THE MAMA FUFU COOKBOOK 英文原版.doc

He quickly puts aside the Chop stickes [sic], which are evidently possessed of devil, and goes at the stuff with a fork . It is a heroic effort, but it is not sustained. The novice gets a mouthful or two, turns pale, all the time declaring that it is “great”. It is a long time before he can be persuaded to go again , but he is sure to surrender eventually to the enchanting decoctionFor a while he half believes there must be “dope” in the stuff .He is now certain there are no rats in it . He is a confirmed chop-suey eater. With the spread of Asian cuisines in recent decades and a corresponding increase in customer sophistication, this account has acquired an air of quaintness. Yet the attitude toward Asian Americans underlying it has far from dissipated; it repeatedly resurfaces in periods of national insecurity , as demonstrated by stories of dog-eating Vietnamese refugees , which have persisted since the group’s settlement in the United States after the Vietnam War ( Kalcik 1984:37 ) ; or by a Newsweek article entitled “Pass a Snake , Hold the Rat ,” appearing a propos of nothing , in which “unusual” animal dishes served in China are rated （Liu 1991）. The stories of dog-eating coexist with the growing popularity of Asian restaurants is no contradiction. Asian restaurant owners make their living on the knife-edge between novelty and familiarity, risk and comfort. Their battle with reluctant palates is not unlike the collective struggle that Asian Americans have to undertake in order to maintain a viable identity. Even in the post-1965 era, when diversity and pluralism are the new catchwords , catholicity of taste , whether culinary or cultural , still has an edge of exploitation to it. We become equal-opportunity eaters, especially in situations where we can sample unaccustomed foods while standing and walking around, as at a festival. This appears , in historical perspective , to be an extension of a capitalist approach to life in which exploitation of sub