Eating More Asian America: A Food Studies Reader - Hardcover

by Robert Ji-Song Ku (Editor), Martin F. Manalansan (Editor), Anita Mannur (Editor)

A deep dive into food and Asian American culture

Asian American-inspired foods are everywhere--or so it seems. A decade ago, chop suey, sushi, curry, adobo, and kimchi were emblematic of Asian American culinary influence. Today, boba, ube, bibingka, phở, matcha, gochujang, and málà have joined the roster of foods strongly associated with Asian Americans. These foods were once considered exotic but now are embraced by mainstream culture.

Food studies continues to be an appetizing area of Asian American studies. Eating More Asian America is a follow-up to the influential Eating Asian America, and it provides a rich illustration of the intersection of Asian America and its various foodways. The book posits that food is never simply sustenance--the comestible material that provides fuel for our bodies. Rather, food is a way of knowing, a way of being, and a way of understanding. The essays in Eating More Asian America convey the intellectual richness of various foodways as they intersect with and inform the racial and political construct known as "Asian America."

The twenty-one essays in this volume reflect the diversity of Asian America itself as well as the subfield of food studies. The volume not only offers coverage in terms of topics and types of ethnic food, it also provides a rich and impressive array of methodological approaches. A veritable feast for the senses, Eating More Asian America explores the myriad ways critical eating studies has developed over the past decade.

Author Biography

Robert Ji-Song Ku (Editor)
Robert Ji-Song Ku is Associate Professor of Asian and Asian American Studies at Binghamton University and the Managing Editor of Foundations and Futures: Asian American and Pacific Islander Multimedia Textbook of the Asian American Studies Center at UCLA. He is the author of Dubious Gastronomy: The Cultural Politics of Eating Asian in the USA.

Martin F. Manalansan (Editor)
Martin F. Manalansan IV is Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. He has taught at the University of Minnesota, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, New York University, New School University, and the University of the Philippines. He is the author of Global Divas: Filipino Gay Men in the Diaspora (Duke UP:2003). His forthcoming book is entitled "Queer Dwellings: Mess, Mesh, Measure." He is the president of the Association for Asian American Studies.

Anita Mannur (Editor)
Anita Mannur is Director of the Asia, Pacific, and Diaspora Studies Program and Professor of Critical Race, Gender and Culture Studies at American University. She is the author of Intimate Eating: Racialized Spaces and Radical Futures and Culinary Fictions: Food in South Asian Diasporic Cultures. She is the 2019 recipient of the Excellence in Mentoring Award from the Association for Asian American Studies.