More reading on feeding

There’s another tsundoku build-up happening here in the house, despite m̶y̶ our best efforts.

We’d both agreed to reduce the number of books and, as a result of the ensuing culling frenzy, I’ve managed to recoup approx. £717.05 worth of earlier expenditure — via eBay sales — to reduce that book mountain. Yet still, new ones continue to arrive through the door. I totally have no idea how that happens…

So, a quick round-up of what I’ve been working through earlier in the year.

Crying in H-Mart by Michelle Zauner

The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food, by Jennifer 8. Lee

Chop Suey Nation by Ann Hui

and

Angela Hui

“As my taste buds change and my body develops with age, I’ve slowly learnt to make peace with tong and appreciate them. I’ve spent a lifetime being embarrassed of my Chinese heritage, and have rejected a lot of the food in front of me at the family dining table. In a way, my mother’s soups were a painful reminder of my Chinese identity; something that felt almost ‘too Chinese’ when all I wanted to do was desperately escape my own skin. I’ve come back to them in later life, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I enjoy the soup: to be honest, I still find it difficult to wash down. It’s about acceptance of who I am and accepting my Chinese identity, occasionally forcing myself to ‘eat bitter’ to endure pain for the sake of beauty and health, and drinking in the complexities of my diaspora identity.”

In view of the recent plagiarising furore, I’ve removed this book update from my post a̶n̶d̶ ̶M̶a̶k̶a̶n̶:̶ ̶R̶e̶c̶i̶p̶e̶s̶ ̶f̶r̶o̶m̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶H̶e̶a̶r̶t̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶S̶i̶n̶g̶a̶p̶o̶r̶e̶ ̶b̶y̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶L̶o̶n̶d̶o̶n̶ ̶b̶a̶s̶e̶d̶ ̶c̶h̶e̶f̶,̶ ̶E̶l̶i̶z̶a̶b̶e̶t̶h̶ ̶H̶a̶i̶g̶h̶ but luckily have been able to get my hands on

Sambal Shiok by Mandy Yin as a fine, fine replacement

who says:

“Shiok in Malay slang means a thing or an experience that is ‘shockingly good’.
So, sambal shiok means ‘shockingly good sambal’!”

So much commonality in all of them. Their ethnicity the very least of it, parents and grandparents from Korea, China, Vietnam, Malaya, except that it really isn’t the least of it.  There are similar losses, their initial rejection of parents culture and their food, their description of the struggles that immigrants feel the world over and in producing the food of their home countries, their reclamation of their own history, a way to bring the old country over an ocean to their new, strange, often unwelcoming community and, most importantly, a way to make money, one of very the few routes available to them that isn’t constrained by racist laws or prejudiced local xenophobes.

Recent increases in xenophobic words, actions and, especially attacks in the street — especially towards Chinese people — really started in the US with the Yellow Stain Trump presidency and his blatant blame game for COVID19. But we’ve not covered ourselves in any glory.

Take One Fish by Josh Niland.

and his garum recipe is next on my list

Ketchup books; I’ve not yet caught up…

Lee Tiernan, ex St John