I absolutely adored this book. I'm Chinese-American from a community with more Asian people than white, but I never fully appreciated the access I hadI absolutely adored this book. I'm Chinese-American from a community with more Asian people than white, but I never fully appreciated the access I had to top quality Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and other food growing up where I did. It wasn't until I moved to college to an area full of culture but devoid of authentic Chinese food that I got a glimpse of what the majority of Americans saw as Chinese food, and it was a sad shock to my suddenly rice deficient self. Reading this book brought me back to those first months away from home.
I will say that this book more accurately should be a cultural history of American PERCEPTION of Chinese food, since only half or so of the book was dedicated to Chinese food in the U.S. I really wish the author had kept going with his research, it seems like after writing up Nixon's visit to China he ran out of steam, giving only the briefest of mentions to Flushing and the San Gabriel Valley, when recently those areas have had a steady river of recent immigrants from all areas of China and Taiwan, creating a whole new culture of food that the book is sadly lacking. There were also large stretches of the book that I found mildly upsetting for the unrelentingly get racism of white people, but I suppose the author couldn't have done much about that except report it as it was. This book was a total pleasure otherwise to read....more
This book started off very strong, and I thoroughly enjoyed the first half of the book. I absolutely loved learning about the history of noodles, theThis book started off very strong, and I thoroughly enjoyed the first half of the book. I absolutely loved learning about the history of noodles, the quest to make them taste good to a wide audience, and their social and economic impact on America. The section on instant noodles in Papua New Guinea was unexpected, but it was a delight and gave me food for thought, namely, how the cheapness of instant noodles can cause a real difference for poor people all over the world. However, the book lost me a bit when it started analyzing the failed brand Big Shotz and MREs in the American armed forces. I didn't much understand how those topics linked to instant noodles and my interested flagged. The very end of the book has a statement where the authors reluctantly decide that instant noodles are good overall rather than bad, but it felt to me like that statement came out of nowhere, because I don't feel as if the book argued very hard that instant noodles were bad to begin with. Anyhow, it's a bit of an uneven book, and fairly academic (the science of shelf-stablizing noodles definitely lost me), but overall, I'd recommend it as a pretty fun read for anyone who enjoys ramen as much as I do. Also, reading this book while actually eating ramen = heavenly....more
I did not expect to loveConsider the Forknearly half as much as I did, but with every page, I came across fun history fact after fun history fact, aI did not expect to loveConsider the Forknearly half as much as I did, but with every page, I came across fun history fact after fun history fact, and I can't believe how many interesting new things I learned in every single chapter of this book. I was a bit worried this book would be overwhelmingly Eurocentric, and while it does focus mostly on western food history, Wilson still includes aspects of food history from the Middle East and Asia, which I very much appreciated. I'm practically raring at the bit to talk about food technology and history now to whoever will listen to me, and when I cooked dinner last night, it was delicious to weave in all my newly-learned fun facts with my everyday life. I'm incredibly glad I've gotten some experience feeding myself before reading this book, and I'm eager to conquer more dishes now that I can more fully appreciate how we eat, what we eat, and how we cook it....more
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