Dubious Gastronomy

By exploring the other side of what is prescriptively understood as proper Asian gastronomy, Robert Ji-Song Ku suggests that Asian cultural expressions occurring in places such as Los Angeles, Honolulu, New York, and even Baton Rouge are no less critical to understanding the meaning of Asian food - and, by extension, Asian people - than culinary expressions that took place in Tokyo and Shanghai.

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By exploring the other side of what is prescriptively understood as proper Asian gastronomy, Robert Ji-Song Ku suggests that Asian cultural expressions occurring in places such as Los Angeles, Honolulu, New York City, and even Baton Rouge are no less critical to understanding the meaning of Asian food - and, by extension, Asian people - than culinary expressions that took place in Tokyo, Seoul, and Shanghai centuries ago. In critically considering the impure and hybridized with serious and oft en whimsical intent, Dubious Gastronomy argues that while the notion of cultural authenticity is troubled, troubling, and troublesome, the apocryphal is not necessarily a bad thing: The dubious can be and is oft en quite delicious.