"Linda Furiya's girlhood in the small Indiana farm community where she grew up was marked by her differences: She was the only Asian in her school, the only girl whose mother packed rice balls and chopsticks in her lunch box, the only one whose parents' idea of a family vacation was loading the station wagon with an oversized cooler and driving across state lines in search of fresh fish." "Bento Box in the Heartland is the coming-of-age story of a girl whose struggles with assimilation in Midwestern America are touchingly juxtaposed with her tender affection for the Japanese foods that provided her parents with a crucial link to their homeland. Furiya tells of a childhood that was profoundly affected by her family's obsession with food, the care taken in the preparation of each recipe, and the importance of savoring every meal. Her memoir is a uniquely American tale."--BOOK JACKET.