Review by Booklist Review
The Chinese diaspora extends worldwide. Canadian author Kwan has traversed the continents to dine with fellow Chinese people in their restaurants. For each country he visits, Kwan sketches its history of Chinese immigration. In the U.S. and Canada, many Chinese laborers--some at the expense of their lives--built the transcontinental railroad lines that unified the countries coast to coast. Despite suffering blatant discrimination, many stayed on, some achieving great financial success and others shepherding small businesses, especially restaurants. In Istanbul, Kwan dines at a Chinese restaurant that pursues halal tradition and serves no pork, a remarkable thing for any Chinese-origin eatery. In Kenya he shares a dish of beef and watermelon, a hybrid of East African and Chinese cuisines. A trip to Trinidad finds Kwan in the company of a shopkeeper-turned-restaurateur of Hakka ethnic background who is a music impresario, spreading Trinidadian music everywhere. With marvelous insights into how Chinese people have amalgamated so firmly into so many diverse societies, Kwan's book is more sociological study than culinary guide.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Filmmaker Kwan explores the Chinese experience through the lens of Chinese restaurants the world over in his charming debut. His travels take him from Outlook, Saskatchewan, Canada, where he visits prairie cafés that serve American Chinese rather than "anything remotely resembling Chinese food," to Mombasa, Kenya, where he discovers a restaurant that offers stir-fried beef with watermelon, and double-boiled papaya chicken soup, a dish that reminds Kwan of the Cantonese cuisine his mother used to make. Inspiring profiles of chefs and restaurant owners are interwoven throughout; such as that of Bar Pekín chef Abel Lam, a Black man of Chinese Cuban heritage who follows the culinary traditions of his grandfather at his Havana restaurant. Kwan sheds light on how Chinese cuisine has integrated itself into cultures across the globe (when visiting Peru, Kwan learns that "words such as sillao (soy sauce), chaufa (fried rice) and kion (ginger) are part of Peruvian lingo"), as well as its cultural centrality (the colloquial Chinese greeting of "Have you eaten yet?" is akin to asking "How are you?"). Expertly told, this is a winning blend of travel, food, and culture writing. Readers will be enlightened. Agent: Chris Casucio, Westwood Creative. (Jan.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A documentarian recounts his journey touring Chinese restaurants around the world. According to Kwan, one of the few things that unites China's incredibly diverse diaspora is a shared love of Chinese food in all its iterations. It was this shared love that motivated the author, who speaks English, French, Japanese, and a few Chinese dialects, to travel "more than 200,000 kilometers…from the Amazon to the Arctic Circle" in search of Chinese restaurants and the histories they contain. The histories are what interest Kwan the most. Making good on his promise to use food as an "entry point," the author describes every establishment he visited through personal, political, and historical lenses. In Havana, Kwan met a Cuban-born Chinese octogenarian who was also a talented singer specializing in Cuban music. After being robbed in Mombasa, Kenya, Kwan flew to Mauritius, and he traces the history of the Hakka people who settled on this African island in the 16th century. In Haifa, Israel, Kwan learned about how the descendants of Chinese refugees from Vietnam assimilated into Israeli society. "When I was looking for a Chinese restaurant in Israel, it was a challenge to find one run by ethnic Chinese," he notes. "Most owners were Israelis, with Chinese as cooks or managers. Many even employed Thai cooks, adding a distinctive Thai flavour to their Israeli-Chinese cooking." Throughout these encounters, Kwan offers bits about his personal life, including his Hong Kong family's peripatetic life. His rich descriptions, humorous tone, and extensive research make for a pleasurable reading experience. The connections he draws between far-flung places are particularly impressive, revealing a deep empathy and knowledge about the people he encountered. Kwan's inclusion of his personal history--and the histories of his film crew--gives the book an added feeling of intimacy. Only occasionally does the author feel out of touch--e.g., his lack of a critical lens about Israel's tumultuous history. A heartfelt and entertaining culinary and historical survey of the Chinese diaspora. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
