May is Asian American, Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander Heritage Month. This month is a time to recognize the contributions of the Asian American, Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander community. From our collection, we've compiled a list of a few books centered around their experiences.
Learn more from the Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Website.
East Main Street by
An interdisciplinary anthology of the rich Asian American influence on U.S. popular culture From henna tattoo kits available at your local mall to "faux Asian" fashions, housewares and fusion cuisine; from the new visibility of Asian film, music, video games and anime to the current popularity of martial arts motifs in hip hop, Asian influences have thoroughly saturated the U.S. cultural landscape and have now become an integral part of the vernacular of popular culture. By tracing cross-cultural influences and global cultural trends, the essays in East Main Street bring Asian American studies, in all its interdisciplinary richness, to bear on a broad spectrum of cultural artifacts. Contributors consider topics ranging from early Asian American movie stars to the influences of South Asian iconography on rave culture, and from the marketing of Asian culture through food to the contemporary clamor for transnational Chinese women's historical fiction. East Main Street hits the shelves in the midst of a boom in Asian American population and cultural production. This book is essential not only for understanding Asian American popular culture but also contemporary U.S. popular culture writ large.
Bengali Harlem and the Lost Histories of South Asian America by
Winner of the Theodore Saloutos Memorial Book Award Winner of the Association for Asian American Studies Book Award for History A Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year A Saveur "Essential Food Books That Define New York City" Selection In the final years of the nineteenth century, small groups of Muslim peddlers arrived at Ellis Island every summer, bags heavy with embroidered silks from their home villages in Bengal. The American demand for "Oriental goods" took these migrants on a curious path, from New Jersey's beach boardwalks into the heart of the segregated South. Two decades later, hundreds of Indian Muslim seamen began jumping ship in New York and Baltimore, escaping the engine rooms of British steamers to find less brutal work onshore. As factory owners sought their labor and anti-Asian immigration laws closed in around them, these men built clandestine networks that stretched from the northeastern waterfront across the industrial Midwest. The stories of these early working-class migrants vividly contrast with our typical understanding of immigration. Vivek Bald's meticulous reconstruction reveals a lost history of South Asian sojourning and life-making in the United States. At a time when Asian immigrants were vilified and criminalized, Bengali Muslims quietly became part of some of America's most iconic neighborhoods of color, from Tremé in New Orleans to Detroit's Black Bottom, from West Baltimore to Harlem. Many started families with Creole, Puerto Rican, and African American women. As steel and auto workers in the Midwest, as traders in the South, and as halal hot dog vendors on 125th Street, these immigrants created lives as remarkable as they are unknown. Their stories of ingenuity and intermixture challenge assumptions about assimilation and reveal cross-racial affinities beneath the surface of early twentieth-century America.
Eating Identities by
The French epicure and gastronome Brillat-Savarin declared, "Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are." Wenying Xu infuses this notion with cultural-political energy by extending it to an ethnic group known for its cuisines: Asian Americans. She begins with the general argument that eating is a means of becoming--not simply in the sense of nourishment but more importantly of what we choose to eat, what we can afford to eat, what we secretly crave but are ashamed to eat in front of others, and how we eat. Food, as the most significant medium of traffic between the inside and outside of our bodies, organizes, signifies, and legitimates our sense of self and distinguishes us from others, who practice different foodways. Narrowing her scope, Xu reveals how cooking, eating, and food fashion Asian American identities in terms of race/ethnicity, gender, class, diaspora, and sexuality. She provides lucid and informed interpretations of seven Asian American writers (John Okada, Joy Kogawa, Frank Chin, Li-Young Lee, David Wong Louie, Mei Ng, and Monique Truong) and places these identity issues in the fascinating spaces of food, hunger, consumption, appetite, desire, and orality. Asian American literature abounds in culinary metaphors and references, but few scholars have made sense of them in a meaningful way. Most literary critics perceive alimentary references as narrative strategies or part of the background; Xu takes food as the central site of cultural and political struggles waged in the seemingly private domain of desire in the lives of Asian Americans. Eating Identities is the first book to link food to a wide range of Asian American concerns such as race and sexuality. Unlike most sociological studies, which center on empirical analyses of the relationship between food and society, it focuses on how food practices influence psychological and ontological formations and thus contributes significantly to the growing field of food studies. For students of literature, this tantalizing work offers an illuminating lesson on how to read the multivalent meanings of food and eating in literary texts.
