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A Common Table: 80 Recipes and Stories from My Shared Cultures: A Cookbook
2019 James Beard Foundation Book Award nominee for best American cookbook; named one of the best cookbooks of 2018 by The New York Times, NPR, Epicurious, and Eater, and featured in Washington Post, NYT Cooking, Eater LA, Food52, Publisher's Weekly, and more.
"LA-based food blog star Cynthia Chen McTernan stuns with this accessible, and personal, story of how she blends her Chinese heritage with her Southern upbringing. . . . The photography, which Chen McTernan shoots herself, is phenomenal[,] and the recipes are pretty easy, good enough for a novice cook to start spending more time in the kitchen. [T]he story of melding cuisines and heritage is a classic Angeleno story of reinvention and discovery." - MATTHEW KANG, Eater LA
"Lawyer/food blogger Cynthia Chen McTernan's primary food influences are Southern (from her childhood), Korean (from her mother-in-law) and Chinese (from her family). Sound promising? For good reason. . . . This is McTernan's first cookbook, and it has that feeling about hopeful, eclectic, conversational. I very much doubt it will be her last." - T. SUSAN CHANG, NPR Book Concierge
In A Common Table, Two Red Bowls blogger Cynthia Chen McTernan shares more than 80 Asian-inspired, modern recipes that marry food from her Chinese roots, Southern upbringing, and Korean mother-in-law's table. The book chronicles Cynthia's story alongside the recipes she and her family eat every day--beginning when she met her husband at law school and ate out of two battered red bowls, through the first years of her legal career in New York, to when she moved to Los Angeles to start a family.
As Cynthia's life has changed, her cooking has become more diverse. She shares recipes that celebrate both the commonalities and the diversity of her mother-in-law's spicy Korean-inspired take on Hawaiian poke, a sticky sesame peanut pie that combines Chinese peanut sesame brittle with the decadence of a Southern pecan pie, and a grilled cheese topped with a crisp fried egg and fiery kimchi. And of course, she shares the how to make soft, pillowy steamed buns, savory pork dumplings, and a simple fried rice that can form the base of any meal. Asian food may have a reputation for having long ingredient lists and complicated instructions, but Cynthia makes it relatable, avoiding hard-to-find ingredients or equipment, and breaking down how to bring Asian flavors home into your own kitchen.
Above all, Cynthia believes that food can bring us together around the same table, no matter where we are from. The message at the heart of A Common Table is that the food we make and eat is rarely the product of one culture or moment, but is richly interwoven--and though some dishes might seem new or different, they are often more alike than they appear.
"LA-based food blog star Cynthia Chen McTernan stuns with this accessible, and personal, story of how she blends her Chinese heritage with her Southern upbringing. . . . The photography, which Chen McTernan shoots herself, is phenomenal[,] and the recipes are pretty easy, good enough for a novice cook to start spending more time in the kitchen. [T]he story of melding cuisines and heritage is a classic Angeleno story of reinvention and discovery." - MATTHEW KANG, Eater LA
"Lawyer/food blogger Cynthia Chen McTernan's primary food influences are Southern (from her childhood), Korean (from her mother-in-law) and Chinese (from her family). Sound promising? For good reason. . . . This is McTernan's first cookbook, and it has that feeling about hopeful, eclectic, conversational. I very much doubt it will be her last." - T. SUSAN CHANG, NPR Book Concierge
In A Common Table, Two Red Bowls blogger Cynthia Chen McTernan shares more than 80 Asian-inspired, modern recipes that marry food from her Chinese roots, Southern upbringing, and Korean mother-in-law's table. The book chronicles Cynthia's story alongside the recipes she and her family eat every day--beginning when she met her husband at law school and ate out of two battered red bowls, through the first years of her legal career in New York, to when she moved to Los Angeles to start a family.
As Cynthia's life has changed, her cooking has become more diverse. She shares recipes that celebrate both the commonalities and the diversity of her mother-in-law's spicy Korean-inspired take on Hawaiian poke, a sticky sesame peanut pie that combines Chinese peanut sesame brittle with the decadence of a Southern pecan pie, and a grilled cheese topped with a crisp fried egg and fiery kimchi. And of course, she shares the how to make soft, pillowy steamed buns, savory pork dumplings, and a simple fried rice that can form the base of any meal. Asian food may have a reputation for having long ingredient lists and complicated instructions, but Cynthia makes it relatable, avoiding hard-to-find ingredients or equipment, and breaking down how to bring Asian flavors home into your own kitchen.
Above all, Cynthia believes that food can bring us together around the same table, no matter where we are from. The message at the heart of A Common Table is that the food we make and eat is rarely the product of one culture or moment, but is richly interwoven--and though some dishes might seem new or different, they are often more alike than they appear.
288 pages, Hardcover
Published October 23, 2018
69 people are currently reading
253 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 27, 2021
One of the best cookbooks I’ve ever used, and I’ve used quite a few. All of the recipes turn out and are delicious. Got from the library, but will be buying to continue making the meals over and over.
November 19, 2018
classic Korean/Chinese cooking.
Reviewed from uncorrected galley.
Very nice collection of recipes (and helpful tips) including a lot of things I've always wanted to make: char siu baos steamed and baked, potstickers and various dumplings, bibimbap, sweet custard treats, almond jello topped with mango/coconut mixture, kimchi fried rice, boba milk tea, even a simple recipe for making "the best" musubi.
Reviewed from uncorrected galley.
Very nice collection of recipes (and helpful tips) including a lot of things I've always wanted to make: char siu baos steamed and baked, potstickers and various dumplings, bibimbap, sweet custard treats, almond jello topped with mango/coconut mixture, kimchi fried rice, boba milk tea, even a simple recipe for making "the best" musubi.
February 18, 2020
This was a mix of a cookbook and a memoir of sorts. I loved the photography, recipes, styling, variety. I made potstickers from scratch for the first time ever using this recipe. The dough was a pain as I lacked prior experience but the filling was delicious. I would gladly read this book again when I need inspiration.
October 2, 2018
The dishes are easy to prepare. I enjoyed reading the recipes because most, of not all the dishes are normally what I eat when I go out. Any Asian aficionado will have plenty to relate to in these recipes. Highly enjoyable to try.
Thanks to the publisher for the advance reading copy.
Thanks to the publisher for the advance reading copy.
March 12, 2019
Beautiful formatting and recipes.
August 15, 2019
Loved this so much that I bought it. Great recipes, easy, normal ingredients. Can't wait to start cooking.
May 23, 2020
May 2020
4 stars because the peanut butter mochi bread/cake is AMAZING.
4 stars because the peanut butter mochi bread/cake is AMAZING.
October 11, 2020
recipes are super doable and loved the blend of cultures
April 26, 2022
What a beautiful book. Author is like a great explorer and intertwine her native cuisine with the cities she experienced with! I love it!
February 24, 2024
Oh, everything in here looks so amazing! Such a gorgeous book that I'd love to cook and/or eat from.
July 11, 2019
A beautiful book and fun too read. Not too many recipes that I wish to try and not really enough that combined cultures. But a shining example of one that did was the sesame cornbread...wonderful.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews