Map -- Introduction: Culinary Nationalism in Asia -- Introduction -- Defining "Asian" culinary nationalism -- Historical legacies -- Internal boundaries -- Global contexts -- Future frontiers -- Notes -- References -- Part One Historical Legacies -- 1 "Vegetarian" Nationalism: Critiques of Meat Eating for Japanese Bodies, 1880-1938 -- Vegetarianism in Japan -- Toward a meat- based society? -- Socialism and the vegetarian ideal -- The rise of vegetarian nationalism -- Conclusions -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- References -- 2 Food, Gender, and Domesticity in Nationalist North India: Between Digestion and Desire1 -- Food preparation: Cookbooks and labor in the Indian kitchen -- Food consumption: Gendering food production, sexualizing reproduction -- Food distribution: Making new foods for the masses -- Notes -- References -- 3 A Cookbook in Search of a Country: Fu Pei-mei and the Conundrum of Chinese Culinary Nationalism -- Cold War context -- Regionalism -- Culinary diplomacy -- Gastrodiplomacy in Taiwan today -- Notes -- References -- 4 From Military Rations to UNESCO Heritage: A Short History of Korean Kimchi -- The UNESCO inscription -- Industrializing heritage -- The kimchi file -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- Part Two Internal Boundaries -- 5 Priestess of Sake: Woman as Producer in Natsuko's Sake -- Introduction: Regendering the Japanese drink -- Interrogating traditional identity in Japanese food studies -- Preserving the spiritual in Natsuko's Sake -- Sexual and cultural purity of the priestess -- Traditions of class and privilege in sake production -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References.

6 Defining "Modern Malaysian" Cuisine: Fusion or Ingredients? -- Introduction -- Malaysian cooking: Asia's original fusion food -- Defining "modern Malaysian": A contemporary twist -- Dewakan: Ingredient-based modern Malaysian -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- 7 Eating to Live: Sustaining the Body and Feeding the Spirit in the Films of Tsai Ming- liang -- Asian food films -- Tsai's oeuvre: Intratextuality and Slow Cinema -- Homelessness -- Commensality -- Solo eating -- Hypermarket -- Ravaging cabbage -- Offering food -- Alienation from French food -- Conclusions -- Notes -- References -- 8 The Politicization of Beef and Meat in Contemporary India: Protecting Animals and Alienating Minorities -- Meat consumption in India -- A short history of vegetarianism and cow veneration -- The politicization of cow veneration and protection in India -- Legislation regarding cattle slaughter -- The cow as a symbol of differentiation -- A more general battle against meat -- Restricting sites of meat production, marking vegetarian territories -- Vegetarianism, environmentalism, and religion -- Resisting the politicization of meat -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- Part Three Global Contexts -- 9 Writing an "International" Cuisine in Japan: Murai Gensai's 1903 Culinary Novel Kuidō raku -- How Murai Gensai became a food writer -- A novel about eating well, not a gourmet novel -- The international cuisine of Kuidō raku -- Hana, Murai's message to the West -- Healthy eating after Kuidō raku -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- 10 Red (Michelin) Stars Over China: Seeking Recognition in a Transnational Culinary Field -- Everyone hates Michelin. . . -- . . . but everyone wants a star -- The rise of a global modernist culinary field -- The globalization of Shanghai's culinary field: Western chefs chasing stars in Shanghai.

Chinese restaurateurs take up the Michelin challenge -- Transnational culinary modernism in China -- Culinary nationalism and professional mobility in the transnational culinary fi eld -- Notes -- References -- 11 Drinking Scorpions at Trader Vic's: Polynesian Parties, Caribbean Rum, Chinese Cooks, and American Tourists -- Bootlegging rum -- A foreign policy of hotels -- Trader Vic knows how to pamper -- Caribbean rum at the luau -- The exotic windowless chamber -- The dishwashers wore paper bags -- How Scorpions became Chinese . . . and American -- Notes -- References -- 12 Laksa Nation: Tastes of "Asian" Belonging, Borrowed and Reimagined -- Knowing laksa as belonging? -- Looking for "vibrancy": Urban planning's reimagined spaces -- Remaking downtown Sydney as "flavors of the Asian metropolis" -- Laksa nation: Eating the Asian Century in Australia? -- Notes -- References -- Afterword: Feasting and the Pursuit of National Unity-American Thanksgiving and Cantonese Common-Pot Dining -- Inventing a national culinary tradition: American Thanksgiving -- Inventing a culinary tradition: Cantonese common-pot dining and regional autonomy -- Changing notions of identity in Hong Kong -- Puhn-choi in transition -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- References -- Contributors -- Index.