San Mateo County Libraries welcomes Kristina Cho on Tuesday, September 6 at 7:00 PM. Cho will introduce us to her new book of Chinese baking, Mooncakes & Milk Bread, before taking questions from the audience.
Once you've registered, you'll receive your Zoom invitation to join us for a night of recipes and memories!
Discover the First Full Book of Chinese Baking
That's right: This is the first book to exclusively focus on Chinese bakeries and cafes. But it isn’t just for those nostalgic for Chinese bakeshop foods—it’s for all home bakers who want exciting new recipes to add to their repertoires.
Inside Kristina Cho’s book, you’ll find the fluffiest milk bread, sweet and savory buns, her grandpa’s famed Almond Cookies, beautifully stamped mooncakes, whimsical fruit-adorned cakes, flaky tarts and juicy dumplings. Of course, get ready to discover recipes for steamed BBQ pork buns, pineapple buns with a thick slice of butter, silk smooth milk tea and sunny egg tarts—because a book about Chinese bakeries wouldn’t be complete without them!
You’ll also get a glimpse into Chinese bakeries across America and learn from the bakers and owners themselves about why these businesses are so important to Asian American culture.
With over 80 nostalgic and reinvented recipes, Mooncakes and Milk Bread is a love letter to the untold story and rich flavors of Chinese American baking. Whether you’ve never tried pineapple buns or you’ve always wondered, “How did bà make that?” here’s the perfect place to start!
Get to Know Kristina Cho
All the things I create are inspired by the colorful people in my life, growing up in my family's Chinese/Cantonese restaurant and food centric household, my New Jersey [husband] (Reuben!) and his love of pizza and breakfast sandwiches, and living in the diverse and food loving city of San Francisco.
—Kristina Cho
Kristina Cho is a Bay Area-based cookbook author and culinary content creator. Her culinary perspective is rooted in her experiences as a first-generation Chinese American growing up in Cleveland with her restaurateur family. She has dedicated her professional career to making, teaching, writing about and photographing her unique interpretations of Chinese food. While she works on her next cookbook, you can find new recipes and stories on her sunny and cozy blog Eat Cho Food.
Praise for Mooncakes and Milk Bread
This book brought tears to my eyes. Some of my tastiest childhood memories were at Chinese bakeries, and these photos, stories and recipes have both transported me back in time and provided fresh inspiration to re-create these memories at home. I am truly in awe of Kristina’s ability to evoke nostalgia while also infusing new life into this genre of food that hasn’t, until now, gotten the attention it deserves. Mooncakes and Milk Bread is a stunning, thorough, delicious and important piece of work. —Molly Yeh, author of Molly on the Range and Food Network host
Kristina’s book is a trip down memory lane, an evocative look at the foods that made me happy as a child and that are laced with nostalgia for me as an adult. Every page of Mooncakes and Milk Bread is a treat, with beloved cakes and not-too-sweet favorites that felt unattainable to create myself at home, until now. Kristina’s stories about growing up in her family’s Chinese restaurant and greeting her ‘aunties and uncles’ at dim sum are full of heart and soul, providing a window into a vibrant part of American culture that has brought joy to so many. And joy is a good word to sum up Kristina’s book. It is more than a Chinese baking book—it is a triumphant celebration of how food brings people from different generations and cultures together. I’ve never been so excited to bake and steam! —Hetty McKinnon, food writer, author of four bestselling cookbooks including To Asia, With Love and editor of Peddler Journal, opens a new window
Mooncakes and Milk Bread serves as a love letter to the Chinese bakeries of our childhoods but also as a guide for a new generation of fans, who can now bake their own pineapple buns (always with a slice of cold butter), the most perfect Chinese sponge cake and everything else on the bakery rack—all from the comfort of their own homes. —Bin Chen and Andrew Chau, co-founders of Boba Guys and authors of The Boba Book
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