The recipes parallel Wen’s evolution from immigrant kid helping out at her parents’ restaurant to working actor cooking for her own children.<\/p>\n
For generations of Asian Americans, Wen became an icon for validating the bicultural experience as June in \u201cThe Joy Luck Club.\u201d The first big studio feature with an all-Asian cast was praised for depicting Chinese characters and Chinese food in a non-demeaning way.<\/p>\n Despite being more prevalent now than ever, Chinese cuisine is still at times stereotyped or devalued<\/a>. Wen might be an ideal ambassador to share experiences of growing up eating Chinese and American food.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t want it to just be about Chinese food,\u201d said Wen, 62. \u201cI wanted it to be about the Asian American experience.\u201d<\/p>\n The cookbook is a way to honor her family<\/p>\n The idea for a cookbook began with Wen’s Instagram cooking videos, posted from her Los Angeles home. Fans urged \u201cThe Mandalorian\u201d star to write a cookbook, but she didn’t feel qualified \u2014 until she learned there are \u201cmany celebrities who would write a book who didn’t cook, which to me was such a no-no.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt took a couple of years before my literary agent came up with this wonderful idea that we write the cookbook as my journey through food,\u201d Wen said.<\/p>\n She ended up whittling a list of a hundred recipes down to 70. Among those that made the cut are Popo’s (Cantonese for grandmother) Wontons, and Chestnut Chicken, both reminiscent of her childhood in Hong Kong. <\/p>\n She also wanted to honor her stepfather, or \u201cChef Baba (Cantonese for father),\u201d who taught her to cook Western dishes he had learned cooking in the army. He could pivot from making clam chowder to winter melon soup. <\/p>\n At age 7, Wen rode in an airplane for the first time when her stepfather sponsored her, her mother and brother to come to the U.S. They lived in New York City for three years before moving to Pittsburgh. There, her parents opened the Chinatown Inn restaurant. A good \u201crestaurant daughter,\u201d Wen helped set tables, wash dishes and other tasks.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing a restaurant kid was something that I sort of was either embarrassed about or rejected or didn\u2019t like because it took time away from hanging out with my friends,\u201d Wen said. \u201cLooking back \u2026 it makes me so much more aware of how much that restaurant\u2019s given and provided for my family and for shaping who I am.\u201d<\/p>\n Having to cook far from home reawakened old skills<\/p>\n It wasn’t until the Carnegie Mellon University alum moved to New York to pursue acting that she found she had a knack for cooking. She was on a shoestring budget, and the necessity of cooking awoke all those kitchen-prep skills<\/a> she had seen as a child.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s interesting how all those things that I observed growing up became second nature when I did start cooking, like really feverishly,\u201d Wen said.<\/p>\n She went from making ramen and eggs to Cornish game hens with Chinese plum sauce. <\/p>\n Wen kept up cooking even after scoring a part on \u201cAs the World Turns\u201d in 1988, making her the first Asian American actor on contract with a soap.<\/p>\n The cookbook has compelled her to revisit dishes she made back then, as well as those from Chinatown Inn, which her brother and sister-in-law run today. She felt like a \u201cmad chemist\u201d at times since her family cooks on instinct, not written recipes.<\/p>\n \u201cThe egg rolls \u2014 my brother was just like, \u2018OK, these are the ingredients.\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018Well, how much to how much? He\u2019s like, ‘I don\u2019t know,\u2019\u201d Wen said. \u201cI had to measure and measure and remeasure and taste-test and taste-test until I got it right.\u201d<\/p>\n By all means, get a wok<\/p>\n![\"|\"](\"https:\/\/infonews.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/0d236ab88396b89a4b11b6775487a760c653406bfebeffb8ce6162901ee98086.jpg\" "\\"|\\"")
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