My Chinese-American friend Ming-Hao Clayton Tsai was born in Taiwan but grew up in Dayton, Ohio. Following one very common Chinese emigrant path, his parents, who are accomplished cooks, opened a Chinese restaurant, The Mandarin Kitchen. The restaurant’s name is a marker. ‘Mandarin’ refers to the members of the nine ranks of public servants of the imperial (Beijing) bureaucracy, each member’s rank distinguishable by the particular button worn on his official cap. But Mandar
