The pairings of Asian food and wine, the colorful apparel of guests, and, above all, their collective passion for Asia, all made Princeton in Asia’s recent fund-raising gala at the Rubin Museum of Art a memorable affair.

But chances are excellent that the book created for the event will have a longer-lasting impact. Forget about those clunky commemorative
journals. The “PiA Guide to Asian Eats in New York City” takes the gala publication to a whole new level.

The book, distributed at the gala and now available on the Princeton in Asia Web site (www.princeton.edu/~pia) for $20, is a guide to restaurants offering authentic Asian cuisine, such as the Minca Ramen Factory in the East Village, where the noodles are “satisfyingly firm and springy,” and Unidentified Flying Chickens in Jackson Heights, Queens, which serves Korean-style
fried chicken.

The 60 entries are written by alumni of the Princeton in Asia program, which has for more than 100 years sent recent college graduates
(including people who did not attend Princeton) to study and work in Asia.

“Everybody who goes to Asia learns to experience all these new flavors, and we miss them when we return. We set out to find all these
flavors back in the city,” one of the contributors, Susan Fou, who lived in China in 1995, said.

The book also offers a charming “I had absolutely no idea what was in front of me. The rice was blue, I was a little scared, but it was really good,” Dave Faherty, stationed in Malaysia in 2007, writes of a mysterious meal he bought at a night market in Kota Bahru.

Princeton in Asia this year will send 125 people to 17 countries in Asia, with an operating budget of slightly less than $500,000. Early
on, most participants taught English; now there are opportunities to work in businesses and service organizations.

One contributor, Alison Berliner, said she hopes the book can help people have adventures that are “totally positive with none of the negatives,” she said. Yet she treasures her own missteps, such as eating a dried fried squid she thought was a potato chip while living in Bangkok last year.

Through its descriptions of congee, ramen, and daikon with foie gras, the book will likely inspire readers to go outside their comfort
zone.

“The PiA culture is a sense of adventure and openness to anything, wanting to explore and get new experiences,” Ms. Fou said.

That’s a culture worth supporting.

Powerful Women United For Philanthropy

“Philanthropy is a way of saying thank you to the people who made a difference in our lives,” the president of Hearst Magazines, Catherine Black, said recently.

Ms. Black was speaking at the second annual luncheon of Women United in Philanthropy, a group for women giving $1,000 or more to United Way of New York City. This year’s event, which tripled in size compared to last year’s, honored Aurora Cassirer of Troutman Sanders LLP; Maureen Clancy of the Bank of New York Mellon; Marian Goodman of Bloomingdale’s; Susan Haspel of NBC Universal, and Linda Lee of Macy’s East, among others.

The money raised by the luncheon will fund early education programs. Some participants of these programs, including Kevin Cheng, age 4, helped present the awards.

agordon@nysun.com

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