Books reviewed:
- Liu, Haiming. From Canton Restaurant to Panda Express: A History of Chinese Food in the United States. Rutgers University Press, 2015.
- Ray, Krishnendu. The Ethnic Restaurateur. Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.
Reviewed in: The Los Angeles Review of Books, March 20, 2017.
Background: This dual review looks at both the history of Chinese restaurants in the United States and how they play into a larger perception around so-called “ethnic food” in the U.S. I also discuss the personal history behind my uncle’s 25 year old Chinese restaurant in Hallowell, ME.
