From the moment she was born, Dalena Haskins was quite often the only brown girl in the room. For many people she encountered, she was the first non-white and non-black person they had ever seen. That's because she was a Filipina mestiza born and raised in one of the least Asian populated places in America- Obion County, Tennessee, located "three hours west of Nashville, two hours north of Memphis, twenty minutes from the Mississippi River, and right in the middle of nowhere." This cookbook/ memoir chronicles her journey growing up as one of the only Asian children in the racially-charged Confederate flag-flying community, beginning with the day she was born. This story is about much more than being different. It is about a girl who is forced to make choices in the face of difficulty without a road map to follow, and her quest to gain the respect of a community that she loves, while fighting to discover who she was meant to be. Her unique stories that address bullying, racism, and even the "n-word" are accompanied by poems and original recipes that combine traditional southern cooking with authentic Filipino dishes. The ingredients she uses are a direct reflection of both sides of her family roots: moonshine, muscadine wine, bologna, spam, bean thread noodles, fish sauce, and soy sauce, complete with a section on where to find them and how to properly use them. This is definitely not your mother's cookbook.
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