Freddy's Harajuku

Carnitas congee with salsa chintextle

I really wanted to dedicate this dish to the rabbit hole that was exploring Oaxacan recipes on the internet over the past year. That and watching chef Claudette Zepeda-Wilkins’s video on Vice about mole. In that video, she mentioned how salsa chintextle, a Oaxacan mother sauce made with pasilla chilies and shrimp, was quite similar…

Tofu ice cream with tofu water meringue

So this would not be the first tofu ice cream recipe I have made. However, it would be the first where I do not use coconut milk – that makes a huge difference in the actual flavor of the ice cream, as coconut milk, while it does contain the necessary fat to create creamy vegan…

Nigredo: a plated dish

This was one of those dishes that I had on my to-make list for months, but I just never got around to it, mostly out of laziness – I wanted to practice doing a Oaxacan style black mole, using black garlic, but I just never got around to buying the chilies for it until more…

Purple yam mooncakes

If I did not post a mooncake recipe this year, I would have felt like a bad Taiwanese American. I did make some last year, but that was more of a test run, using somebody else’s recipe. So this time, I went ahead and did some more tests, and came up with one that is…

Sea Angel: a plated dessert

This was the last dish in my “Namie” pop-up dinner, featuring strawberries and lychees to embrace the summer. I wanted to use both in several different ways, and I also wanted to use pate choux as the base for this dessert, since I just love how choux with craquelin resembles a coral reef. With the…

Deep Dive: a plated dish

Of the five dishes from the “Namie” pop-up, I would say this was probably the one with the least amount of true Asian influence. While I took more inspiration from Halal/Middle Eastern flavors, it would be a stretch to say that it took influence from Halal-Chinese food, when it was more Jordanian with sprinkles of…

Pearl in Hiding: a plated dish

So this was one of the five dishes I made for my “Namie” pop-up dinner during the summer for my friends from 4Foodie(special shoutout to Kate and Victoria for the amazing photos from this!). Originally, it was just going to be three dishes, but I extended it to five, and this was a super last-minute(two…

Ocean Lily: a plated dish

Out of the five dishes I served at my “Namie” pop-up for 4Foodie, I would say that this one was the one I was most excited about. I never actually tried to do a sashimi dish before, at least without the help of somebody else slicing the fish for me. However, in this case, I…

Uni custard with yuzu buttermilk

I have done chawanmushi before, and this is quite similar to that as well. The idea was to do this baked or steamed uni custard(in an egg shell) with a light buttermilk foam-type of thing, and on top of that, some fresh uni, just to tie it all in together. In the past, I have…

Chilled corn dashi with miso cornbread and Tokyo turnips

Whenever the summer rolls around, cornbread is just one of those things I always love to make! For this recipe, I went the vegan route, and made a cornbread that uses miso paste and a corn dashi, as well as a vegan coconut buttermilk, just to create a super fluffy texture and a moister crumb….

Purple passionfruit mochi truffles

I’ve done mochi truffles in the past, and these were some that I wanted to do, featuring passionfruit! The interior is passionfruit liquid core with a passionfruit mousse, while the exterior is a super soft mochi made with shiratamako, dyed purple naturally using acai powder, just to mimic the color and appearance of a passionfruit….

“Chonky” peach pie

One of my favorite memories growing up was when summer would come around, and the peach tree in our backyard would provide us with white peaches to last an entire summer. I love eating peaches, and while I don’t often bake with them, whenever I do, I love to use them for making pies specifically….

Halva, almond, and apricot tart

So I made this tart because of two reasons: I had a ton of halva in my freezer that I wanted to use in a dessert, and I was seeing my former-pastry chef friend, Janae, and I wanted to make something for her(which ended up being these tarts!). For those unfamiliar with halva, it is…

Peaches and cream soufflé pancakes

These were literally on my list to make for weeks, ever since my mother gifted me with some white peaches to eat/cook with. For me, white peaches symbolize the summer, because we had a peach tree growing up in Torrance in our backyard, and it just made summer a season more to look forward to(besides…

Head in the clouds: a plated dessert

The inspiration for this dessert came from me testing out a couple new techniques – using sago, which are little tapioca pearls, to make a strawberry flavored “caviar”, and using lychee juice to make a foam. I wanted to create this sort of ethereal, sea-meets-sky, summery sort of dessert, embracing fresh lychees, and pairing them…

Brown butter and apple pancakes

These were literally inspired by the Dutch pear pancakes from Prune in New York City. Unlike the Dutch Baby pancakes, which is made from baking a loose batter at a high heat to create a giant fluffy pancake, these are more cake-like, and cooked with large visible slices of fruit in the batter. In the…

Bingsu roll cake

So whenever I would visit Taiwan, one of my absolute favorite things to eat was shaved ice(also called “tsuabing” in Mandarin). Fluffy crystals of ice with all sorts of toppings, but typically, some sort of mochi or sweet potato ball, condensed milk, red beans, strawberries, and if I felt especially fat, pudding. Almost every Asian…

Giant ass (toasted milk and brown butter) cookies

I made these cookies to test primarily one thing, and that was how toasted milk powder would taste in a cookie dough. I stumbled upon the concept of toasted milk powder when I was watching a video about a chocolatier in Miami who incorporated that into her milk chocolate. She claimed that it gave her…

Chocolate checkerboard cake

So I actually made this cake for a co-worker’s birthday – her name is Kristina and she is an incredibly kindhearted person and an extremely hardworking sales manager. During the pandemic, when we were extremely understaffed, Kristina literally held down the fort, despite that meaning she had to work 12 hour days for months. Since…

Scallion and bacon bagel bombs

Bagel bombs are my all-time favorite item from Milkbar. While Milkbar is known for their cakes and cookies and ice cream, I feel like their breads tend to be overlooked, when in reality, they are so delicious. Fluffy buns housing exciting and dynamic fillings, ranging from pizza bombs to scrambled egg to my personal favorite,…