Stealing Buddha's Dinner

This was such a disappointing book. The author is a Vietnames refugee who was raised almost entirely in the United States, but still never really fit into the ideal of becoming an American, so she tries to become an American by eating American food. Its obvious that many of these chapters appeared a......more

What a great walk down memory lane. The only thing missing was Russ' restaurant. Bich Minh Nguyen writes in agonizing detail about the dilemma of cross-cultural existence, with applications to be made in every direction. As one of the tall, blonde, problematic Dutch Reformed that made her life miser......more

Bich Minh Nguyen's "Stealing Buddha's Dinner" tells the story of her childhood, a time when she realized that her Vietnamese customs and cultures are far from normal compared to the lives of devout Christian blonde-haired, blue-eyed girls who make her feel abnormal and create for her a rapacious hun......more

In elementary school I had a friend named Van, a Vietnamese immigrant, who, by 5th grade, was already an amazing cook of her traditional food. In 6th grade, her parents brought in food for Van's birthday. However, instead of bringing the traditional cupcakes, or even anything Vietnamese, they brough......more

I found this book to be disappointing, but mostly because I had different ideas about what genre it was supposed to be. I was hoping for a refugee survival story. But it was mostly just a laundry list of memories from a childhood of the 80's. Much of it was familiar to me of course, but I need more......more