Bryan Washington is a Houstonian writer. In his books, many locations in Houston are featured, such as Montrose, Third Ward, and the Museum District. Sometimes, even the restaurants feel like those I’ve dined in before. The setting can become the main character just by how authentic Washington’s world is written. Just reading the pages, you can feel how much he loves Houston, and for those that live there, they can vividly picture the scenes in the book. They know exactly how the humid air would feel and the Houston-typical traffic. The lesser-known fact about Washington is that he writes about food for many newspapers like the New York Times and New Yorker.

                In fact, he has contributed to many recipes in New York Times Cooking. Those recipes are usually Japanese food, which me and my family found surprisingly authentic. Too often with Japanese food in major cooking newspapers, the recipes are actually a fusion of multiple Asian cooking styles. Which can result in a highly praised yaki udon recipe (stir-fry udon) on New York Times that is not as Japanese as you might assume. The traditional Japanese-style yaki udon has a sauce mainly made of soy sauce and mirin (Japanese rice wine), with no vinegar at all. The New York Times recipe called for a vinegar, sugar, and soy sauce combination to make the sauce, which tastes just like pad thai in Thai cuisine. (It feels odd for anyone who has spent enough time in Japan to have tried Japanese yaki udon, but it’s not bad if you want to cook a Japanese-Thai fusion dish.)

                Bryan Washington is very different. When my family tried his recipe, they said it felt just like a Japanese home-cooked meal. One of the contributing factors for this is that Washington tends to make everything from scratch, for example by making Japanese-style Curry starting from curry powder. My mom used to make curry from a store-bought paste but has recently started following his recipe for curry. The day after making the curry, Washington cooks kare pan (curry bread), which he uses home-made dough to create the outside bread. When making kare pan, my mom usually uses sliced white bread and uses a sandwich sealer to make a sealed pocket of curry. I wonder where Bryan Washington, as a black man in the U.S., learned how to cook such elaborate Japanese meals.

                One of Bryan Washington’s novels, Memorial, shows the story between a black man and his Japanese American boyfriend. In the beginning, his boyfriend needs to return to Japan to care for his dying father, and at the same time his boyfriend’s mother —Mitsuko— flies to Houston intending to spend time with her son. Unexpectedly, the protagonist and the mother are forced to become roommates for more than a month while awaiting the boyfriend’s return. Mitsuko cooks the protagonist a Japanese breakfast every morning, and we learn the protagonist can cook Japanese food too. They go shopping at a Japanese store together (likely based on Seiwa Market in Houston) and Mitsuko even teaches the protagonist how to make the best korokke. (Japanese croquette) From how it is all written, I am left wondering once again how much of this story is based on Washington’s real experiences.

                 I’m curious why many of his other writing always focused on food. For me, food is not a topic I’m always comfortable discussing due to my dairy allergy. My mom learned how to cook and bake without cow’s milk and tells me I’m not missing anything, but it’s still very inconvenient when I want to eat out with friends. Me and my lactose-intolerant friend often commiserate with each other when there’s no safe options for either of us. So, my mom and I often bake dairy-free chocolate cupcakes to give to my friends. The next day, one of my friends gave me a rice cracker, and the next day another friend gave me a box of tofu. Whenever I came over, one of my friends was always happy to make me dairy free bubble tea.

                When I look back at all my fond memories of food, I understand Washington’s perspective of food and why he loves talking about it. Food is the only thing in the world that can cross the barriers of gender, generation, race, and culture—all at the dinner table.

. . .

                In one of Bryan Washington interviews, he recommended his readers to get a cookbook called Just One Cookbook by Namiko Chen—which my mom bought and frequently uses. For the mapo tofu recipe, the author notes that the Japanese-style recipe is milder than the originally Sichuan dish. So, she includes information for how to substitute the la-doubanjiang (spicy chili bean paste) needed for the recipe with a non-spicy version. In that way, she shows both a Japanese audience and a Chinese audience how this dish can be enjoyed.

                This is because Namiko Chen is a Japanese woman that married a Taiwanese man in the U.S., which is why her first name is a common Japanese girl’s name and she also has a common Taiwanese surname. Her husband often helps run her food blog by filming her cooking and taking photographs to put on her website.