About The International Table

The Seattle Sister Cities Association (SSCA) is pleased to announce the publication of The International Table, a new cookbook highlighting recipes from across the globe. It collects over 100 dishes suitable for the home chef, including hallmark dishes from each of Seattle’s twenty sister cities.

A broad range of dishes including everyday foods — like shakshuka (Be’er Sheva, Israel), kalgusku (knife-cut noodle soup; Daejeon, Republic of Korea), or bigos (hunter’s stew; Gdynia, Poland) — to those for special occasions — like pavlova (Christchurch, New Zealand), oysters with trout roe (Galway, Ireland), or poulet DG (chicken for the Director General; Limbe, Cameroon) — can be found within The International Table. All recipes are accompanied by tantalizing photography and a brief history of the city of origin. Easy-to-follow recipes and substitutions for harder-to-find ingredients make this cookbook accessible to novice and experienced chefs alike.

Some flavors will be familiar to American home chefs, while others will fling open the doors to international culinary adventure. Travel to the beautiful ports of Cameroon, the chilly tundra of Iceland, and the bustling streets of China, the tantalizing smells and tastes leading the way. There is not a more delicious way to learn more about the diverse population of Seattle and its many connected global communities.

Includes recipes from: Be’er Sheva, Israel; Bergen, Norway; Cebu, Philippines; Chongqing, China; Christchurch, New Zealand; Daejeon, Republic of Korea, Galway, Ireland; Gdynia, Poland; Hải Phòng, Vietnam; Kaohsiung, Taiwan; Kobe, Japan; Limbe, Cameroon; Mombasa, Kenya; Nantes, France; Pécs, Hungary; Perugia, Italy; Reykjavík, Iceland; Sihanoukville, Cambodia; Surabaya, Indonesia; and Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

In addition to the many recipes contributed by the dedicated amateur chefs of Seattle’s sister cities, many professional chefs contributed to the project, including Jp McMahon, author of The Irish Cookbook (Phaildon Press, 2020), Marialucia Luongo, author of Cucinaria: Lettere dalla cucina (Cucinaria: Letters from the Kitchen; 2018), Letizia Mattiacci, author of A Kitchen With A View (RDJ, 2016) and Festa Italiana (Madonna del Piatto, 2020), and Narin Seng Jameson, author Cooking the Cambodian Way: The Intertwined Story of Cooking and Culture in Cambodia (JSRC Printing House, 2016).

These dishes sing of home and hearth, family and history. Be sure to share them with your friends — established and new, local and distant.

All proceeds benefit the Seattle Sister City Associations and its affiliated organizations. 

Shop

The International Table is available at independent booksellers, museums, and grocery stores throughout the Puget Sound region.

SEATTLE

Chin Music Press Store 1501 Pike Pl. #329, Seattle, WA 98101

Elliott Bay Book Company 1521 Tenth Ave., Seattle, WA 98122

Left Bank Books 92 Pike St., Seattle, WA 98101

Madison Books 4118 E. Madison St., Seattle, WA 98112

Magnolia’s Bookstore 3206 W McGraw St, Seattle, WA 98199

National Nordic Museum 2655 NW Market St, Seattle, WA 98107

Oh Hello Again 324 15th Ave E, #101, Seattle, WA 98112

Paper Boat Booksellers 6040 California Ae SW, STE A, Seattle, WA 98136

Red Balloon Company 417 15th Ave E, Seattle, WA 98112

Secret Garden Books 2214 NW Market St, Seattle, WA 98107

Third Place Books – Ravenna 6504 20th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98115

Third Place Books – Seward Park 5041 Wilson Ave S, Seattle, WA 98118

University Book Store 4326 University Way NE, Seattle, WA 98105

GREATER METRO AREA

Book Tree 609 Market St., Kirkland, WA 98033

Cascadia Art Museum 190 Sunset Ave S, #E, Edmonds, WA 98020

Island Books 3014 78th Ave. SE, Mercer Island, WA 98040

Third Place Books – Lake Forest Park 17171 Bothell Way NE, #A101, Lake Forest Park, WA 98155

Polish Paczki Donuts with Jelly Filling

Wholesale discounts are available to bookstores, museums, grocery stores, and other cultural institutions. If you are a retailer and would like to carry International Table, please contact Susan Kegel at susankegel@gmail.com

Download the book flyer.

Download a free sampler!

