Mountain Chef – How One Man Lost His Groceries, Changed His Plans, and Helped Cook Up the National Park Service

by Annette Bat Pimentel

This children’s biography tells the story of Chinese-American, Tie Sing. The author focuses on a significant part of Tie Sing’s life when he helped to encourage the formation of the United States National Park Service. I really enjoyed reading this picture book. The watercolor illustrations by Rich Lo help us see the majesty of the mountains and trees of the Yosemite National Park.
What a positive, creative, under-recognized chef to get the impossible things done for this amazing mountain trip.

山地厨师

一位名叫泰星（Tie Sing）的中国厨师在美国地质调查局的一次考察活动中扮演了重要角色。此次考察促使联邦政府成立了国家公园管理局。1915年，时任美国内政部长特别助理的斯蒂芬•马特（Stephen Mather）邀请了一众美国商界和文化界的领袖前往优山美地，进行为期两周的荒野探险，以期让大家意识到建立国家公园系统的重要性。作为随队厨师，泰星为地质测绘人员和环境保护者烹饪，因地制宜，就近取材，厨艺令参与考察的人赞不绝口。 他甚至亲手制作幸运小饼干分享给队友们，为旅程增添许多乐趣。人们为了感谢他，将园内的一座山峰命名为“星峰”。下次到优山美地，别忘了打卡“星峰”哟！

Chinese Menu

by Grace Lin

Do you know the stories behind Chinese dishes – like the dumplings, wonton soup, Peking duck, chop suey, or general Tso’s chicken? Award- winning and the bestselling author, Grace Lin provides a visual and storytelling feast as she gives insight into the history, legends and myths behind your favorite American Chinese dishes. With about 40 short stories (288 pages total) and in full color, this book is for all ages. Chinese Menu, makes the perfect gift book for anyone who loves good food – and an even better story.

中国食谱

作者： Grace Lin

你知道中国菜背后的故事吗——比如饺子、馄饨汤、北京烤鸭、杂碎或左宗棠鸡？屡获殊荣的畅销书作家格蕾丝·林 (Grace Lin) 为您带来一场视觉和故事盛宴，深入剖析您最喜爱的美式中餐背后的历史、传说和神话。这本书包含约 40 个短篇故事（共 288 页），全彩，适合所有年龄段。《中国菜单》是送给所有美食家们的完美礼物，附赠动人的故事！

The Ugly Vegetables

by Grace Lin

Grace Lin is a New York Times best-selling author, National Book Award finalist, and recipient of the Children’s Literature Legacy Award. She has won the Caldecott Honor, the Newbery Honor, and many other awards. Her first published book, “The Ugly Vegetables”, remains one of her all-time favorites.

A Chinese-American girl wishes to have a beautiful garden of bright flowers, just like her neighbors. But instead, her mother plants a garden full of bumpy ugly vegetables! In this playful and charming story, we celebrate the difference between neighbors, turning ugly vegetables into the bonds of community friendship.

丑陋的蔬菜

作者： Grace Lin

格蕾丝·林（Grace Lin）是《纽约时报》畅销书作家、美国国家图书奖决赛入围者和儿童文学遗产奖获得者。 她曾荣获凯迪克荣誉奖、纽伯瑞荣誉奖等多项奖项。 她出版的第一本书《丑陋的蔬菜》仍然是她心头最爱。

一名华裔美国女孩希望拥有一座开满鲜艳花朵的美丽花园，就像她邻居家的那样。但她妈妈却在花园里种满了凹凸不平、丑陋的蔬菜。 在这个有趣而迷人的故事中，我们对邻里之间的差异持欣赏的态度，丑陋的蔬菜变身为社区友谊的纽带。

Amy Wu and the perfect bao

by Kat Zhang
illustrated by Charlene Chua

Bao is a very popular food across country in China. Bao is also Amy Wu’s favorite and she could eat Bao all day! Amy is a little girl and she is very proud of herself to make many things on her own. Amy wants to make her own perfect and delicious bao with her family.

She has a handful of dough with too much fillings or too little fillings, so it could be imaging how Amy’s bao looks, so ugly either too fat or too empty, some even leaking, they are all far from perfect! Amy was so frustrated. Then she found a great idea ……

Finally, she made the perfect Bao by herself, and surprisingly, the not-so-perfect Bao she made also taste very delicious!

艾米· 吴和完美的包子

作者：Kat Zhang
插画：Charlene Chua

包子是中国各地非常流行的食品。 包子也是艾米的最爱，她可以吃一整天！ 艾米是一个小女孩，她为自己的聪明能干而自豪。 艾米想和家人一起包美味可口又外观完美的包子。

她手心里摊着面皮儿，可是馅料掌握不好，不是太多就是太少。你大概能想象得到艾米的包子，要么太大漏馅儿，要么太空，甚至还漏水，简直丑陋不堪，都远算不上完美！ 艾米非常沮丧。 然后她想到了一个好主意……

最后，她终于作出了一个完美的包子！不过令人惊讶的是，那些外观不够完美的包子其实味道也不错！

Magic Ramen – The story of Momofuku Ando

Written by Andrea Wang and Illustrated by Kana Urbanowicz

We all had instant noodles in many different flavors, beef, chicken, seafood, spicy or no spicy. Do you know how the instance noodle was created? The book told the story!

Momofuku Ando encountered people lined up in the winter night waiting for a bowl of hot ramen soup after World War II in Japan.  He decided that food would be his life’s work which could feed the hungry people. He thought it would be wonderful if people could have noodles whenever they wanted. He started his project in the backyard. It took him more than 10 years’ experimental process involving persistence, creativity, inspiration and many failures as well, finally, he succeeded! He created the formula to make tasty, convenient and nutritious noodles!

Measuring Up

By Lily LaMotte and Ann Xu

What will you miss the most after you move to a foreign country? Cici moved with her Dad and Mom from Taiwan to Seattle and she missed her A-ma, the dishes A-ma cooked and the time she spent with A-ma so badly. Even though she made two new girlfriends in the school, she had perfect scores on tests, she was teased by silly boys for her Traditional food. She felt sad and lonely. She wants to bring A-ma to Seattle, so the family could celebrate A-ma’s 70^th birthday together. However, A-ma and the family don’t have enough money to afford the flight ticket. Cici didn’t have any clues to earn the money to pay for the flight. She found the answer when she saw the poster of Kid’s cooking contest! She decided to sign up the contest to earn the Grand Prize for the flight ticket for her A-ma!

It won’t be an easy task for a 12-year-old girl who only knows a little cooking of Taiwan dishes. The contest involves 6 rounds of eliminations. Do you think Cici could make the final round to win the Grand Prize?

Yes! She made it! Of course, it was not easy! It was disapproved by his father initially; it was a huge learning experience which she luckily found Julia Child who inspired her deeply. At the final round facing her old teammate, she received huge encouragement from Mom and Dad, her friends from the school, and most importantly, she was accompanied by the spirits of A-ma and Julie Child, she made the incredible Taiwan-American dish with her own SECRET ingredient.