Compestine, Ying Chang

After the Kang brothers get in trouble at school, they devise a way to make paper, which will make things easier for both their teacher and themselves. Includes a historical note and a recipe for home-made paper.

After chasing the special rice cake, Nian Gao, that their mother has made to celebrate the Chinese New Year, three poor brothers share it with an elderly woman and have their generosity richly rewarded.

Presents and eight-course banquet of ghost stories centering around Chinese cooking and culture. Each story is followed by a recipe and historical notes.

Left alone to prepare their family's prize-winning dumplings for the annual cooking contest, the young Kang boys accidentally invent a new dish, "mian tiao," or noodles. Includes a cultural note and a recipe for long life noodles.

When K?ai cannot get enough to eat, he begins using sticks to grab food too hot for the hands, and soon all of China uses K?ai zi, or chopsticks.

Starting in 1972 when she is nine years old, Ling, the daughter of two doctors, struggles to make sense of the communists' Cultural Revolution, which empties stores of food, homes of appliances deemed "bourgeois, " and people of laughter.

When a hungry ghost threatens to gobble up a plump little boy, the boy tricks the ghost by convincing him to prepare an elaborate recipe first.

When Ming Da's Chinese grandpa comes to visit, he overcomes his initial embarrassment at his grandfather's traditions and begins to appreciate him.

Starting in 1972 when she is nine years old, Ling, the daughter of two doctors, struggles to make sense of the communists' Cultural Revolution, which empties stores of food, homes of appliances deemed "bourgeois," and people of laughter.

Long ago in China, three brothers become tired of chasing birds from their family's rice fields and experiment with ways to make the job easier.