Reflections

Biting Through the Skin combines graceful, almost poetic writing with recipes--mainly from India--and an account of growing up Indian in small town Kansas that is both entertaining and fascinating. When Nina Mukerjee Furstenau’s parents first moved their young family from Bengal to the United States they settled in Chicago, but within a year had decided that a small Midwestern town with its close connections was more like home than a multicultural but anonymous big city.  While growing up the author longed for a greater association with the land of her birth, which she partially achieved rifling through her mother’s silk saris, and eavesdropping on a visiting guru but her most consistent connection was through food.  Living a part American, part Indian life puts the author in a good position to compare the two cultures, and her reflective, deeply thought out musings about their differences make this “food memoir” stand out by encompassing philosophy, religion, linguistics, and even science, along with cuisine.