“Includes some of Lam’s most memorable writings, about cuisine, self-esteem, sex and kung fu, all seen from a two-hemisphere perspective.” —SFGate East Eats West shines new light on the bridges and crossroads where two global regions meld into one worldwide “immigrant nation.” In this new nation, with its amalgamation of divergent ideas, tastes, and styles, today’s bold fusion becomes tomorrow’s classic. But while the space between East and West continues to shrink in this age of globalization, some cultural gaps remain. In this collection of twenty-one personal essays, Andrew Lam, the award-winning author of Perfume Dreams, continues to explore the Vietnamese diaspora, this time concentrating not only on how the East and West have changed but how they are changing each other. Lively and engaging, East Eats West searches for meaning in nebulous territory charted by very few. Part memoir, part meditation, and part cultural anthropology, East Eats West is about thriving in the West with one foot still in the East. “In these lovely, wise, probing essays, Andrew Lam not only illuminates the crucial twenty-first-century issues of immigration and cultural identity but the greater, enduring issues of what it means to be human . . . a compelling book.” —Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize–winning author “Andrew Lam is an expert time-traveler, collapsing childhood and adulthood; years of war and peace; and the evolution of language in his own life, time, and mind. To read Andrew’s work is a joy and a profound journey.” —Farai Chideya, author of The Episodic Career “One of the best American essayists of his generation.” —Wayne Karlin, author of A Wolf by the Ears

"In Where East Eats West, Goodman uses his unparalleled China experience to boil down the China business basics into fun, easy-to-digest lessons and ready-to-serve actions so you can steer clear of making China-rookie mistakes."--page [4] of cover.

From the award-winning author of Perfume Dreams, a collection of thirteen short stories following Vietnamese immigrants new to the United States. The thirteen stories in Birds of Paradise Lost shimmer with humor and pathos as they chronicle the anguish and joy and bravery of America’s newest Americans, the troubled lives of those who fled Vietnam and remade themselves in the San Francisco Bay Area. The past—memories of war and its aftermath, of murder, arrest, re-education camps and new economic zones, of escape and shipwreck and atrocity—is ever present in these wise and compassionate stories. It plays itself out in surprising ways in the lives of people who thought they had moved beyond the nightmares of war and exodus. It comes back on TV in the form of a confession from a cannibal; it enters the Vietnamese restaurant as a Vietnam Vet with a shameful secret; it articulates itself in the peculiar tics of a man with Tourette’s Syndrome who struggles to deal with a profound tragedy. Birds of Paradise Lost is an emotional tour de force, intricately rendering the false starts and revelations in the struggle for integration, and in so doing, the human heart. *Finalist for the California Book Award* “His stories are elegant and humane and funny and sad. Lam has instantly established himself as one of our finest fiction writers.” —Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Perfume Mountain “Read Andrew Lam, and bask in his love of language, and his compassion for people, both those here and those far away.” —Maxine Hong Kingston, award-winning author of The Woman Warrior

"Along the Perfume River lives an old woman who has never left her village, who has raised children and grandchildren, never having seen the other side of the river. A nightclub owner from Vietnam travels the world, hobnobbing with international celebrities. A young man goes to college in America, only to return to Vietnam with made-up stories and forged photographs of himself with President Clinton. And another grows up both an American teenager and a Vietnamese general's son ... the author himself." "In this collection of essays, noted journalist Andrew Lam explores his lifelong struggle for identity and challenges definitions - both society's and his own - of what it means to be an immigrant, a son, and a survivor."--BOOK JACKET.

If you love restaurants and you love to travel, this book will be your bible! From the private tatami rooms at Ten-Ichi in Tokyo to the sidewalk tables at Da Silvano in New York City, EVERYBODY EATS THERE: Inside the World's Legendary Restaurants by William Stadiem and Mara Gibbs is the ultimate tour of the liveliest, most beautiful, most delicious, most glamorous, most exclusive 100 restaurants on earth-and how they got that way. Stadiem and Gibbs reveal the mystique and excitement of the world's most fabulous eateries that are packed with A-listers every night. Funny, acerbic, totally in-the-know, EVERYBODY EATS THERE is part travelogue, part social commentary to give readers the real inside dish. Dine topless with Pamela Anderson in St. Tropez, share roast suckling pig with Bill Clinton in Madrid, eat the best Italian food on earth in San Paolo, party with The Stones in Tokyo, join the Joint Chiefs of Staff in a Wild West saloon and get picked up by Warren Beatty in Los Angeles. EVERYBODY EATS THERE weaves together lavish celebrity stories and incisive biographies of the famed chefs and restaurateurs with descriptions of the food that will whet appetites and jump-start plans for future dining excursions. Stadiem and Gibbs-with their discerning palates and social antennae-tell us what to eat, what to wear and how to behave once we make it in. Most guidebooks are about one city, or one country, and overload you with bad choices. EVERYBODY EATS THERE looks at restaurants as one global food club. And we're invited to join in. The result-an engrossing read on the history of modern dining. Read how: Al Capone embraces JOE'S STONE CRAB in Miami as his favorite dining spot Henri Soule jumps ship after the 1939 World's Fair and invents Manhattan snob French cuisine at LE PAVILION Ernest Hemingway turns readers into foodies by mythologizing CASA BOTIN in Madrid and HARRY'S BAR in Venice Hairdresser Michael Chow opens the first MR CHOW in London during the swinging sixties. It was architecturally famous for its firehouse staircase for looking up miniskirts DAVE in Paris pushes the envelope of snob appeal by serving take-out level Chinese fare to the world's chic-est crowd Princess Diana anoints SAN LORENZO as London's royal trattoria Alice Waters builds a special bathroom for future presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton at CHEZ PANISSE And much, much more! The dream tour, EVERYBODY EATS THERE reveals the juiciest details from the backstories to the back rooms, from what's on the menus to what's even better off, from the glamorous (and sometimes scandalous) clientele to the high-powered chefs. And now, we can be a part of this international delight of food, fun and fame!

A beautiful collectible hardcover edition of the father of Korean American literature's "wonderfully resplendent evocation of a newcomer's America" (Chang-rae Lee, author of Native Speaker) A Penguin Vitae Edition Having fled Japanese-occupied Korea for the gleaming promise of the United States with nothing but four dollars and a suitcase full of Shakespeare to his name, the young, idealistic Chungpa Han arrives in a New York teeming with expatriates, businessmen, students, scholars, and indigents. Struggling to support his studies, he travels throughout the United States and Canada, becoming by turns a traveling salesman, a domestic worker, and a farmer, and observing along the way the idealism, greed, and shifting values of the industrializing twentieth century. Part picaresque adventure, part shrewd social commentary, East Goes West casts a sharply satirical eye on the demands and perils of assimilation. It is a masterpiece not only of Asian American literature but also of American literature. Penguin Vitae―loosely translated as "Penguin of one's life"―is a deluxe hardcover series from Penguin Classics celebrating a dynamic and diverse landscape of classic fiction and nonfiction from seventy-five years of classics publishing. Penguin Vitae provides readers with beautifully designed classics that have shaped the course of their lives, and welcomes new readers to discover these literary gifts of personal inspiration, intellectual engagement, and creative originality.