Eating Asian America This page intentionally left blank Eating Asian America A Food Studies Reader Edited by Robert Ji-Song Ku, Martin F. Manalansan IV, and Anita Mannur a NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS New York and London NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS New York and London www.nyupress.org © 2013 by New York University All rights reserved References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor New York University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared. for Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data please contact the library of congress ISBN: 978-1-4798-1023-9 (cl) ISBN: 978-1-4798-6925-1 (pb) New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability. We strive to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the greatest extent possible in publishing our books. Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Also available as an ebook Contents List of Figures and Maps vii Acknowledgments ix An Alimentary Introduction 1 Robert Ji-Song Ku, Martin F. Manalansan IV, and Anita Mannur Part I: Labors of Taste 1. Cambodian Donut Shops and the Negotiation of Identity in Los Angeles 13 Erin M. Curtis 2. Tasting America: The Politics and Pleasures of School Lunch in Hawai‘i 30 Christine R. Yano (with Wanda Adams) 3. A Life Cooking for Others: The Work and Migration Experiences 53 of a Chinese Restaurant Worker in New York City, 1920–1946 Heather R. Lee 4. Learning from Los Kogi Angeles: A Taco Truck and Its City 78 Oliver Wang 5. The Significance of Hawai‘i Regional Cuisine in Postcolonial Hawai‘i 98 Samuel Hideo Yamashita Part II: Empires of Food 6. Incarceration, Cafeteria Style: The Politics of the Mess Hall 125 in the Japanese American Incarceration Heidi Kathleen Kim 7. As American as Jackrabbit Adobo: Cooking, Eating, and 147 Becoming Filipina/o American before World War II Dawn Bohulano Mabalon 8. Lechon with Heinz, Lea & Perrins with Adobo: The American 177 Relationship with Filipino Food, 1898–1946 René Alexander Orquiza Jr. 9. “Oriental Cookery”: Devouring Asian and Pacific Cuisine 186 during the Cold War Mark Padoongpatt v Contents 10. Gannenshoyu or First-Year Soy Sauce? Kikkoman Soy Sauce and the 208 Corporate Forgetting of the Early Japanese American Consumer Robert Ji-Song Ku Part III: Fusion, Diffusion, Confusion? 11. Twenty-First-Century Food Trucks: Mobility, Social Media, 231 and Urban Hipness Lok Siu 12. Samsa on Sheepshead Bay: Tracing Uzbek Foodprints 245 in Southern Brooklyn Zohra Saed 13. Apple Pie and Makizushi: Japanese American Women 255 Sustaining Family and Community Valerie J. Matsumoto 14. Giving Credit Where It Is Due: Asian American Farmers 274 and Retailers as Food System Pioneers Nina F. Ichikawa 15. Beyond Authenticity: Rerouting the Filipino Culinary Diaspora 288 Martin F. Manalansan IV Part IV: Readable Feasts 16. Acting Asian American, Eating Asian American: The Politics 303 of Race and Food in Don Lee’s Wrack and Ruin Jennifer Ho 17. Devouring Hawai‘i: Food, Consumption, and Contemporary Art 323 Margo Machida 18. “Love Is Not a Bowl of Quinces”: Food, Desire, and the Queer 354 Asian Body in Monique Truong’s The Book of Salt Denise Cruz 19. The Globe at the Table: How Madhur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian 371 Reconfigures the World Delores B. Phillips 20. Perfection on a Plate: Readings in the South Asian 393 Transnational Queer Kitchen Anita Mannur Bibliography 409 Contributors 425 Index 431 vi List of Figures and Maps Figure 5.1. The founding chefs of HRC. 106 Figure 5.2. The cover of Janice Wald Henderson’s The New 110 Cuisine of Hawaii. Figure 5.3. Alan Wong’s loco moco. 114 Figure 6.1. Santa Anita Assembly Center cafeteria. 128 Figure 7.1. Filipinas learn how to make baking powder biscuits. 154 Figure 7.2. Eudosia Juanitas and her children in their 158 vegetable garden. Figure 7.3. Filipino asparagus cutters celebrate the end of 161 the asparagus season. Figure 7.4. Bibiana Castillano’s restaurant. 