[EVENT] Book Talk | Chinese Enough by Kristina Cho

In an exploration of her own experience as a first-generation American, Kristina Cho, author of the award-winning baking book Mooncakes and Milk Bread, offers 100 recipes that blend the flavors of traditional Cantonese cooking with California ingredients and a midwestern sensibility.
 
In Chinese Enough, Cho turns to the savory side of cooking with recipes that are neither entirely Chinese nor entirely American, but Chinese enough. Here is an array of dishes to pair with rice, the cornerstone of Cantonese cuisine, including Triple Pepper Beef, Miso Pork Meatballs, and Seared Egg Tofu with Honey and Soy. Recipes like Smashed Ranch Cucumbers and Saucy Sesame Long Beans honor the Cantonese focus on vegetables. There’s a chapter dedicated to the joy of noodles, with creative takes on traditional dishes, birthed anew in a California kitchen—from San Francisco Garlic Noodles to Creamy Tomato Udon. Plus, a chapter of Banquet-Worthy Dishes teaches the Chinese art of food as celebration, a step-by-step guide shows how to employ friends and family in the kitchen to make dumplings, and the fruit-focused dessert section acts as a lesson on finishing a meal with a small, sweet act of affection. Woven throughout, Cho’s stories of her grandmother’s Chinese garden situated in the middle of Cleveland and falling in love over dim sum are a warm tribute to the nuanced and personal ways in which one can discover and define their own culture.

Kristina Cho is an award-winning cookbook author, recipe developer, home cook, baker, food stylist, and photographer. Her groundbreaking debut cookbook, Mooncakes and Milk Bread, won two James Beard awards and was described as an instant classic by The New York Times. Follow Kristina at eatchofood.com and on TikTok and Instagram @eatchofood.