In this powerful, touching memoir of a critically acclaimed Chinese-American writer, taste becomes the keeper of memory and food the keeper of culture when Nai-nai, her extraordinary grandmother, arrives from mainland China.
Leslie Liâs paternal grandfather, Li Zogren, was Chinaâs first democratically elected vice president, to whom Chiang Kai-shek left control of the country when he fled to Formosa in 1949. Nine years later, Liâs wife, Nai-nai, comes to live with her sonâs family in New York City, bringing a whole new world of sights, smells, and tastes as she quickly takes control of the kitchen. Nai-naiâs tantalizingly exotic cooking opens up the heart and mind of her American granddaughter to her Chinese heritageâand to the world. Through her grandmotherâs traditional cuisine Leslie bridges the cultural divide in an America in which she is a minorityâas well as the growing gap at home between her rigid, traditional Chinese father and her progressive American-born mother. Interspersed throughout her intimate and moving memoir are the authorâs personal recipes, most from Nai-naiâs kitchen, that add a delicious dimension to the work. A loving ode to family and food, Daughter of Heaven is an exquisite blend of memory, history, and the senses.