East to America by
From San Francisco to New York, from Chicago to Los Angeles, this oral history of the Korean American community includes a wide spectrum of people and their stories; a half-Korean, half-African American man addresses the friction between blacks and Koreans; a gay activist talks about homosexuality and life as the son of an immigrant shop owner; and victims of domestic violence openly address this taboo subject. In all, more than 50 people - including a rapper, an array of artists, a Buddhist monk and several fundamentalist Christians - examine where and how they fit into American society.
Asian American Dreams by
This groundbreaking book traces the transformation of Asian Americans from a few small, disconnected, and largely invisible ethnic groups into a self-identified racial group that is influencing every aspect of American society. It explores the events that shocked Asian Americans into motion and shaped a new consciousness. Helen Zia, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, writes as a personal witness to the dramatic changes involving Asian Americans.
Asian American Voices by
Rich with photos and completely revised and updated through 2002, with five new primary source documents and 60 photos in Voices. Voices is a collection of complete and excerpted speeches delivered by 20 Asian American activists, political figures and other prominent men and women who have shaped the history and culture of the U.S. since the late 19th century.
Asian Americans: oral histories of first to fourth generation Americans from China, the Philippines, Japan, India, the Pacific Islands, Vietnam, and Cambodia by
Since the first three documented Chinese arrived in this country in 1848, more than six million Asians have followed. The huge immigrations of recent years have prompted a surge of interest in the new Asian American experience. In Asian Americans, these immigrants and their families present their own stories--why they came to America and what it means to be Asian in America today.
Strangers from a Different Shore by
In an extraordinary blend of eloquent narrative history, vivid personal recollection, and oral testimony, Ronald Takaki relates the diverse 150-year history of Asian Americans. Through richly detailed vignettes--by turns bitter, funny, and inspiring--he offers a stunning panorama of a neglected part of Americanhistory. 16 pages of photographs.Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.
Asian American Feminisms and Women of Color Politics by
Asian American Feminisms and Women of Color Politics brings together groundbreaking essays that speak to the relationship between Asian American feminisms, feminist of color work, and transnational feminist scholarship. This collection, featuring work by both senior and rising scholars, considers topics including the politics of visibility, histories of Asian American participation in women of color political formations, accountability for Asian American "settler complicities" and cross-racial solidarities, and Asian American community-based strategies against state violence as shaped by and tied to women of color feminisms. Asian American Feminisms and Women of Color Politics provides a deep conceptual intervention into the theoretical underpinnings of Asian American studies; ethnic studies; women's, gender, and sexual studies; as well as cultural studies in general.
The Sum of Parts by
This collection of essays focuses on the construction of identity among people of Asian descent who claim multiple heritage. In their consideration of people of mixed Asian identities, the contributors to this study disrupt standard discussions.
