Kitchen Chinese: A Novel About Food, Family, and Finding Yourself

Ann Mah

Isabelle Lee thinks she knows everything about Chinese cuisine. After all, during her Chinese-American childhood, she ate it every day. Isabelle may speak only “kitchen Chinese”—the familial chatter learned at her mother’s knee—but she understands the language of food. Now, in the wake of a career-ending catastrophe, she’s ready for a change—so she takes off for Beijing to stay with her older sister, Claire, whom she’s never really known, and finds a job writing restaurant reviews for an expat magazine. In the midst of her extreme culture shock, and the more she comes to learn about her sister’s own secrets, Isabelle can’t help but wonder whether coming to China was a mistake … or an extraordinary chance to find out who she really is.