In American college applications, the theme of “ethnic food”, and the bonds that form between generations when cooking said “ethnic food”, is considered one of the most stereotypical college admissions essays around, overused to the point where it lost all meaning both in the eyes of students and admissions officers.

This was something that I was unfamiliar with before I started applying to US colleges. Growing up in a country with shockingly little diversity and where everyone drew inspiration from the same cultural cookbook (Japan), the concept of ethnic food was foreign and intriguing. As a result, when applying to colleges myself, I specifically explained in my essays about my country’s cuisine and how it connected with me and connected me to the bonds that demarcated my life.

So why am I talking about the overusage of writing about ethnic food in American college applications? Because Venba represents the culmination and the zenith of ethnic food writing, in any medium, for any purpose. It’s a devastating glimpse into the precipice of cultural collision, identity, and the balance between assimilation and submission. And it does this with a deft hand of literary seasoning, a fleur-de-sel of stylistic prose that never overpowers the clarity of the original vision. The food gameplay itself is charming, engaging and fun: an appetizer to the main course, some acidity to cleanse the palate and that cuts through the richness of the writing one digests.

(Review in progress, come back later for the full review! Just saving this review for now :>)