Freddy's Harajuku

Koji-fried chicken with chili honey

Over the past year, koji became one of my favorite ingredients. For those unfamiliar with it, koji is a type of bacteria or fungus that grows on rice or grains. It is used as a culture in Japanese cooking to ferment soybeans into miso paste. Because it is a fungus, koji contains natural umami in…

Furikake(seaweed-sesame) cookies

I feel like this recipe would raise a lot of eyebrows. For those unfamiliar with it, furikake is a Japanese seasoning mix, usually made of seaweed and sesame seeds. It is sprinkled on rice to give the it more flavor and a little bit of texture. Furikake is also popular with Hawaiian poke as well!…

Herb and mushroom focaccia

So this recipe was actually inspired by a dinner I had at Etta in Culver City. Originally from Chicago, Etta is a modern Italian restaurant that features a lot of upscale versions of Italian classics, namely pizzas, pastas, and bread. The focaccia I had there was super pillowy and light, while speckled with tons of…

Misugaru S’mores Checkerboard Cake

This cake was the result of a lot of time, a lot of effort, and a strong desire to make a s’mores checkboard cake. This recipe is not for the faint of heart. It was complex, difficult, and honestly on a scale of 1-10, 1 being microwave fudge, and 10 being you’re screwed if you…

Buckwheat noodles with mushroom tare

I literally came up with this recipe because I was craving soba noodles, and I happened to heat a ton of buckwheat groats, so I figured, why not make my own. For those who aren’t sure what buckwheat groats are, they are basically the unhulled seed of a buckwheat plant. You grind those to form…

Milk tea cream puffs

These cream puffs were the result of me craving milk tea in dessert form, but not wanting to do another panna cotta or ice cream. So instead, my mind went to pate choux, or cream puffs. Since I make hojicha(toasted sencha or Japanese green tea) sugar quite regularly, I knew I could use that to…

Chocolate-Caramel-Potato Chip (Single’s Awareness) Sundae

This was my recipe submission for our Masterchef Valentine’s Day Recipe Swap! The criteria was to make a recipe that was either perfect for a date or a comfort dish that represents self love. I went with the self love route, just because having spent 26 1/4 years of my life not in a relationship,…

Red velvet and white rose mirror glaze cake

So I have a weird relationship with red velvet cake. In that I do not like it, but I actually order it from bakeries as my way of gauging how good of a bakery they are – if they can make me enjoy a cake I inherently dislike, then they are definitely doing something right….

Pretty in pink olive and rose cake

This was my 2nd/3rd take on the “Bomb-ass” Poosh cake. For those who were unaware, Poosh is Kourtney Kardashian’s company, and they did a collaboration with an olive oil cake bakery called Little House of Confections to bring to life this cute little pink olive oil cake, which they called the Poosh cake. The original…

Masa strawberry shortcakes

There is always a debate on what exactly is a strawberry shortcake. Outside of America, it would be fluffy white cake with strawberries and cream. I grew up on that version while I lived in Taiwan. Ironically, the first strawberry shortcake I had featured a yellow cake with strawberries and cream, which I had while…

“The Fourth Flavor”: a plated dessert

If you have ever watched Codename: Kids Next Door, you would totally get the reference here. If not, let me explain. According to that cartoon’s lore, there are three main flavors of ice cream, being vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. But there was also a legendary fourth flavor that was said to taste even better than…

Princess (Mirror Glaze) Cake

This is my petit gateau(mini cake) take on the Swedish Prinsesstarta(Princess Cake). The Princess Cake usually consists of layers of vanilla cake with a vanilla custard/pastry cream and a raspberry jam, finished with fondant and/or marizpan. Now I could do fondant or marzipan, but those just don’t really taste good to me, nor do I…

Red and gold(en syrup) tang yuan

If you are Chinese or Taiwanese and do not know what tang yuan are, then I truly have seen it all., Tang yuan(literally translates to soup balls or rounds) are a super popular Asian dessert, consisting of small poached mochi balls floating in usually a sweet syrup. They are often eaten during the holidays, and…

Clione: a petit gateau

As an awkward middle schooler who was just diving into Japanese pop culture, I was stunned to find out how popular clione(also called sea angels) were. Pronounced “klee-oh-neh”, they are a relative to the sea slug, and are these little, translucent creatures that float through the ocean. If you have ever played Pokemon games before,…

Lengua(pork tongue) mole with corn tortillas

I have made many moles in 2021, and this was one that I found to be perfect for the winter. By using lengua, or pork tongue, you have this rich, stewed meat that just soaks up all of those beautiful spices and chilies. I grew up eating a lot of pork and beef tongue, just…

Persimmon mousse tart

I am very fortunate to have a coworker who grows his own tropical fruits and vegetables! Earlier this year, I got fresh passion fruits, while right now, I got fresh fuyu persimmons. Truthfully, I never really had a ton of persimmon desserts growing up. I usually would either eat them fresh from the tree in…

Turkish Simit

I first heard about simit years ago when I was binging The Chef’s Line on Netflix. The show is a cooking competition between home cooks and the team from a restaurant, and each week centers around a different restaurant and their style of cuisine. There was a Turkish week where I just learned a lot…

late nights are for lonely people: a plated dessert

If there is a flavor combination that I have ever fallen in love with, it would be cherries, pistachios, and earl grey tea. I have done another dessert with those flavors plus chocolate in the past, and I just adore the balance! We have tartness from cherries, bitter floral notes from the tea, and smoky,…

Karaage lollipops with mole colorado and yuzu sunomono

When it came to parts of the chicken you would find in an upscale restaurant, I found that almost nobody felt that a chicken wing was fine-dining worthy. So I wanted to tackle that, and try to class up chicken wings a little bit. Mostly because they are delicious, have tons of flavor, and need…

Gluten-free sesame-buckwheat mousse cake

I had yet to make a true vegan chiffon cake prior to writing and testing out this recipe. Last year, I did make a pumpkin roll cake, but it was not a true chiffon batter, just a cake roll. When I say chiffon, I’m talking whipped whites folded into an egg yolk mixture. Doing so…