About Seattle Sister Cities

Seattle is proud to be a leader in promoting and developing sister city relationships with many international communities. Our program has a strong 60+ year history of connecting Seattlites to the world and shaping Seattle’s global image. Each of our sister city relationships is managed by an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit association. Each nonprofit organizes programs, activities, and cultural exchanges with local Seattle residents and friends around the world. The City Council passed a resolution in 1996 adopting a moratorium on new sister city affiliations due to limited city resources and the desire to support the quality of itsexisting sister city programs.

Seattle is paired with: Be’er Sheva, Israel; Bergen, Norway; Cebu, Philippines; Chongqing, China; Christchurch, New Zealand; Daejeon, Republic of Korea, Galway, Ireland; Gdynia, Poland; Hải Phòng, Vietnam; Kaohsiung, Taiwan; Kobe, Japan; Limbe, Cameroon; Mombasa, Kenya; Nantes, France; Pécs, Hungary; Perugia, Italy; Reykjavík, Iceland; Sihanoukville, Cambodia; Surabaya, Indonesia; and Tashkent, Uzbekistan. 

More about Seattle’s Sister Cities can be found on the City of Seattle website.

Seattle at Sunset
About Sister Cities International

In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower founded Sister Cities International, which serves as the national membership organization for over 570 sister cities, counties, and states across the United States with relationships in 2,300 communities in 150 countries. This sister city network unites citizen diplomats and volunteers who work tirelessly to promote peace and understanding through programs and projects focusing on education, youth, arts and culture, and humanitarian assistance. Sister Cities International celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2016. 

More information can be found at: sistercities.org

Press

The Seattle Sister Cities Association — a coalition of twenty citizen-led sister city organizations — has published a new cookbook highlighting recipes from across the globe. The International Table collects over 100 dishes suitable for the home chef, including hallmark dishes from Cambodia, Cameroon, China, France, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Korea, Taiwan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam.

In addition to the many amateur chefs of Seattle’s sister city associations who contributed their own recipes, many professional chefs contributed to the project, including Jp McMahon, author of The Irish Cookbook (Phaildon Press, 2020), Marialucia Luongo, author of Cucinaria: Lettere dalla cucina (Cucinaria: Letters from the Kitchen; 2018 ), Letizia Mattiacci, author of A Kitchen With A View (RDJ, 2016) and Festa Italiana (Madonna del Piatto, 2020), and Narin Seng Jameson, author Cooking the Cambodian Way: The Intertwined Story of Cooking and Culture in Cambodia (JSRC Printing House, 2016). 

All recipes are accompanied by lush photography and a description of the city of origin. 

The Seattle Sister City Association’s mission is to strengthen relationships between Seattle and its sister cities around the world. With this cookbook, the Association furthers its mission by sharing the food traditions of the paired cities, bringing the flavors of the globe to the tables of Seattle. Breaking bread with strangers has long been a cornerstone to building new relationships and strengthening existing ones. 

Chef Kristi Brown, owner and executive chef of Communion in Seattle provides the book’s introduction and sums it up best: “In my opinion, Sister Cities are most important for one sole reason: to help us know that we are connected in very real ways. Traveling does that, but food … does it better …. Over a life-giving soup, that smile of agreement is all we need to feel connected to one another.” Chef Brown’s commitment to connection through food is evidenced in every delicious bite; Communion was named one of the world’s best new restaurants in 2021 by Condé Nast Traveler.

The book is the collaborative effort of all Associations, coordinated by a small, dedicated team of volunteers including the editorial team of Justin Allan-Spencer (Reykjavík, Iceland), June Cutler (Surabaya, Indonesia), Susan Kegel (Nantes, France), Patricia Lichiello (Perugia, Italy) and Thyda Ros (Sihanoukville, Cambodia). The book was designed by Justin Allan-Spencer, book designer at Fantagraphics Books, Inc. 

The International Table will be available starting October 1 at book retailers, museums, and cultural organizations throughout Seattle. All proceeds benefit the Seattle Sister City Association and its affiliated organizations. 254 pages, 8” x 10”, $34.99. ISBN  978-1-68396-497-1

Contact:

Susan Kegel: susankegel@gmail.com | 425-869-5723

Justin Allan-Spencer: justin@justinallan.com | 206-324-4790

Stacey Jehlik: stacey.jehlik@seattle.gov | 206-229-5738

Download the October 9 press release.