BOLD FORK BOOKS

Some books feed you. Some help you understand the world. This week’s stack of new releases does both.

🥟 BAO by Loretta Liu | This book unlocks your bamboo steamer’s full potential with 65 recipes for bao, dumplings, steamed mains, and Asian street food. Fluffy, satisfying, and endlessly snackable.

🍷 PRESSING MATTERS by | For anyone just getting into wine, this is your book. Terroir, farming, tasting, value — it lays out all the big debates fairly and lets you make up your own mind.

🍽️ SHE WHO TASTES, KNOWS by | Durkhanai Ayubi traces Afghan culture through its ingredients, each chapter following one food back into the histories and humanity that conflict and distance have tried to erase.

🌶️ KIMCHI by Jihyun ‘Kimmy’ Kim | From Seoul to Southeast London, Kimmy brings her family’s kimjang tradition to your kitchen. 80 recipes, plus the story of fermentation as memory, patience, and love.

🇮🇹 CUCINA DELL’EMILIA-ROMAGNA by | Even in a country that takes its regions seriously, Emilia-Romagna stands apart. Parmigiano. Prosciutto. Mortadella. Balsamic. 75 recipes highlighting the place Italians call the food valley.

🌸 ODETTE by | Odette is named for Julien Royer’s grandmother. It’s also one of the most celebrated restaurants in the world. This book brings both stories to the table.

Come find your next favorite on our shelves!

🇵🇷 THURSDAY MAY 28th 🇵🇷

Join us in welcoming author Monti Carlo and moderator Gaby Montes de Oca as we spend an evening discussing the release of Monti’s debut Puerto Rican cookbook, SPANGLISH: Recipes & Stories. Keep reading to learn more about Monti & the book!

Growing up, Monti Carlo felt like she was perpetually bridging the gap between worlds—one foot on her home island of Puerto Rico, and the other in the heart of Houston, Texas. In the space between, as a self-taught chef and eventual TV host and James Beard Foundation advisor, she’s carved out a cuisine all her own, one that’s a testament to a life spent bridging two cultures. It’s a mosaic of borrowed words and flavors, a reflection of the bittersweet beauty of connecting two very different ways of life. It’s pure Spanglish.

Within these pages, Monti shares the dishes embodying that journey: continental American classics created with the bold flavors of Puerto Rico, a taste of two worlds merging on the same plate. There’s comfort food like her elementary school’s soupy chili with her Abuela Dora’s sweet and savory picadillo, golden bacalaíto-battered onion rings, and tangy tamarind roast chicken. There are nostalgia-laced Puerto Rican breakfasts like hearty sorullo waffles with pique honey. With flavor and heart, this cookbook is more than just recipes. It’s a beautifully written reflection on Boricua identity and a testament to the healing power of food.

Tickets are LIVE and available on Bold Fork Books’ website & eventbrite page. Comment “TICKET” and we’ll send you the link!

It’s Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and we’re celebrating the way we know best by highlighting a sample of our favorite AAPI authors and cookbooks! From Japanese clay pot cooking to Filipino desserts to a vegan Korean kitchen, there is so much to discover.

🍜 SIMPLE THAI FOOD by .punya

🍮 MAYUMU by

🫕 SIMPLY DONABE by

🍲 ĐẶC BIỆT by

🌶️ HEARTLAND MASALA by Jyoti Mukharji and Auyon Mukharji

🥣 MORTAR AND PESTLE by

🥢 HOUSE OF NANKING by and Peter Fang from

🍨 MALAI by from

🥬 THE KOREAN VEGAN by

🇺🇸 PADMA’S ALL AMERICAN by

These and so many more are on our shelves at Bold Fork Books. Come find your next favorite!

THURSDAY MAY 17th @ 7PM

Beloved chef and two-time Top Chef fan favorite Sheldon Simeon’s food joyfully reflects Hawai’i’s flavors and cooking styles, a mixture of island influences including Native Hawai’ian, Filipino, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, and other cuisines. With creative plant-based spins (like swapping out raw fish with pan-seared ripe avocado for a delicious “tataki”, or using mushrooms to create the best “escargot”) and shortcut cooking techniques (like searing shoyu-marinated tuna in a hot wok or pan to mimic smoking, or using a Chinese dry wok cooking style to perfect fish sticks), the recipes in Ohana Style shows how quick, easy, and flexible Hawai’ian cuisine can be.

Sheldon’s recipes show how to blend sweet, savory, and tangy Hawai’ian flavors into every day meals, all the while centering the cuisine’s legacy of communal-style eating, reminiscent of the traditions and memories of foods we all grew up with. In Ohana Style you’ll find umami-packed recipes meant for family—that’s what ohana means in Hawai’ian—weeknight dinners, quick lunches, snacks, cookouts, and barbecues.

Join us for a can’t-miss conversation. Comment TICKET and we’ll send you the link!

