Culinary Fictions

For South Asians, food regularly plays a role in how issues of race, class, gender, ethnicity, and national identity are imagined as well as how notions of belonging are affirmed or resisted.a"Culinary Fictions"aprovides food for thought as it considers the metaphors literature, film, and TV shows use to describe Indians abroad. When an immigrant mother in Jhumpa LahiriOCOsa"The Namesake"acombines Rice Krispies, Planters peanuts, onions, salt, lemon juice, and green chili peppers to create a dish similar to one found on Calcutta sidewalks, it evokes not only the characterOCOs Americanization, but also her nostalgia for India.Food, Anita Mannur writes, is a central part of the cultural imagination of diasporic populations, anda"Culinary Fictions"amaps how it figures in various expressive forms. Mannur examines the cultural production from the Anglo-American reaches of the South Asian diaspora. Using texts from novelsOCoChitra DivakaruniOCOsa"Mistress of Spices"aand Shani MootooOCOsa"Cereus Blooms at Night"OCoand cookbooks such as Madhur JaffreyOCOsa"Invitation to Indian Cooking"aand Padma LakshmiOCOsa"Easy Exotic," she illustrates how national identities are consolidated in culinary terms."