OFF THE MENU: ASIAN AMERICA (Grace Lee, U.S.). 55 minutes. Tuesday (November 10), 7 pm, AGO Jackman Hall. See listings. Rating: NNN
Just as Asian immigrants have assimilated into North American society, so too have their foods, which adapt to other influences before they make it onto menus.
Visiting several U.S. cities, Korean-American director Lee (The Grace Lee Project, Janeane From Des Moines) shows how Chinese food mixes with Tex-Mex flavours in Houston, for instance, and how emerging chef Jonathan Wu, trained in the European school, uses techniques taught him by his Chinese grandparents at his trendy NYC restaurant Fung Tu.
The film loses its culinary focus in a segment set in a Sikh temple outside Milwaukee, the site of a mass murder. But this segment about how food heals a community is poignant and powerful, and makes the hour-long doc feel less like something you’d find on the Food Network.