First Generation: recipes from my Taiwanese-American home by
In this stunning exploration of identity through food, the blogger behind Little Fat Boy presents 80 recipes that are rooted in his childhood as a first-generation Taiwanese American growing up in the Midwest. "This book will transport you, it will make you cry (again and again), and it will delight you with flavor combinations that are both new and nostalgic."-Molly Yeh, cookbook author and Food Network host ONE OF THE TEN BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR- San Francisco Chronicle ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR- Bon Appetit, Los Angeles Times, Epicurious In First Generation, Frankie Gaw of Little Fat Boy presents a tribute to Taiwanese home cooking. With dishes passed down from generations of family, Frankie introduces a deeply personal and essential collection of recipes inspired by his multicultural experience, melding the flavors of suburban America with the ingredients and techniques his parents grew up with. In his debut cookbook, Frankie will teach you to master bao, dumplings, scallion pancakes, and so much more through stunning visuals and intimate storytelling about discovering identity and belonging through cooking. Recipes such asLap Cheong Corn Dogs,Honey-Mustard Glazed Taiwanese Popcorn Chicken,Stir-Fried Rice Cakes with Bolognese,Cincinnati Chili with Hand Pulled Noodles,Bao Egg and Soy Glazed Bacon Sandwich, and Lionshead Big Mac exemplify the stunning creations born out of growing up with feet in two worlds. Through step-by-step photography and detailed hand-drawn illustrations, Frankie offers readers not just the essentials but endless creative new flavor combinations for the fundamentals of Taiwanese home cooking.
Amrikan by
In her eagerly anticipated debut cookbook, acclaimed food writer Khushbu Shah injects an electric and irresistible energy into the story of Indian food, with 125 recipes inspired by the cooking of the diaspora. From the savory and bold flavors of Achari Paneer Pizza to the ultimate home-cooked comfort meal, a pot of Spinach Tadka Dal with rice, Khushbu's recipes are flavor-packed, party-pleasing, and wonderfully surprising. She invites readers on a journey far beyond butter chicken (though she has a stellar recipe for it), offering instructions for preparing meals, drinks, and desserts as diverse as Saag Paneer Lasagna, Classic Dosas, Keralan Fried Chicken Sandwiches, Pani Puri Mojitos, and a Masala Chai Basque Cheesecake. Khushbu makes it easy to dive in, equipping home cooks with a list of simple-to-find pantry staples alongside vibrant images, clever tips and tricks, and illuminating essays that introduce a thrilling voice in American food.
Gohan: memories and stories from my family's kitchen by
Simple, everyday Japanese cooking from best-selling author Emiko Davies. Practically any home-cooked Japanese meal revolves around rice. It sits beside miso soup, pickles, tofu, and a piece of grilled fish at breakfast. It soaks up the sauce in a comforting donburi bowl, or is wrapped in nori for the ultimate portable lunch--onigiri. And it's there for dinner, perhaps served with a pickled plum, some mild Japanese curry, braised fish, or even a Japanese-style Hamburg steak. The everyday meals, cooked in the homes of Japanese mothers and grandmothers, is the food that Emiko Davies grew up with. They're the dishes she makes for her own children: simple, satisfying food like tamagonogohan (stir fried egg and rice), soba noodle soup, Japanese curry, yakisoba, and miso soup, prepared with whatever seasonal vegetables happen to be around. Unlike what many people think, Japanese home cooking is not fiddly, nor time consuming. It's quick and remarkably simple, thanks to the Japanese philosophy that fresh, seasonal food doesn't need much to enhance its natural flavor. "Gohan to me means the everyday home-cooked meal. Nothing fussy. It's quick and easy, but nourishing. A meal made with love."
