Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir

Huang, the founder of the popular East Village food shop Baohaus, tells his unconventional immigrant fable with his FOB (“fresh off the boat”) parents and his unusual relatives living the Yankee dream. He traces his food jones to his father’s restaurant in Orlando, Fla., wrestling with his Chinese identity, while embracing a love of old school hip-hop, Michael Jackson, Charles Barkley, and Jonathan Swift’s satirical “A Modest Proposal.” Writing with attitude, Huang details his journey from novice cook sampling Haitian ribs, Southern cooking, Japanese Izakaya wings, Bon Chon Korean fried chicken, and Taiwanese foods to opening his landmark eatery known for its fashionable, simple Asian street food. “I grew up in the excess of the Brat Pack–Madonna–Joe Montana–Michael Jackson 80s and the NWA–MJ–Nirvana–World Wide Web nineties, and we saw the residual battles from seminal cases like Roe v. Wade or Regents of the University of California v. Bakke,” Huang writes. Brash, leading-edge, and unapologetically hip, Huang reconfigures the popular foodie memoir into something worthwhile and very memorable. (Jan.29)