My awesome cousin, Mei Chin (yes, also named Mei) made Saveur’s top 100 classic food articles. It is a beautiful piece- plus it is a great memoir piece on my grandma. Check it out here 

My Grandma Chin, a native of Dongbei, China, emigrated via Taiwan to Richmond, Virginia, in 1962. Her children sang “Dixieland” at homecoming games, and Grandpa Chin lunched regularly on fried fish and spoon bread at a place called Becky’s. Still, certain old habits endured. Grandpa Chin ate Jell-O with chopsticks, and Grandma Chin, or Miz Chin, as she became known, showed up at her children’s school dressed in a cherry red cheongsam.

Tofu wanzi, literally “tofu balls,” was Grandma Chin’s own invention, combining her native bean curd and the bacon of her adopted home. Tofu, scallions, and bread crumbs are mixed with sesame oil and plenty of bacon, molded between two spoons, and deep-fried in vegetable oil until they puff into pillows. The result is crisp on the outside, pudding within, and completely addictive when dipped in sesame oil. I call them tofu hush puppies, and if you ask me, they’re among the great hybrid foods that have come out of America’s Chinese communities—right up there with chow mein.