Luckily, as soon as we resettled, west of Camp Pendleton in San Clemente, my mother began cooking up a storm, recreating family favorites as she was able to find Vietnamese staples such as fish sauce and sticky rice.

WSJ: Vietnamese Beef Stew Recipe: Bo Kho and Back Again

It may look like I was trying to avoid my mother and her home cooking by going to Journalism College as far away as possible - Carlisle to Portsmouth is a bit of a trek - but that couldn't be further from the truth.

BBC: East Midlands

Because my mother represented food for me: she was cooking and she taught me how to cook.

FORBES: A History of Food: Adam Gopnik's "The Table Comes First"