

Daniel 2:44
"In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.

Once the Millennium starts, it will continue on for a thousand years. At the end of the Millennium, the eternal kingdom will begin. While the earth may not be filled with the knowledge of the Lord in our lifetime, our lives can be filled with the knowledge of the Lord.  After all, God is a "revealer of mysteries".