164 Figure 7.5. Pablo “Ambo” Mabalon’s restaurant. 165 Figure 10.1. Kikkoman’s Golden Anniversary advertisement 210 published in the New York Times. Figure 14.1. Nectarines at Kozuki Farms, Parlier, California. 277 Figure 14.2. Golden Bowl Supermarket, Fresno, California. 279 Figure 14.3. Boxes and storage shed at Kozuki Farms, 283 Parlier, California. Figure 14.4. California Department of Labor safety poster 285 written in Hmong. Figure 17.1. Puni Kukahiko, Lovely Hula Hands, 2005. 325 Figure 17.2. Lynne Yamamoto, Provisions, Post-War 326 (Pacific Asia and U.S.), 2010. Figure 17.3. Michael Arcega, SPAM/MAPS: World, 2001. 328 Figure 17.4. Keith Tallett, Tattoo Williams (Watufaka), 2010. 330 Figure 17.5. Keith Tallett, Mobile Taro Lo’i (Camo design), 2010. 335 vii List of Figures and Maps Figure 17.6. Trisha Lagaso Goldberg, Eshu Veve for Olaa 338 Sugar Company, 2011. Figure 17.7. Alan Konishi, Yellow Peril (Remember 340 Pearl Harbor?), 2006. Figure 17.8. Mat Kubo, Big Five (full view and detail with 342 pineapple open), 2004. Figure 17.9. Gaye Chan and Nandita Sharma, Eating in Public, 348 Free Garden at Kailua, Hawai‘i, 2003–2012. Figure 20.1. A “perfect” dish comes together. Frame enlargement 398 from Nina’s Heavenly Delights (2006). Figure 20.2. The “perfect dish,” which tastes like “shite,” is 399 thrown into the trash. Frame enlargement from Nina’s Heavenly Delights (2006). Figure 20.3. “Love in a Wet Climate.” Frame enlargement 401 from Nina’s Heavenly Delights (2006). Map 3.1. The Chin family in North America, 1935–1946. 56 Map 3.2. The Chin family in China and North America, 68 1935–1946. Map 4.1. Los Kogi Angeles, 2010–2011. 83 Map 4.2. The Void, 2010–2011. 85 Map 4.3. Kogi’s most common locations, 2010–2011. 87 viii Acknowledgments The familiar food-related adage cautions, “Too many cooks spoil the broth,” which may be true, but not for this book. A great number of “cooks” have had their hands in the completion of this collection. First and foremost, we thank the seventeen contributors for their enthusiasm, diligence, creativity, erudi- tion, and friendship. We thank Eric Zinner, editor in chief of New York University Press, who believed in our project and pushed us to finish it. We also thank production editor Alexia Traganas and assistant editors Ciara McLaughlin and Alicia Nadkarni for their support and guidance throughout the completion of this book. We are grateful for the constructive feedback from the two anonymous readers of our manuscript. Their thoughtful comments and suggestions have improved this book immeasurably. We would be remiss if we did not acknowledge the Association for Asian American Studies, as our participation in the 2010 meeting in Austin, Texas, and the 2011 meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, provided the original impe- tus for the teamwork that culminated in the publication of this book. We thank the AAAS officers, conference organizers, and members for their intellectual support and personal friendships. Finally, we three editors would like to make the following personal acknowledgments. Anita: I wish to thank my colleagues at Miami: Yu-Fang Cho, Nalin Jayas- ena, Mad Detloff, Luming Mao, and Gaile Pohlhaus for their generous intel- lectual feedback. My thanks to Jason Palmeri and Lisa Weems for an ever evolving context for critical eating in southwest Ohio, and for their contin- ued support and encouragement, I thank Michael Needham, Julie Minich, Bill Johnson Gonzalez, Allan Isaac, and Cathy Schlund-Vials. Martin: I want to express my gratitude to Lisa Nakamura and Kent Ono, who were especially supportive during my research. Special thanks to Bill Johnson Gonzalez, Allan Isaac, Jose Capino, Rick Bonus, and members of the Filipino American studies “mafia” for their social and scholarly camaraderie, especially during delectable meals, spicy chats, and warm boisterous laughter. ix
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