Daughter of Heaven : A Memoir with Earthly Recipes

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 Li's paternal grandfather, Li Zogren, was China's 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, Li's wife, Nai-nai, comes to live with her son's family in New York City, bringing a whole new world of sights, smells, and tastes as she quickly takes control of the kitchen. Nai-nai's tantalizingly exotic cooking opens up the heart and mind of her American granddaughter to her Chinese heritage—and to the world. Through her grandmother's traditional cuisine Leslie bridges the cultural divide in an America in which she is a minority—as 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 author's personal recipes, most from Nai-nai's 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. A grandmother opens up a world of culinary delights and family history for her Chinese-American granddaughter. Leslie Li grew up in suburban north Bronx in New York City—a world apart from mainland China, where her grandfather, Li Zongren, had been the country’s first democratically elected vice-president. She gets a lesson in her cultural heritage when her widowed grandmother comes to live with them. Nai-nai also brings with her a whole new world of sights, smells, and tastes, as she quickly takes control of the kitchen. Through her grandmother’s tantalizingly exotic cooking, Leslie bridges the divide in an America where she is a minority—as well as the growing gap at home between her rigid, traditional Chinese father and her progressive American-born mother. An intimate and moving memoir—featuring some of Nai-nai’s personal recipes for dishes like Old Man Wang’s Spicy Beef Noodles or Seven-Treasure Rice—Daughter of Heaven is a loving ode to family and food, an exquisite blend of memory, history, and the senses, and “an engaging family portrait enriched by an insider’s view of the Chinese kitchen” (Kirkus Reviews). The powerful yet touching memoir of a Chinese-American woman and her grandmother by an extraordinarily talented author who has been compared to Amy Tan and Maxine Hong Kingston. Leslie Li belongs to the illustrious Li family of Guilin, China. Her paternal grandfather, Li Zongren, was China's first elected vice president, to whom Chiang Kai-shek left control of the country when he fled to Formosa. Leslie's father was studying in the US when he met and married her American-born mother A memoir of an American woman whose grandmother used traditional Chinese cuisine to help her embrace her Chinese heritage and overcome her alienation from American culture, with authentic family recipes included