When journalist Priya Krishna was writing a cookbook based on her Texas-dwelling Indian family, she knew she couldn't control where it was shelved or listed in stores. What she did have power over was where the title placed it in people's minds. The beloved and robustly-selling Indian-ish: Recipes and Antics from a Modern American Family is an homage to her boundary-busting, India-born mother Ritu and the dishes she adapted for her new homeland—as well as a beacon of solidarity to other first-generation kids who'd never seen themselves or their food represented in the media. "It feels like the dominant narrative is a very Western-centric one, so I feel like the biggest thing I can do is show that everyone has a different normal.

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