I came up with this recipe because I was drinking coffee on day, and added French vanilla creamer to it. And then it dawned on me, what exactly made this creamer French vanilla-flavored as opposed to just vanilla? After looking at several articles online, the general idea was that French vanilla refers to the French…
Category: Recipes
Pear-Honey-Gingerbread Entremet
One of my favorite things my mom would make for me when I was sick is pears steamed with ginger and honey. The juicy steamed pears would be fork-tender, while being aromatic with both the fragrant honey and the warming slices of ginger. I still remember when I had COVID(not fun times at all), and…
Coconut-Caramel-Chocolate “Levain” Cookies
My sister loves the coconut delight Girls Scout cookies(formerly called Samoas before that was deemed a problematic name). When I went to the newly opened Levain bakery location in West Hollywood, we basically got one of every cookie on their menu(mostly to justify the 1 hour/30 mile drive to there). One of those cookies was…
Starry Night Lilikoi Cookies
These cookies were the brain child of me being on a cute, linzer sandwich cookie-type of kick, and me having passionfruit puree to play around with. I thought from a visual standpoint, how cute would it be to make these cookies look like a starry night’s sky? And voila, that’s how we ended up here…
Peanut Butter “Oreos”
One of my favorite cookies, Oreos are pure nostalgia for me. One of my early childhood memories was shortly after landing in Taipei, jetlagged, and eating Oreos with Taiwanese milk in our apartment in Linkou. I’m not sure if everyone knows this, but Oreos are actually vegan! I got my start in baking with vegan…
Chocolate and Cacao Chip Shortbreads
Back in college, I wanted to do a fun take on cookies and cream, and so I made a panna cotta with chocolate chip shortbreads. The shortbreads themselves were buttery and light, but the chocolate actually had this very enjoyable crunch to it after a batch of them had to sit through the cold Boston…
Oreo Langue de Chaats
Now I have been on a langue de chaat fix ever since I came back from Japan. I love how thin and light those tuile-like biscuits are(they are so feather-like that I almost don’t feel guilty eating 20 of them in one sitting), while the creamy filling is just melts on your tongue, and with…
Silken tofu with crab dashi
I have been wanting to do a dish like this after I ate this amazing snow crab hot pot in Osaka, at the iconic Kani Doraku restaurant(it’s known for having a giant crab statue hanging from the front of the building, and as the decor suggests, having an all-crab menu!). The vegetables and tofu, stewing…
Peanut Butter and Oreo Tartufo
Tartufo reminds me of when my friend, Amanda, and I went to Babbo Pizzeria and Enoteca(rest in peace) back in Boston. It was on the dessert menu, and we had 0 regrets in ordering it. Tartufo is an Italian dessert, translating to “truffle”. But in this case, it refers to a ball of ice cream,…
Assam Tea-ramisu
So a while ago, I purchased assam tea to make some desserts with, only for me to receive twice the amount I intended on ordering, and being stuck with more assam tea than I knew that to do with. For those unfamiliar with it, assam is a kind of black tea, popular in countries such…
Stracciatella Layer Cake
Unless you’ve been to a place that sells Italian ice cream, you might be wondering what stracciatella is. In Italian, it translates to “little rags”. And in Lombardy, stracciatella is a kind of gelato, that is creamy vanilla with shards of chocolate running through it. In other regions of Italy, it could refer to a…
Tim-Tam Crack Pie
So this is a recipe that I had in my back-pocket for a long, long time. Back when I did work at Milkbar, one varaition on Milkbar/Crack Pie that I was working on was incorporating Australian Tim-Tams into the filling. For those who have never had them before, Tim-Tams are these shortbread-like cookie sandwiches with…
Chocolate Chip-Miso Caramel Bread Puddings
Dislike bread pudding for two main reasons – I grew up watching Chopped, and everyone made bread pudding/French toast in the dessert round, and my ex loves bread pudding. That being said, my dear friend Amanda(I have like 8 friends named Amanda, but one of them, just not the Amanda from Masterchef who I think…
Gjetost-Miso Apple Pie
Whenever we go apple picking in the fall, I always end up with a surplus of apples that I need to use up. So many apples to the point where half of them usually go bad by the time I finally have an idea or two that could utilize them. Because of that conundrum, I…
Thai Tea Pumpkin Pie 2.0
A long, long time ago, I made a Thai tea pumpkin pie, and I loved it. Thai tea adds such a distinct, perfume-y flavor that just lifts the somewhat bland pumpkin puree, giving it spice, creaminess, and sweetness, all things that work in a pumpkin pie traditionally! This time around, I wanted to go with…
Creamed Corn Tortellini
I would be lying if I said I grew up on creamed corn. The main corn thing I ate as a kid was corn potage, which was a creamy corn soup with bits of egg floating in it. Actually, I’m not even sure if it was supposed to have those egg drop ribbons floating through…
Almond Butter Hummus with Cauliflower and Rainbow Carrots
This hummus recipe came about because I was trying to make hummus, but I ran out of tahini, and happened to have a jar of almond butter lying around. Fortunately, the almond butter worked in a pinch, and I ended up with a hummus that was exceptionally high in protein and nutrients(thank you, almond butter)….
Charred Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Apple
When I was watching the most recent season of Top Chef, specifically Last Chance Kitchen, I saw chef Sara Bradley making this amazing cabbage dish, made from curing the cabbage with salt and sugar, and then “charring the sh*t out of it”. The end result was cabbage that was tender and soft on the inside,…
Loco Moco with Mushroom-Miso Gravy
This recipe was inspired by two different instances where I had really good loco moco. One was when I was in Hawaii, specifically at Moena Cafe in Oahu, and the other from Ryla restaurant in Redondo Beach! Moena Cafe had a short rib loco moco with this rich, deep demi glas gravy that made me…
Japanese Onion Soup
I came up with this because I needed to use up a lot of breadcrumbs, and one of the first things I thought about was doing a take on a French onion soup. Mostly because a few years ago on Masterchef season 10, my plating bestie Bri made one for a bread challenge, that while…
Freddy's Harajuku 