How burgers helped me better understand my Vietnamese immigrant mother | Features

When I was a girl growing up in Maryland, my dinner table was often laden with typical American fare – meals like fried chicken, yeast rolls and green beans followed by ice cream sandwiches or pie for dessert. Or maybe lasagna, burgers or beef stew served with a tall glass of cold milk. What was less typical was that these dishes were prepared – carefully and lovingly – by my Vietnamese immigrant mother.

It was the 1970s, and like many Vietnamese immigrants and refugees in the wake of…