🍕Bold Fork Books is excited to host THE BOOK OF PIZZA Co-Author Martin Philip and Grazie Hospitality’s Executive Chef and Partner Gerald Addison for a celebration and conversation on Monday, May 11th at 7pm. All tickets include a slice of pizza from Grazie Nonna! 🍕

Tickets are available now Bold Fork Books’ website. Keep reading to learn more about the book:

“From the team behind the #1 New York Times bestseller The King Arthur Baking Company Big Book of Bread, comes the definitive book dedicated to the key elements of making pizza in any home oven, countertop pizza oven, or backyard oven or grill.

The bakers at King Arthur Baking Company researched, tested—and tasted!—hundreds of pizzas and cooking methods to develop the most comprehensive book yet dedicated to the art and science of making pizza at home. Organized around twelve distinct styles—New York, New Haven, Chicago Tavern, Grandma, Neapolitan, and more—King Arthur Baking Company’s The Book of Pizza goes deep on every element of a great pie, from dough and sauce to the cheese and the bake.”

Comment “TICKET” and we’ll send you the link. See you in Mount Pleasant on May 11th!

Food Justice. Local Power. Nourishment. The Art of Gathering. How can we create a world where everyone has enough? What does it mean to truly nourish ourselves and our communities? In GATHER: Black Food, Nourishment, and the Art of Togetherness, author Ashanté M. Reese centers Black communities and explores the answers to these questions that are essential for real, sustainable change.

We’re absolutely thrilled to welcome Dr. Reese to Bold Fork Books in Washington D.C. where Dr. Reese will be in conversation with Anela Malik on Wednesday, May 6th at 7pm. Tickets are available on our website and eventbrite page + the link in our bio. Keep reading to learn more about Dr. Reese and Anela!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ashanté M. Reese is a writer, anthropologist, and associate professor of African and African diaspora studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Raised in Cooper Settlement, Texas, she lives in Austin and is involved in food justice movements nationwide.

ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Anela Malik is a DC-based author, speaker, and host whose work centers Black women, curiosity, and the belief that a bigger, more meaningful life is not only possible, but worth claiming. Anela is the author of American Soul: The Black History of Food in the United States, published by National Geographic in 2025, and a 2x NAACP Image Awards nominee.

NEW BOOKS ❕❗️❕❗️

🍴EATERLAND by is a region-by-region love letter to American food, covering 85+ dishes across eight regions, from funeral potatoes to Maryland crab soup, with essays on Indigenous recipes and immigrant influences.

🥒THE 29-MINUTE VEGAN by delivers 100+ budget-friendly, comfort-food-energy plant-based meals that get dinner on the table faster than delivery.

🌞LA COPINE by Claire Wadsworth and Nikki Hill brings the cult High Desert restaurant near Joshua Tree to your kitchen, with vegetable-forward California cooking and a q***r love story baked right in.

🇹🇹SALT, SWEAT & STEAM by is a coming-of-age memoir about a young Trinidadian woman navigating one of the most elite culinary institutions in the country. The tension between where she came from and where she’s trying to go is the whole story, and it’s a great one.

🍷DRINKING THE WORLD by and hands the mic to winemakers across 20+ countries. The characters behind the bottles turn out to be as interesting as what’s in them.

💌CARE AND FEEDING by is now available in paperback. This NYT bestseller is a memoir about the food world that’s really about finding your place within it.

Come find your next favorite on the shelf. We’ll be here at 3064 Mt Pleasant St NW and online!

2026 Independent Bookstore Day ✅

Whether you were like the team in our first slide who had a Indy Bookstore 5k and hit up 11 bookstores in 3.1 miles or if we were your only stop: THANK YOU. Thank you so much for visiting us and for supporting indepdently owned bookstores.

A huge shoutout to our community, staff and volunteers, and our partners in joining us to celebrate and make an otherwise gloomy Saturday as delicious as it was.

We’ve got a busy, busy events schedule this spring and we hope to see you soon.

in case you’ve missed all of our other promotional content, here’s one last reminder: Saturday April 25th is independent bookstore day. we’ll have 10% off everything (yes, even our discount rack that Elizabeth is modeling so beautifully in our first slide). we’ll be playing good music, our friends will be on site selling delicious food and bev, and our booksellers will be ready to greet you and your friends.

support indie bookstores today, tomorrow, and forever. doors open at 10am.

can’t make it in-person? shop online. see you soon 💌

TODAY ONLY: buy a book, get a rose! Limited supply! 🌹

Happy Diada de Sant Jordi! aka Saint George’s Day aka the Day of Books and Roses celebrated every April 23rd in Catalonia 🌹📚

Swipe to learn a little more about the legend of Sant Jordi: the heroic knight who saved a village from a fearsome dragon. This day, which holds deep cultural significance in Catalonia, also coincides with World Book Day, originally designated by UNESCO in 1995. 🫨🌏

you asked for menus so here they are ❤️‍🔥

it’s always a good day to support your local, independently owned bookstores and restaurants but it’s especially good when some of your favorites are all in one spot

shop small, shop local. see you this Saturday.