How influential are grandmothers in Asian American families?
PT: A lot of these women were immigrants to [America], so they are the closest link for their children and grandchildren to their homeland. So in that way they have a very important role to play, in terms of keeping their children and grandchildren attached to their roots and their homeland. One way they did this was through food and cooking. Everybody loves to eat, and associated with food is this whole idea of tradition and culture. ASIA SOCIETY ONLINE: What recipes in the book have the most interesting histories or speak the most to you? PT: It’s such a difficult question! I don’t like picking favorites, but one dish that I thought was really fascinating was a braised pork dish. In the US it’s commonly called ‘red cooked pork’. Red cooking is the process of caramelizing sugar and then adding pork meat, usually pork belly, and browning it. You add soy sauce and water, and then spices like anise, cinnamon, and black pepper. I found this dish very fascinating because so many different
