Book
Cooking with Yey: Salaw Machu Kroeung
Cooking with Yey: Salaw Machu Kroeung is a Cambodian American children's picture book by Ratana Kim, first published in 2022.[1][2][3] A little boy helps his grandmother, his yey (Khmer for grandmother), cook salaw machu kroeung, a sour Cambodian soup.[4][3]
About the book
The two make the soup with traditional ingredients, and the cooking carries Yey back to her hometown in Cambodia, where the recipe comes from.[4][3] Khanh Vy Tran illustrated the book.[4]
On her website, Kim publishes a recipe for the soup that Yey has changed over time to suit the time she has, her taste and the ingredients she can find.[5] The kroeung paste is made from lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, galangal, shallot, turmeric and garlic, and the soup is built on beef and water spinach.[5] Machu is the sour fruit that gives the dish its tartness; tamarind works, and Yey usually prefers sandan.[5] A teaspoon of prahok, the salted and fermented mudfish paste, seasons it, with fish sauce as a substitute.[5]
The book appears on the Cambodian American Literary Arts Association's 2023 AANHPI Heritage Month children's book list and among the Cambodian American themed children's books gathered by the University of Hawai‘i Center for Southeast Asian Studies.[1][2] Kim also wrote the children's book Our Donut Shop, and appears on community lists of Khmer and Cambodian authored books.[2][6]
Publication and editions
Kim published the book herself.[3] Listings give different release dates for its two editions.
- Paperback, June 2022: 30 pages, ISBN 9798986452609[3]
- Hardcover, October 9, 2022: ISBN 9798986452616[4][7]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 CALAA: AANHPI Heritage Month children's book list
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 University of Hawai‘i CSEAS: Cambodian American experiences resources
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 ThriftBooks, Cooking with Yey
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Goodreads, Cooking with Yey
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Ratana Kim, Salaw Machu Kroeung recipe
- ↑ Beyond the Mekong: Khmer and Cambodian authored books, part 1
- ↑ Fishpond, Cooking with Yey