Islas by
The islands spanning the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans are remarkable places, sharing dozens of ingredients and cooking techniques, including marinating, pickling and fermentation, braising and stewing, frying, grilling and smoking, and steaming and in-ground roasting. Bold flavors drip from the edges of each dish with tastes that represent stories of resistance, persistence, and wisdom passed down from generation to generation. This narrative cookbook by writer, documentary producer, and author Von Diaz travels across oceans and nations to uplift the shared ancestral cooking techniques of these islands in more than 125 recipes, including intimate profiles of the historical context of each technique, stories from islanders, and step-by-step guides for recreating them at home. Recipes include: * Coco Bread from Jamaica * Arroz con Jueyes (Stewed Crab Rice) from Puerto Rico * Masikita (Papaya-Marinated Beef Skewers) from Madagascar * Bebek Betutu (Roasted Duck in Banana Leaf) from Indonesia * Lechon Kawali (Crispy Fried Pork Belly) from the Philippines Bright citrus and vinegars, verdant herbs, slow-cooked and smoky grilled meats, fresh seafood, aromatic rice, and earthy root vegetables: These flavors, found in the meals and recipes across these island nations pair remarkably well together, despite distance and cultural differences. The ingredients and deep-rooted cooking techniques in each of these recipes typify the harmonious, synchronous spirit found in each culture's unique cuisines. Even amid environmental chaos and food insecurity, islanders cook in ways that are soul nourishing and flavorful. Islas is about preserving the wisdom, values, and resilience of the people who live in some of the most volatile, vulnerable places on this planet. Each recipe, an archive of strategies for persistence, creativity, and ingenuity, provides a path for cooking delicious food. But above all, these stories and recipes acknowledge that cooking delicious food for others is always a selfless act.
Mayumu: Filipino American desserts remixed by
New York Time's "The Best Cookbooks of 2023" James Beard Award-winner for Emerging Voice 2024 James Beard Award-nominee for Baking and Desserts 2024 A sweet baking book of fantastically imaginative remixed Filipino American dessert recipes, plus essays on the Filipino American experience by baker-fundraiser Abi Balingit. When the pandemic started her lonely work-from-home life in 2020, Abi Balingit channeled all her energy into the one thing that brought her joy: baking. In her tiny, dimly lit, shared kitchen, she produced hundreds of "pasalubong" (souvenir) boxes filled with especially creative treats that blended the Filipino treats and Western style baked goods she grew up with. Each time, she'd sell out within hours and donated the proceeds to support her community in need. Now Abi shares some of these cult-favorite desserts with Mayumu (which means "sweet" in one of the 8 major languages in Philippines), an incredibly fresh baking book of 75 recipes that span from the never-before-seen, incredibly inventive flavor combinations that Abi dreamed up, to the more familiar, classic Filipino favorites: Adobo Chocolate Chip Cookie Strawberry Shortcake Sapin-Sapin (Rice Cakes) Ube Macapuno Molten Lava Cakes Matcha Pastillas Melon Chicharron Crumble Halo-Halo Baked Alaska Throughout, essays following Abi's heritage and self-discovery introduce the flavors and experiences that have shaped her life, from visiting the motherland and her parents' birthplace in Pampanga, Philippines, to California where she grew up and went to school, to her current home, Brooklyn, NY. This beautiful book is a celebration of the Filipino American experience, perfect for home bakers wanting both nostalgic and excitingly new recipes.
Hawaii Cooks by
For five seasons, Roy Yamaguchi has explored the ingredients and growers of Hawaii on his public television show, Hawaii Cooks with Roy Yamaguchi. Now, in a companion volume to the sixth season, he brings his rich culinary discoveries to home kitchens. In HAWAII COOKS, Roy introduces a comprehensive pantry that describes his favorite ingredients in detail and carefully explains how flavors, textures, and colors play off and complement each other on the plate. As a classically trained chef, Roy combines fresh, Hawaiian-grown ingredients with French cooking techniques to produce a mouthwatering collection of recipes with eastern and western influences. Recipes such as Crab and Taro Cakes with B?©arnaise Sauce, Lamb Steaks with Sweet Potato Mash and Apple-Curry Sauce, and Crab with Vanilla Sauce pack an unexpected punch in every delicious bite, bringing out the flavors of ingredients in ways that only Roy can. The companion book to Roy Yamaguchi'¬?s sixth season of Hawaii Cooks with Roy Yamaguchi, broadcast on public television. Includes an in-depth pantry section that comprises nearly a quarter of the book, a detailed description of Roy'¬?s cooking style, and 60 of Roy'¬?s signature recipes. Features full-color ingredient and styled food photography.Roy received the 1993 James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef: Pacific Northwest.
