49 pages • 1 hour read
Bich Minh NguyenStealing Buddha's Dinner
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2007A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 4-5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary: “Fast Food Asian”
In Grand Rapids, the Vietnamese community congregates around the Saigon Market, where Bich's father buys Bich and her sister sweet and sour plums, rice candy, and bags of dried squid. The owner of the Saigon Market starts throwing big parties, where the men play Vietnamese poker and the women gather in the kitchen to gossip. Noi is usually in charge of cooking.
Bich’s household is modern in that Noi is the head of the family; she sits at the head of the table, gets the first serving at meals, and rides in the front seat of the car. She is responsible for raising the children and taking care of the home. Bich’s father is supposed to be the breadwinner, which he thinks means he doesn’t need to ask permission to do whatever he wants. Rosa is in the middle; she is also a breadwinner, but frustrated by her husband’s behavior. Rosa and Bich’s father fight about how he spends his time.
During the parties, Rosa spends her time in the kitchen, where she feels ostracized. Anh and Bich hang out with the other Vietnamese children, who are playing Atari and watching TV. The other kids seem to be acclimating to American culture much faster than Bich. Bich thinks this is because their parents allowed them to change their names and gave them money and American food. Rosa won’t let them change their names, even though Bich is made fun of at school.
While Rosa has stopped Bich’s father from giving the children candy, she can’t stop him from chasing his own cravings: “Jell-O parfait from the deli aisle, sweet gherkins, braunschweiger, Chicken in a Biskit, two-liter bottles of pop, and cream-filled wafer cookies dyed pink and orange” (53). He also loves gadgets and buys the first microwave on the block.
The whole family loves fast food. The Chicken Coop is their favorite, with its “tubs of fried chicken with delicate, super-crispy coatings that smelled of butter” (53). The napkins have a religious saying on them, and when Bich asks Rosa about it, she refuses to explain. The family also loves Burger King, and Whoppers especially. They bond over the “Whopper beat the Big Mac,” campaign and get free Whoppers by saying the aforementioned phrase at the Burger King counter. Sometimes, Chu Cuong and Chu Dai satisfy Bich’s “food sorrow” (57) over her classmates’ preference for McDonald's and take the kids to get Big Macs and fried apple pies.
Bich becomes obsessed with American food and wants Rosa to buy her a lasagna kit from Chef Boyardee. But Rosa, whose specialty is sopa, refuses; she doesn’t want Bich to be like their boring, white next-door neighbors, the Vander Wals. The Vander Wals' oldest daughter, Jennifer, introduces Bich to homemade Nestle chocolate-chip cookies.
Chapter 5 Summary: “Toll House Cookies”
Bich spends every summer with Jennifer, her “next-door neighbor, friend, and enemy” (61), riding bikes around the neighborhood and trading toys the other doesn’t have. Jennifer’s father, Cal, is a music teacher, her mother a stay-at-home mom who gives the occasional piano lesson. Jennifer is a year younger than Bich but taller, “her manners mimicking an adult’s” (62). She and her family are very religious.
One day, when Bich is playing with Jennifer and two of her friends, one of the girls asks, “Aren’t you glad the Lord is always with us?” (64). Bich asserts that she doesn’t believe in God and that there is no God, upsetting Jennifer’s friends. That summer, Jennifer turns seven, and they throw her a huge birthday party, and Bich and Anh get to meet all of her “real” friends. It isn’t a happy memory, and Bich recalls “with bitter and astonished poignancy that moment on the hill” (65). For Bich’s birthday that year, Jennifer gives her a piece of paper folded into a cube that, when opened, reads “God’s Son.”
Bich feels distanced from her identity when she is with Jennifer, but it all returns when she enters back into her home. There is a strange double standard with the two girls; Jennifer calls Bich’s stepmother Rosa, while Bich calls Jennifer’s mother Mrs. Vander Wal. Bich has to be invited into the kitchen in Jennifer’s house, while Jennifer just walks into Bich’s space. Bich is obsessed with the food Jennifer eats at home, and Jennifer will not even try Noi’s food.
Bich’s father and Cal get into an argument that almost turns physical. From then on, Bich and Jennifer’s relationship is more competitive and materialistic. Jennifer makes fun of Bich for having to share a room with Anh and gloats about a family trip to Disney World.
While the Vander Wals are on vacation, Bich and Anh break into their house, and trash Jennifer’s room. Bich takes a Toll House cookie from a cookie jar in the living room. They ultimately get caught and are forced to apologize to the Vander Wals and Jennifer. Within a week, things between Bich and Jennifer are back to normal. Bich relishes in the fact that even though they had to apologize for Jennifer’s room, no one knows about the cookies.
Chapters 4-5 Analysis
As Bich’s family becomes more settled in Grand Rapids, they find places where they feel at home. The Saigon Market and Vietnamese parties are two of these sorts of locales, with each providing a different but necessary service. The market provides a space for all the Vietnamese refugees in Grand Rapids to buy products they need, and the parties provide needed social interaction for a displaced group of people.
Bich explores her matrilineal family dynamic. Her grandmother, acting as head of the house, provides stability and comfort, but the addition of Rosa complicates the rule and order of the house. Bich sees that Rosa doesn’t fit in at the Vietnamese parties because her Vietnamese isn’t strong; her position as an outsider in their space should provide some context for Bich’s own identity, but she resents Rosa too much to see that. Bich struggles with assimilation, especially Rosa’s refusal to allow her to change her name. When she meets other Vietnamese children who seem to be adjusting faster, she is envious, and wants what they have. This is not necessarily a rejection of her own situation, but a rejection of the alienation and confusion she feels about her identity.
In these chapters, Bich’s fascination with American food is most palpable when she writes, “At home, I kept opening the refrigerator, and cupboards, wishing for American foods to magically appear, I wanted what other kids had: Bundt cakes and casseroles, Cheetos and Doritos” (50). Her desire for her home to be like the ‘typical’ American home speaks to her feelings of “otherness.” She feels that the fastest path to assimilation involves food.
Bich’s relationship with Jennifer is built on double standards and differences. Bich never feels comfortable in Jennifer’s home, but Jennifer waltzes right into Noi’s kitchen and refuses to eat their food. Jennifer never takes the time to learn anything about Bich’s family’s religion, but Bich is expected to understand and abide by Christian norms and beliefs when around Jennifer’s friends. When Jennifer gloats a little too much about a trip to Disney World, Bich and Anh decide to break into the Vander Wals’ house while they’re away and trash Jennifer’s room; Bich also takes a Toll House cookie. This act of rebellion is short-lived but important for Bich, as she has previously found it hard to assert herself in any genuine manner. When the girls are asked to apologize, Bich relishes in the fact that they do not know she stole a cookie. This seems to be related to her realizing that she has the ability to take pieces of American culture and make them hers.
