Best Food Items | January 2013

I spent the better part of Christmas reading Eddie Huang's Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir ($26). If you haven't heard of the New York chef — who's being billed as the next Anthony Bourdain and was described by Tony himself as "bigger than food" — be prepared to know him in 2013. Start by reading his backstory; it's a witty, earnest, authentic tale of coming of age in America.

— Susannah Chen, editor