When I was making this dessert, I was reminiscing of a time before the pandemic, when there was a popular dessert chain in L.A. called Cafe Bora. They were best known for serving these aesthetically pleasing purple sweet potato desserts that were dusted in vibrant lilac purple sweet potato powder, and they were all the…
Category: Recipes
Eggs, Bacon, and Toast Gnocchi
When I think of Americana, I just randomly think of that scene in Parks and Rec where the Gergich family is singing about eggs, bacon, and toast. So I figured, why not take that inspiration, and making a gnocchi dish? Originally, when I was conceptualizing this dish, it was going to be a pasta dish…
Ms. Jan’s White Coconut Cake
This coconut cake was actually in dedication to someone I worked with named Jan. While we only worked together for a little over a year, it was like work love at first sight – we both worked with a lot of the same people and even in some of the same hotels(at different points in…
Swablu Mousse Cookies
I would be lying if I said this was my first Swablu dessert. That being said, compared to my first one, these cookies definitely captured the color of Swablu a LOT better. When it came to the flavors, I wanted to go with something a little more tropical-leaning as an homage to Swablu, since it…
Creamy Koji-Stewed Chicken Thighs
I happened to buy a gigantic bag of bone-in chicken thighs, but I ran into a bit of a hiccup when it came time to actually cooking some of them. I was already marinating the thighs in a mixture of soy sauce and koji, but I forgot to buy frier oil(I was originally going to…
Roast Duck with Purple Yam and Radicchio
When I was thinking of a main course to serve my mom, the tricky part was the protein. Half the menu was fruit/vegetable-focused, while I also had a soup course that used poultry in the form of black chicken. I knew in terms of proteins, my mom would either want a fish, duck, or lamb,…
Heirloom Tomato Salad with Meiji Tofu and Shiso-Pistachio Pesto
This salad is a celebration of summery produce, featuring tomatoes and tofu in a very light, refreshing salad. In a lot of ways, it is like a caprese salad, but if you subbed out the basil with shiso and the mozzarella with tofu. This was one of the four courses I made for my mom…
Soy Milk Rare Cheesecake with Passionfruit and Ruby Kiwi
This dessert was what I made for Mother’s Day with my mother specifically in mind. My mom LOVES fruit-based desserts, despises carbs, and likes cheesecakes, so that actually made it super straightforward for what I was going to make for her. Initially, I was going to use just passionfruit, since it is so naturally tart,…
Tofu-Nutella Silk Pie
One of my absolute favorite components to make is my chocolate tofu mousse. I’ve been making for it years, since it’s so simple – literally just equal parts melted chocolate mixed with pureed silken tofu, and salt just to bring out the chocolate flavor a bit more. And yes, it is the same chocolate-tofu mousse…
Miso Bete Noir (Flourless) Cake
This inspired by the Black Mirror episode of a similar name(in this case, Bete Noire, which translates to “thing that people particularly dislike”), but with pastry always on my mind, I immediately thought of the chocolate cake instead. Bete noir is a French flourless chocolate cake, literally translating to “black beast”. For my variation on…
Black Chicken Tsukune with Ginger Broth
This recipe wound up being like an Asian take on an albondigas soup, using black chicken(also called silkie fowl) as the base. Black chicken is a popular ingredient in Asian cuisines because it creates a gorgeous broth. My mother actually loves eating black chicken, which is why I opted to use it to make one…
Corn-Strawberry Ice Cream Sandwiches
Whenever I think of a corn dessert, almost immediately my mind wants to pair it with some kind of berry. Corn is sweet and usually lends itself to creamy, buttery textures. Whereas with a berry, it will be sweet and tart. So the two make for a perfect contrast. Usually my default is pairing corn…
Nanaimo-Chip Cookies
This recipe was loosely inspired by a Nanaimo bar, which is a Canadian dessert featuring a chocolate-nuts-coconut water base, a custard layer, and a chocolate layer, all set into neat little chocolate bars. They are very rich, but they kind of remind me of like a Boston cream pie conceptually(at least in the sense of…
Stewed Beef Tongue and Prunes
This is the definition of a granny dish. Stewed meat and prunes. Literally a grandma-inspired dish is there ever was one. It is a giant bowl of brown too, yet this is a dish that I really enjoyed making, and eating. Beef tongue is such an under-loved cut, being more popular in Latin dishes(for lengua…
Smoliv Oil Cakes
I haven’t made a Pokemon-themed dessert in a hot minute, but I wanted to try my hand with one after I made this really tasty olive oil cake, and wanted to find a way to showcase it! So I figured, why not make a cake inspired by the adorable Pokemon, Smoliv? Smoliv is a Normal/Grass-type…
Sourdough Shio Pan Taiyaki
So a while back, I made these anko shio pan, but what I did not talk about was how I frozen some of the leftover shio pan, and eventually tried making taiyaki out of them! Taiyaki are a Japanese fish(sea bream)-shaped waffle, usually stuffed with either red bean paste or custard most commonly. In the…
Umami Oil Scallion Pancakes
When I was testing out a recipe for scallion pancakes, I happened to have made an umami oil with celery leaves and scallions, so I figured, why not infuse my dough with some of that? The dough itself was a subtle green color(which might not have photographed too clearly, but I promise you that there…
Milk Oolong-Yuzu Shortbreads
These shortbreads were loosely inspired by an Arnold Palmer, but using slightly fancier ingredients. I love milk(y) oolong, because it tastes almost like those sweet milk nougat candies I would find in the Chinese furniture stores growing up. So I figured, why not pair that with butter, and make shortbread cookies from those? And then…
Chocolate-Salted Date Thumbprints
This recipe was inspired by the combination of chocolate and dates. Both are a bit earthy, but one provides sweetness, while the other more bitterness. Combine that with a little bit of salt from the usage of soy sauce, and you have essentially a chocolate-salted caramel-esque cookie! In this case, we have a salted date…
Melon (Soda Ice Cream) Pan
These melon pan were the brainchild of me baking sourdough, wanting to find ways to use up said sourdough, and experimenting with a hybrid between pate choux and milk bread. I found that mixing pate choux dough into a bread dough is similar to a tangzhong(cooked flour mixture), and results in a tender, soft crumb….
Freddy's Harajuku 