#staycultured
Read WHEN EVERYTHING WAS EVERYTHING Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay Vongsay makes her children’s book debut with this beautiful and tender depiction of the Lao diaspora. Based on the award-winning poem of the same name, When Everything Was Everything takes readers through Vongsay’s childhood experiences, from getting bowl haircuts and picking cucumbers to moving from one public housing address to the next. While the underrepresentation of Lao Americans in popular and historical narratives remains a persistent problem, books like When Everything Was Everything not only help pave the way for Lao American storytellers, but expand the refugee storytelling genre overall.
up with James Beard Award-winning food writer John Birdsall for his cookbook debut. Published by Anthony Bourdain’s book imprint, Hawker Fare goes above and beyond our expectations of a traditional cookbook. Before diving into the recipes, Syhabout discusses his experiences growing up in a refugee family, his journey to chef stardom, cultural identity, and our outdated notions of authenticity. He also delves into the close relationship between Lao food and culture. Learn how to cook a wide range of dishes from fried red peanuts and Lao sausages to rice vermicelli and pork blood in chicken coconut curry broth. In a food world dominated by white men, Syhabout is a refreshing change of pace. THE BEST WE COULD DO Thi Bui Get ready for an emotional rollercoaster. As Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen put it, this graphic memoir is “a book to break your heart and heal it.” Bui recounts her family’s journey from war-torn Vietnam to the United States and the profound effects that
HAWKER FARE: STORIES & RECIPES FROM A REFUGEE CHEF’S ISAN THAI & LAO ROOTS James Syhabout with John Birdsall Syhabout, the first Lao chef to be awarded a Michelin star, teams
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displacement had on her family. Writing as both a parent and child, she explores themes of sacrifice, intergenerational trauma and unspoken gestures of love. The illustration and writing is poignant, haunting, and tender all at the same time. Readers connected to the Southeast Asian diaspora will likely recognize their own family’s painfully similar story within these pages, but ultimately leave with a sense of validation and appreciation for their own family’s journey. PLANTING SEADS: SOUTHEAST ASIAN DIASPORA STORIES Chanida Phaengdara Potter, mk nguyen, Narate Keys and Pheng Thao Planting SEADS is an empowering celebration of the Southeast Asian diaspora community’s roots and a testament to its resilience. A collaboration between The SEAD Project, ManForward, mk nguyen, and Narate Keys, the publication is Minnesota’s first Southeast Asian-authored anthology of stories, poetry and artwork. The goal of the project is to reclaim, honor and amplify the lived experiences of Hmong, Khmer, Lao