Pacific Palate by
Offering nearly 175 recipes that reflect the many cultures of the Pacific Islands, this adventurous cookbook features low-fat, beautiful food emphasizing vegetables, fish, seafood, poultry, and pasta.
Asian-American : proudly inauthentic recipes from the Philippines to Brooklyn by
The eagerly awaited cookbook from Dale Talde, Top Chef favorite and owner of the acclaimed Brooklyn restaurant Talde. Born in Chicago to Filipino parents, Dale Talde grew up both steeped in his family's culinary heritage and infatuated with American fast food--burgers, chicken nuggets, and Hot Pockets. Today, his dual identity is etched on the menu at Talde, his always-packed Brooklyn restaurant. There he reimagines iconic Asian dishes, imbuing them with Americana while doubling down on the culinary fireworks that made them so popular in the first place. His riff on pad thai features bacon and oysters. He gives juicy pork dumplings the salty, springy exterior of soft pretzels. His food isn't Asian fusion; it's Asian-American. Now, in his first cookbook, Dale shares the recipes that have made him famous, all told in his inimitable voice. Some chefs cook food meant to transport you to Northern Thailand or Sichuan province, to Vietnam or Tokyo. Dale's food is meant to remind you that you're home"-- Provided by publisher.
Amboy: Recipes From the Filipino-American Dream by
Filipino recipes from the the creator of the legendary Eggslut in LA, host of the hit online series The Burger Show, and the most prominent Filipino chef in the US. Alvin Cailan has risen to become arguably the most high-profile chef in America's Filipino food movement. He took the food scene by storm when he opened the now-legendary Eggslut in Los Angeles, a foodie cult favorite specializing in affordable but sophisticated egg sandwiches. Alvin also hosts the popular The Burger Show on First We Feast's YouTube channel, with many episodes exceeding 1 million views and guests such as Seth Rogen and Padma Lakshmi. Alvin's story of success, however, is an unlikely one. He emerged from his youth spent as part of an immigrant family in East LA feeling like he wasn't Filipino enough to be Filipino and not American enough to be an American, thus amboy, the term for a Filipino raised in America. He had to first overcome cultural traditions and family expectations to find his own path to success, and this unique cookbook tells that story through his recipes.
Hawker Fare: stories & recipes from a refugee chef's Isan Thai & Lao roots by
From chef James Syhabout of two-Michelin-star restaurant Commis, an Asian-American cookbook like no other--simple recipes for cooking home-style Thai and Lao dishes James Syhabout's hugely popular Hawker Fare restaurant in San Francisco is the product of his unique family history and diverse career experience. Born into two distinct but related Asian cultures--from his mother's ancestral village in Isan, Thailand's northeast region, and his father's home in Pakse, Laos--he and his family landed in Oakland in 1981 in a community of other refugees from the Vietnam War. Syhabout at first turned away from the food of his heritage to work in Europe and become a classically trained chef. After the success of Commis, his fine dining restaurant and the only Michelin-starred eatery in Oakland, Syhabout realized something was missing--and that something was Hawker Fare, and cooking the food of his childhood. The Hawker Fare cookbook immortalizes these widely beloved dishes, which are inspired by the open-air "hawker" markets of Thailand and Laos as well as the fine-dining sensibilities of James's career beginnings. Each chapter opens with stories from Syhabout's roving career, starting with his mother's work as a line cook in Oakland, and moving into the turning point of his culinary life, including his travels as an adult in his parents' homelands. From building a pantry with sauces and oils, to making staples like sticky rice and padaek, to Syhabout's recipe for instant ramen noodles with poached egg, Hawker Fare explores the many dimensions of this singular chef's cooking and ethos on ingredients, family, and eating well. This cookbook offers a new definition of what it means to be making food in America, in the full and vibrant colors of Thailand, Laos, and California.
