Bento Box in the Heartland: My Japanese Girlhood in Whitebread America

Front Cover
Basic Books, Jan 8, 2010 - Cooking - 320 pages

While growing up in Versailles, an Indiana farm community, Linda Furiya tried to balance the outside world of Midwestern America with the Japanese traditions of her home life. 

As the only Asian family in a tiny township, Furiya's life revolved around Japanese food and the extraordinary lengths her parents went to in order to gather the ingredients needed to prepare it. As immigrants, her parents approached the challenges of living in America, and maintaining their Japanese diets, with optimism and gusto. Furiva, meanwhile, was acutely aware of how food set her apart from her peers: She spent her first day of school hiding in the girls' restroom, examining her rice balls and chopsticks, and longing for a Peanut Bullter and Jelly sandwich. Bento Box in the Heartland is an insightful and reflective coming-of-age tale. 

Beautifully written, each chapter is accompanied by a family recipe of mouth-watering Japanese comfort food.

 

Contents

Swallowing Fish Bones
The Fish Head Soup Deal
The Hungry Past
The Sleepover
The Green Cooler and Wasa
Character Building
Motherland
Family
Moms Write Hand
A Taste of the Big Apple
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Bento Box in the Heartland: My Japanese Girlhood in Whitebread America
Linda Furiya
Limited preview - 2006
Bento Box in the Heartland: My Japanese Girlhood in Whitebread America
Linda Furiya
Limited preview - 2010
Bento Box in the Heartland: My Japanese Girlhood in Whitebread America
Linda Furiya
Snippet view - 2006
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Common terms and phrases

Alvin Asian asked Aunt Jane Aunt Milly beans bowl brothers chopsticks cooking couldn’t Dad’s daikon dinner dipping sauce dish Dong dried dumplings eating eggs English eyes face father feel felt fingers fish friends Furiya girls green onions grocery gyoza hair hands head hiragana Indiana Japan Japanese American Jinnosuke Keven kimono kitchen knew laughed learned living looked lunch meat miso soup Mochiko Mom’s mother mouth never night nikuman nodded noodles Obachan Oshima-san paper parents plate pork rice vinegar salt sesame sesame oil Signy sliced smiled soup soy sauce story summer sweet tablespoon talked taste tatami teaspoon thought tofu Tokyo told tonkatsu took Tracy Tracy’s trip turned Uncle George Uncle Takeo vegetables Versailles voice wagashi wanted wasabi wasn’t watched woman women wore yakiniku yukata

About the author (2010)

Linda Furiya hails from Versailles, Indiana and graduated from Purdue University. She soon moved to San Francisco where she discovered her love of writing and felt emboldened by the Asian American community. She began writing about ethnicity and food in 1992 when she wrote a syndicated monthly column titles, "From Where I Stand," for San Francisco's Nichibei Times, Los Angeles' Rafu Shimpo, Sacramento's Nikkei West, Seattle's Northewest Nikkei and Montreal Canada's Montreal Bulletin.

Linda's freelance writing experience spans fourteen years and includes food and travel articles published in various newspapers and other periodical such as Asainweek, South China Morning Post, Kikkoman's Chef Forum and Silkroad, a publication on Dragon Airlines. Since 2000, Linda has been writing a monthly column in the food section of the San Francisco Chronicle.

The author has completed culinary training at Meilong Zheng cooking school, a local program focusing on Shanghainese cuisine and currently lives in Shelburne, Vermont with her son and wire hair dachshund, Oscar. She teaches Japanese and Chinese cooking.

Bibliographic information

TitleBento Box in the Heartland: My Japanese Girlhood in Whitebread America
AuthorLinda Furiya
PublisherBasic Books, 2010
ISBN0786750634, 9780786750634
Length320 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Cooking / Regional & Ethnic / Japanese
  
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