Myers+Chang at Home: Recipes from the Beloved Boston Eatery

by Joanne Chang, Karen Akunowicz, Kristin Teig (Photographer)

Overview

From beloved chef and author Joanne Chang, the first cookbook from her acclaimed Boston restaurant, Myers+Chang

Award-winning and beloved chef Joanne Chang of Boston’s Flour bakery may be best known for her sticky buns, but that’s far from the limit of her talents. When Chang married acclaimed restaurateur Christopher Myers, she would make him Taiwanese food for dinner at home every night. The couple soon realized no one was serving food like this in Boston, in a cool but comfortable restaurant environment. Myers+Chang was born and has turned into one of Boston’s most popular restaurants, and will be celebrating its tenth anniversary in 2017, just in time for publication of this long-awaited cookbook. These recipes, all bursting with flavor, are meant to be shared, and anyone can make them at home—try Dan Dan Noodle Salad, Triple Pork Mushu Stir-fry, or Grilled Corn with Spicy Sriracha Butter. This is food people crave and will want to make again and again. Paired with the couple's favorite recipes, the photography perfectly captures the spirit of the restaurant, making this book a keepsake for devoted fans.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780544836471
Publisher:	Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication date:	09/12/2017
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	130,081
Product dimensions:	8.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

An honors graduate of Harvard College with a degree in Applied Mathematics and Economics, JOANNE CHANG left a career as a management consultant to enter the world of professional cooking. She started at Boston’s renowned Biba, then Bentonwood Bakery, Rialto, and New York’s Payard Patisserie and Bistro, and finally Mistral. She returned to Boston with dreams of opening her own pastry shop. In 2000, she opened Flour, a bakery and café, and has since opened seven more locations in Boston and Cambridge. Flour has been featured in Gourmet, Food & Wine, Bon Appétit, the New York Times, and Condé Nast Traveler and has received numerous Best of Boston awards. Chang also competed, and won, on Throwdown with Bobby Flay. In 2007, she opened a Chinese restaurant, Myers+Chang, with her husband, Christopher Myers. She is the author of four other cookbooks and was the recipient of a James Beard Award in 2016 for Outstanding Baker in America.


Chef Karen Akunowicz is a 2015, 2016, and 2017 James Beard Award finalist for Best Chef Northeast. She is a former competitor on Bravo's Top Chef, and she is currently Executive Chef at Myers+Chang.

Editorial Reviews

05/15/2017
The latest cookbook from Chang, the James Beard Award winner and co-owner of Boston’s Myers + Chang restaurant (along with her husband Christopher Myers), gives readers the chance to enjoy many of the restaurant’s Asian-inspired dishes at home. Along with recipes, Chang (Baking with Less Sugar) and her cowriter and head chef, Akunowicz, offer readers a guide to shopping in an Asian grocery store and tutorials on how to use a wok and fold dumplings. Her dumpling-folding techniques definitely come in handy with the tempting dumpling recipes the book offers, including lemony shrimp dumplings with a kimchi-yogurt dipping sauce, duck and ginger dumplings, and braised-short-rib dumplings with Sichuan chili oil. Readers familiar with the restaurant will be pleased to see recipes for popular dishes such as Garlicky Spicy Coal Black Chicken Wings and Sweet Potato and Chinese Sausage Fritters (and will enjoy the stories behind their creation). There are Asian-inspired takes on American dishes, such as Indonesian fried chicken with ginger-sesame waffles; a bulgogi barbecue Sloppy “Jo” (named after Chang’s mother); and Chinese Caesar salad with scallion, cilantro, and Sichuan peppercorns. Not surprisingly—as Chang is also chef/co-owner of the famed Flour Bakery and Café—the desserts are alluring, with recipes for a chocolate tofu mousse with sesame brittle, lime sandwich cookies made from cornmeal, and toasted coconut meringues. This isn’t just a cookbook for people familiar with Myers + Chang restaurant—the varied and delicious recipes in this book deserve to be a part of everyone’s repertoire. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"This isn’t just a cookbook for people familiar with Myers + Chang restaurant—the varied and delicious recipes in this book deserve to be a part of everyone’s repertoire."
—Publishers Weekly