Everything I Never Told You by
A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year * A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice * Winner of the Alex Award and the Massachusetts Book Award * Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, San Francisco Chronicle, Entertainment Weekly, The Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, Grantland Booklist, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Shelf Awareness, Book Riot, School Library Journal, Bustle, and Time Our New York The acclaimed debut novel by the author of Little Fires Everywhere and Our Missing Hearts "A taut tale of ever deepening and quickening suspense." --O, the Oprah Magazine "Explosive . . . Both a propulsive mystery and a profound examination of a mixed-race family." --Entertainment Weekly "Lydia is dead. But they don't know this yet." So begins this exquisite novel about a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee, and her parents are determined that she will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue. But when Lydia's body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together is destroyed, tumbling them into chaos. A profoundly moving story of family, secrets, and longing, Everything I Never Told You is both a gripping page-turner and a sensitive family portrait, uncovering the ways in which mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, and husbands and wives struggle, all their lives, to understand one another.
Crying in H Mart by
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the indie rock sensation known as Japanese Breakfast, an unforgettable memoir about family, food, grief, love, and growing up Korean American--"in losing her mother and cooking to bring her back to life, Zauner became herself" (NPR). * CELEBRATING OVER ONE YEAR ON THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER LIST In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far more than a dazzling singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With humor and heart, she tells of growing up one of the few Asian American kids at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother's particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother's tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food. As she grew up, moving to the East Coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, and performing gigs with her fledgling band--and meeting the man who would become her husband--her Koreanness began to feel ever more distant, even as she found the life she wanted to live. It was her mother's diagnosis of terminal cancer, when Michelle was twenty-five, that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language, and history her mother had given her. Vivacious and plainspoken, lyrical and honest, Zauner's voice is as radiantly alive on the page as it is onstage. Rich with intimate anecdotes that will resonate widely, and complete with family photos, Crying in H Mart is a book to cherish, share, and reread.
The Bonesetter's Daughter by
The first time Amy Tan - The New York Times best-selling author of The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God's Wife, and The Hundred Secret Senses - learned her mother's real name as well as that of her grandmother was on the day she died. It happened as Tan and several siblings - unified by a need to feel helpful instead of helpless - gathered to discuss their dying mother's past and prepare her obituary. Tan was stunned when she realized she had not known her own mother's birth name. It was just one of several surprises. In the act of writing a simple obituary Tan came to realize there was still so much she did not know about her. Soon afterwards she began rewriting the novel she had been working on for five years. Inspired by her own experiences with family secrets kept by one generation from the next, and drawn from a lifetime of questions and images, the result is The Bonesetter's Daughter. The story begins when Ruth Young, a ghostwriter of self-help books, comes across a clipped stack of papers in the bottom of a desk drawer. Young has been caring for her ailing mother, LuLing, who is beginning to show the unmistakable signs of Alzheimer's disease. Written in Chinese by LuLing years earlier, when she first started worrying something was wrong with her memory, the papers contain a narrative of LuLing's life as a girl in China, and the life of her own mother, the daughter of the Famous Bonesetter from the village of Xian Xin - Immortal Heart - near the Mouth of the Mountain. Within the calligraphed pages Ruth finds the truth about a mother's heart, what she cannot tell her daughter yet hopes her daughter will never forget. With her latest novel Amy Tan explores the changing place one has in a family of names that were nearly forgotten. Just as she herself has done, Tan shows Ruth finding the secrets and fragments of her mother's past - its heartfelt desires, its deepest wounds, its most profound hopes - and with each new discovery reconfiguring her assessment of the woman who shaped her life, who is in her bones. The extent to which Tan's newest novel mixes pure fiction with elements of autobiography is made clear by Tan herself. In acknowledgements of The Bonesetter's Daughter she writes, "The heart of this story belongs to my grandmother, its voice to my mother."
Unaccustomed Earth by
From the internationally bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author comes eight dazzling stories--longer and more emotionally complex than any she has yet written--that take readers from Cambridge and Seattle to India and Thailand as they explore the secrets at the heart of family life.
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