Dumpling Therapy: My Mother, Chinese Food, and Five Thousand Years of Not-So-Ancient Recipes
Miranda Brown
Jan 2027 · Sold by St. Martin's Press
Ebook
384
Pages
family_home
Eligible
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infoThis book will become available on January 5, 2027. You will not be charged until it is released.
About this ebook
A delicious and moving memoir, tracing a family’s journey through Chinese food.
As a teen growing up in San Francisco, Miranda Brown noticed her outspoken immigrant mother didn’t act—or cook—like other Chinese mothers. Butter invaded coffee. Stinky fruits found their way into ice cream. Brown dreamed of making dumplings the way “normal” Chinese moms did.
Years later, after her mother’s death, Brown became a mother herself. Determined to master the classic Chinese cooking her mother never taught her, she discovered something unexpected: even the dumpling may have foreign roots. The revelation propelled her deep into the hidden histories of China’s most beloved dishes, tracing the lineage of everything from the chewy noodles of Beijing to her favorite braised Cantonese tofu to the chop suey she once scorned as a teenager.
But the search for culinary origins unlocked a more intimate mystery. From the fields of ancient China to the kitchens of 1980s San Francisco, Brown pieces together her family story across two millennia. Through secret letters and centuries-old recipes, she uncovers not just the histories behind beloved dishes, but her mother’s own mixed heritage and adventurousness. The woman who once seemed to cook “wrong” left a richer inheritance than Brown had ever imagined.
As a teen growing up in San Francisco, Miranda Brown noticed her outspoken immigrant mother didn’t act—or cook—like other Chinese mothers. Butter invaded coffee. Stinky fruits found their way into ice cream. Brown dreamed of making dumplings the way “normal” Chinese moms did.
Years later, after her mother’s death, Brown became a mother herself. Determined to master the classic Chinese cooking her mother never taught her, she discovered something unexpected: even the dumpling may have foreign roots. The revelation propelled her deep into the hidden histories of China’s most beloved dishes, tracing the lineage of everything from the chewy noodles of Beijing to her favorite braised Cantonese tofu to the chop suey she once scorned as a teenager.
But the search for culinary origins unlocked a more intimate mystery. From the fields of ancient China to the kitchens of 1980s San Francisco, Brown pieces together her family story across two millennia. Through secret letters and centuries-old recipes, she uncovers not just the histories behind beloved dishes, but her mother’s own mixed heritage and adventurousness. The woman who once seemed to cook “wrong” left a richer inheritance than Brown had ever imagined.
A delicious and moving memoir, tracing a family’s journey through Chinese food.
As a teen growing up in San Francisco, Miranda Brown noticed her outspoken immigrant mother didn’t act—or cook—like other Chinese mothers. Butter invaded coffee. Stinky fruits found their way into ice cream. Brown dr...
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About the author
MIRANDA BROWN grew up in San Francisco with a Chinese mother and an Irish American father. A historian and professor of Chinese studies at the University of Michigan, she writes about food, family, and memory. In Dumpling Therapy and on her blog ChineseFoodHistory.org, and her newsletter The Curious Eater, she brings her research on recipes and personal history together to rethink authenticity and cultural inheritance.
MIRANDA BROWN grew up in San Francisco with a Chinese mother and an Irish American father. A historian and professor of Chinese studies at the University of Michigan, she writes about food, family, and memory. In Dumpling Therapy and on her blog ChineseFoodHistory.org, and her newsletter The Curi...
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