Daughter of Heaven: A Memoir with Earthly Recipes

(Paperback)

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In this powerful, touching memoir of a critically acclaimed Chinese-American writer, taste becomes the keeper of memory and food the keeper of culture when Nai-nai, her extraordinary grandmother, arrives from mainland China.

Leslie Lis paternal grandfather, Li Zogren, was Chinas first democratically elected vice president, to whom Chiang Kai-shek left control of the country when he fled to Formosa in 1949. Nine years later, Lis wife, Nai-nai, comes to live with her sons family in New York City, bringing a whole new world of sights, smells, and tastes as she quickly takes control of the kitchen. Nai-nais tantalizingly exotic cooking opens up the heart and mind of her American granddaughter to her Chinese heritageand to the world. Through her grandmothers traditional cuisine Leslie bridges the cultural divide in an America in which she is a minorityas well as the growing gap at home between her rigid, traditional Chinese father and her progressive American-born mother. Interspersed throughout her intimate and moving memoir are the authors personal recipes, most from Nai-nais kitchen, that add a delicious dimension to the work. A loving ode to family and food, Daughter of Heaven is an exquisite blend of memory, history, and the senses.

Reviews

Warmly seasoned, sharply observed . . . If food, with its attendant emotions and symbolism, is at the heart of the book, it is just one layer in a very rich composite.