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Cooking from the Heart The Hmong Kitchen in America Sami Scripter and Sheng Yang Official cookbook video: Meet the authors Recipe video: How Three-Color Dessert (Nab Vam) is made Cooking from the Heart Website Two starter recipes: Coconut Lemon Chicken Soup and Three-Color Dessert Table of Contents PRESS: Gourmet.com review HeavyTable.com review Hmong Times article/interview Minnesota Public Radio interview Pioneer Press article Splendid Table interview Wisconsin State Journal review		$29.95 cloth/jacket ISBN: 978-0-8166-5326-3
The first cookbook of Hmong-American cuisine, filled with unique recipes and stories Simple, earthy, fiery, and fresh, Hmong food is an exciting but still little-known South Asian cuisine. In traditional Hmong culture, dishes are created and replicated not by exact measurements but by taste and experimentation—for every Hmong recipe, there are as many variations as there are Hmong cooks—and often served to large, communal groups. Sami Scripter and Sheng Yang have gathered more than 100 recipes from Hmong-American kitchens, illustrated them with color photos of completed dishes, and provided descriptions of unusual ingredients and cooking techniques. Cooking from the Heart is the first cookbook to clearly set out the culinary traditions of the Hmong people as well as the cultural significance such traditions hold. The recipes are accompanied by anecdotes, aphorisms, and poems that demonstrate the importance of food and cooking in Hmong culture and offer a dramatic perspective on the immigrant experience. Scripter and Yang outline diet restrictions and taboos as well as how herbs and foods are traditionally used for healing purposes. The dishes featured in Cooking from the Heart range from well-known items such as egg rolls and green papaya salad to more unfamiliar dishes such as Nqaij Qaib Hau Xyaw Tshuaj (Chicken Soup for New Mothers) and Dib Iab Ntim Nqaij Hau Ua Kua (Stuffed Bitter Melon Soup). The oral tradition by which these recipes have been passed down has meant that Hmong cooking has not yet reached a wide audience in the United States. While designed for an American kitchen, Cooking from the Heart encourages readers to seek out Hmong herbs and vegetables only recently introduced in the United States. After all, the authors say, the essence of Hmong cuisine is cooking with an adventurous and creative spirit—from the heart. “This is a gem, a superb illustration of a piece of wisdom from long ago—to begin to understand a people you must first eat with them. Any serious collector of food books and anyone intrigued by the nearly unknown Hmong ways with food will want this book. The recipes draw you in, but it is the stories and the cultural portraits that keep you turning pages.” —Lynne Rossetto Kasper, Host, The Splendid Table®, public radio's national food show from American Public Media “A glorious book.” —A Closer Look at Flyover Land “Cooking from the Heart is an excellent first look at this ‘simple’ cuisine and complex culture.” —Asian Pages “Summer is the perfect time to try Hmong cuisine. With Cooking from the Heart and a visit to the Hmong vendors at your local market, you’ll be on your way to a wonderful tasting experience.” —Edible Twin Cities “Gracefully, intelligently written, Cooking from the Heart documents the way traditional Hmong dishes are made in America and also includes new recipes that feature both Asian and American regional ingredients.” —Isthmus “Cooking from the Heart is noteworthy not just because it is the most comprehensive repository of these traditional Hmong recipes, it’s also a history, complete with personal stories and poetry. There is a melancholy to the Hmong immigrant experience in America born of a longing for a home that no longer exists, and these passages express this beautifully.” —Sacramento News & Review Sami Scripter, a retired educator, lives in Portland, Oregon. Born in Laos, Sheng Yang now lives in Sacramento, California, where she works as a medical assistant. 248 pages | 30 b&w photos, 12 color plates | 7 x 10 | 2009 TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface    Ncauj Lus Acknowledgments    Nco Txiaj Ntsim Introduction: Welcome to Our Dinner Gathering    Zoo Siab Tuaj Koom Peb Rooj Mov     Traditional Hmong Gatherings     Eating Habits            In a Hmong Kitchen    Hmoob Kev Npaj Noj Haus     Slices with a Hmong Knife                            Hmong Herbal Medicine Rice    Mov     Rice Rain Vegetables and Herbs    Zaub thiab Tshuaj Ntsuab Chicken    Nqaij Qaib     Using Food to Heal     A Hmong Wedding     About Larb Eggs    Qe     New Year’s Eggs    Tais Qe Hu Plig Pork    Nqaij Npuas     Hosting aShaman Ritual in America—A “Jingle-Bell Party”     Pork or Chicken Blood Pudding ("Live Blood")   Ntsha Npua los yog Ntsha Qaib Teev Beef and Water Buffalo    Nqaij Nyuj thiab Nqaij Twm     Hmong Funerals    Hmoob Nteeg Tuag     About “Oh-La”     Ka’s Journal Fish and Game    Ntses thiab Nqaij Nruab Nrag     Catching Crabs in Laos Beverages and Desserts    Dej Qab Zib thiab Khoom Txom Ncauj     Distilled and Brewed Alcohol    Cawv Cub     Cakes by Fhoua     Chasing a Hmong American Dream Cooking for a Crowd    Npaj Ib Pluag Loj     Hmong New Year    Xyoo Tshiab     The Year My Family Decided Not to Have Papaya Salad and Egg Rolls for Thanksgiving                        Index    Kev Teeb Txheeb Ntaub Ntawv Raws ABC

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