Chinese Menu: The History, Myths, and Legends Behind Your Favorite Foods

by Grace Lin (Author)

Reading Level: 4th − 5th Grade

Newbery and Caldecott honoree and New York Times bestselling author Grace Lin delivers a groundbreaking, lushly illustrated, and beautifully written full-color book that explores the whimsical myths and stories behind your favorite American Chinese food.

From fried dumplings to fortune cookies, here are the tales behind your favorite foods.

Do you know the stories behind delectable dishes--like the fun connection between scallion pancakes and pizza? Or how dumplings cured a village's frostbitten ears? Or how wonton soup tells about the creation of the world?

Separated into courses like a Chinese menu, these tales--based in real history and folklore--are filled with squabbling dragons, magical fruits, and hungry monks. This book will bring you to far-off times and marvelous places, all while making your mouth water. And, along the way, you might just discover a deeper understanding of the resilience and triumph behind this food, and what makes it undeniably American.

Award-winning and bestselling author Grace Lin provides a visual and storytelling feast as she gives insight on the history, legends, and myths behind your favorite American Chinese dishes. Chinese Menu makes the perfect gift book for anyone who loves good food--and an even better story.

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Hardcover
$24.99

Kirkus Reviews

An utterly delectable feast of history and storytelling.

Booklist

This celebration of Chinese cuisine and culture is factual, engaging, and mouthwatering.

Publishers Weekly

Via appetizing full-color gouache and pencil illustrations alongside lush, mouthwatering prose, Newbery and Caldecott Honoree Lin chronicles the origins of the most ubiquitous dishes in American Chinese restaurants. A table of contents, structured like a Chinese takeout menu, breaks down topics--such as soups, side orders, and chef's specials--into bite-size sections that describe the meals' sometimes mythical origins. By tracing the etymology of wonton soup, for example, the creator outlines how, when examining the dish name's Northern Chinese roots, "wonton" can refer to "primordial chaos or the Daoist creation story of the world." Lin allows common foods their time to shine, noting how the dumpling was created by a doctor more than 1,800 years ago to help villagers combat frostbite, and the fortune cookie has Japanese American beginnings. Other entries include dragon-filled tales of various teas, and the backstory and etiquette surrounding chopsticks. Each selection, often prefaced with a personal anecdote and historical or folkloric context, whisks readers back in time; some entries highlight ancient tales about magic fruits, while others address troubling periods of strife and discrimination. These foods--and their stories--find common ground in their deep-rooted connection to Chinese American culture, which is further anchored by an author's note that details the book's inspiration. A family recipe and endnotes conclude. Ages 8-12. Agent: Rebecca Sherman, Writers House. (Sept.)

Copyright 2023 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

School Library Journal

Gr 3-7--Newbery and Caldecott Honor author/illustrator Lin (Where the Mountain Meets the Moon) delivers a scrumptious smorgasbord of folktales, myths, and origins of popular items on the menu. The contents read like a who's who of favorite foods on a Chinese menu, from dumplings, to teas, to fortune cookies. Highly researched, the book delves into each delicacy, telling where and when the foods originated. Each dish starts off with the author sharing childhood and family memories, an explanation of what the dish contains, and the significance of the dish in the Chinese culture (or whether it is simply a dish that Chinese restaurants have created to please the American palate). Following this is the true heart of the book: a folktale or myth to tell the story behind the food. In one, a dog with nine tails travels to the heavens to find rice grains, returning with just one tail, but also with the rice seeds, thus explaining why dogs have one tail and where rice came from. Each of these folktales can stand alone and holds up to rereadings, of which there will be many. Appetites will be ignited as tweens will want to try dishes new to them, and to rediscover their old favorites. Lin's gorgeous, identifiable gouache and pencil illustrations add charm and depth to each item. Included is a food origin time line, a family recipe for scallion pancakes, end notes, bibliography, and index. VERDICT Not to be missed, grab your chopsticks, some oolong tea, and dive into this culinary treasure trove.--Michele Shaw

Copyright 2023 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes

Not to be missed, grab your chopsticks, some oolong tea, and dive into this culinary treasure trove.

SLJ, starred
Grace Lin
Grace Lin is the author and illustrator of more than twenty books for children, including the Newbery Honor Book Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (Little, Brown), the Geisel Honor Book Ling and Ting: Not Exactly the Same! (Little, Brown), and The Ugly Vegetables. She is also the co-author and illustrator of Our Seasons. She lives in Florence, Massachusetts.
Classification
Non-fiction
ISBN-13
9780316486002
Lexile Measure
-
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date
September 12, 2023
Series
-
BISAC categories
JUV000000 - Juvenile Fiction | General
Library of Congress categories
History
Cooking, Chinese

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