Daughter of Heaven: A Memoir with Earthly Recipes (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781611456950)

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.

Author: Leslie Li
ISBN-10: 1611456959
ISBN-13: 9781611456950
Publisher: Arcade Publishing
Language: English
Published: 01/02/2013
Pages: 304
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.40w x 1.10d