“All these recipes are delicious! Every picture makes you salivate. Finally a book on Asian comfort food that’s both decadent and approachable. The dan dan noodles will knock your socks off!”
—Padma Lakshmi, host and executive producer of the Emmy Award–winning Top Chef and New York Times best-selling author
 
“Myers+Chang at Home? I want Myers+Chang in my home, please! This is just full of things I want to cook and eat more of. It’s also written in a tone I love, one that combines the precision of a consummate professional with a slightly anarchic twinkle. This is the way to have fun in the kitchen.”
—Yotam Ottolenghi
 
“Here’s a creative book on inspired Chinese cookery that fully captures the ‘no-rules,’ ‘have-fun’ vibe that I find so addictive about their restaurant. More important, without being pedantic or showing off, Joanne and Karen have demonstrated that you really can inspire and motivate the home cook to get in the kitchen, creating the food that I find to be the backbone of the world’s most crave-able and diverse cuisine. The authenticity is there, along with the call for cultural honesty, all shot through the M+C prism. If you love the flavors of China along with a pan-Asian kicker, if you love delicious food laid out in a simple way so that YOU can cook it too, then this is your book.”
—Andrew Zimmern
 
“The first time I set foot in Boston’s Myers+Chang, I was hooked. Equal parts kitchen goddesses and industry leaders, Joanne and Karen’s cooking is the kind I’ve always craved; layered and vibrant, smart and casual, and always a step ahead of the curve. Myers+Chang at Home shares their recipes and stories seamlessly, inviting us all to channel their infectious energy and master their inspired Asian creations with ease.”
—Gail Simmons, food expert, TV host, and author of Talking with My Mouth Full
 
“The amazing team at Myers+Chang consistently and lovingly presents food that is not only punchy and delicious but creative, passionate, and layered, all while remaining approachable and familiar. Dining at Myers+Chang has been a go-to staple for so many, and now we are able to welcome them into our homes, learning their masterful dishes and being charmed by all of their stories.”
—Kristen Kish, author of Kristen Kish Cooking
 
“Filled with tried-and-true family recipes as well as recipes from the restaurant, this is much more than an ordinary cookbook. With gorgeous pictures, great stories, and how-to guides for equipping your kitchen and cooking traditional Chinese foods, it’s as if Joanne is sitting with you in your kitchen. Joanne once again knocks it out of the park. Peace and good eating.”
—Ming Tsai, chef/owner of Blue Dragon and host and producer of Simply Ming

"Myers+Chang at Home succeeds for the home cook because the contents come directly from the Chang’s family’s repertoire of recipes cooked at home for many generations and tweaked to become their own. By cooking and eating this food one begins to understand the Chinese culture. Food is made with love, and it tastes that way. Chopsticks allow one to slow down and eat mindfully, appreciating all the tastes and flavors. Love is what this cookbook is about."
—Frances E. Abrams, New York Journal of Books

 

From the Publisher

07/01/2017
Married business partners Christopher Myers and Chang (Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston's Flour Bakery + Cafe) are co-owners of Myers+Chang, an eclectic Asian diner in Boston's South End. After a preface from Myers that recaps the restaurant's beginnings, Chang and executive chef Akunowicz share inspired interpretations of Chinese, Taiwanese, Thai, Indonesian, Korean, and Vietnamese dishes, including soy sauce deviled eggs with five-spice, juicy duck and ginger dumplings, surf and turf black pepper Shanghai noodles, and homemade fortune cookies. With home cooks in mind, they clearly state how vegetables should be cut, offer substitutions for potentially hard-to-find items, and specify preferred brands of key ingredients. Readers will feel confident re-creating these flavorful foods, even the ones that aren't ultrasimple. VERDICT Highly recommended for anyone who wants to sample an array of Asian flavors and serve up enticing, restaurant-quality food.

Library Journal

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