Myers+Chang. - Myers+Chang at home: yum me yum you

I have always been a reader, and books have been a huge part of my life, so when Joanne and Christopher invited me to write this book with them it was the greatest gift someone could have given me. Thank you both for inviting me into your home and kitchen.

Thank you, Christopher, for over fifteen years of guidance, friendship, and mentorship. Thank you for geese and hats and the knowledge that you would always be my wingman (should I ever need one again). Working for you at Via Matta was a joy and an education I can never repay.

Joanne, you are not only as nice as everyone says but funny, gracious, and fierce in a way only you could manage. You are genuine in everything you do, and writing this book together was an amazing experience. There is no one I would rather split a spring roll with.

Thanks to all of the Chang Gang, especially supreme recipe testers Ashley Lujares and Tessa Bristol, as well as Mari, Marvin, Dina, Lupe, Gabriel, Jos, Jesse, Jesus, and Veo who run the restaurant so well that I was able to take time to write this book.

Thank you Ashley Lucas for your friendship and all of your hard work on Team Cupcake Productions. To Rachel and Hannah, you are the best femmes a girl could ask for.

To Adam Halberg for sending me to Italy and Cassie Piuma for being the most talented and hardworking chef I have ever worked for, thank you both for the lessons you taught me.

To my mom, dad, and Jenn, thank you for giving me roots so I could have wings.

To my sweetheart, LJ, thank you for holding my hand and walking through this world with me. It is only because of your support that I was able to write this book. xx

Chef Karen

When you get engaged, friends and family immediately start asking when the wedding is; once you get married the question changes to, When are you having kids? For Christopher and me, Myers+Chang served as our answer to both. We opened the restaurant to celebrate our love of Asian cooking and each other. Rather than a big wedding, we had an opening party for M+C (and then we eloped a few months later). Instead of 2.5 kids, we have forty (+/-) staff members at the restaurant at any one time who feel an awful lot like a rowdy, lovable gaggle of kids. This book is a culmination of a decade of working together, tasting together, eating together, laughing together, and once in a blue moon maybe disagreeing a bit... together.

Its hard to write an acknowledgment when you are a neighborhood restaurant, because everyone who comes in and gives us feedback has helped us morph our food into something better. Ill cast the net wide right off the bat and thank the neighborhood of the South End for embracing us on this lonely corner back in 2007 and supporting us day in and day out.

Thank you to our opening chef, Alison Hearn, for sharing your obsession with Asian food and sharing your vast talents with us our first few years and for creating dishes that are so addictive, they remain on the menu to this day. Thank you to Matt Barros for bravely carrying the torch after Alison left until Chef Karen arrived. And to our restaurant managers, Cheri, Scott, Alexandra, Heather, and Kristi, you all kept our guests happy and eager to come back, allowing us to keep cooking, tasting, developing, and perfecting these recipes over the last decade.

To Esti Parsons for being the model of hospitality for everyone at the restaurant, the genuine warmth and goodness you bring to us makes us all better at what we do. Youve been our number-one recipe taster (and our number-one fan) since way before we opened, and we are thankful for your pitch-perfect palate and for your hot and sour soup! That soup! Probably among the most complimented of our dishes.

We really cannot thank the cooks and servers who have come through the doors of M+C enough for their immense dedication and love and heart. This book is a testament to each one of you who worked your butts off to make sure our food constantly got better and our service was continuously viewed as the warmest and friendliest in Boston. Special shout-outs to our chefs and cooks in the kitchen: Kevin, Mari, Marvin, Ashley, Gabriel, Tessa, and Veo, for your help with these recipes over the years and with the testing for this book.

To our spectacular group of recipe testers, thank you! Each of you gave such detailed feedback on multiple iterations of the recipes that Im convinced these are the best-tested recipes in any cookbook out there. Our readers will all delight in making these dishes successfully for their friends and family because of your careful testing. We are incredibly grateful.

I have known our editor, Justin Schwartz, for almost a decade and always hoped for a chance to work with him. Thank you, Justin, for your eagle-eye editing, your enthusiasm for our food, and your exacting guidance on how to make the recipes sing. Ive learned a tremendous amount working with you, and I am very appreciative of your support and teachings. Simply put, this book is awesome because you pushed me from day one.

Kristin Teig, our photographer, first took pictures of me for a local magazine, and after watching her play Twister with her camera, arms, and legs to get just the right shot, I knew she was the one to nail down the heart and soul of our food. Kristin, your gorgeous pictures will be the reason readers will have drool stains on these recipes; you brought our food and our team to life and captured the vibrancy of M+C.

Stacey Glick, my agent, is not just a brilliant book agent but also a dear friend. Her annual pilgrimages to Myers+Chang with her adorable kids and sweetheart of a husband are among the visits we most look forward to all year. They proclaim each dish better than the last, which is really the whole reason we do this in the first place. Stacey, your steady counsel and sound business sense always lead me down the right path. Thank you for guiding me to make the best books I can.