Freddy's Harajuku

Can you feel the sunshine?: a plated dish

Even since MasterChef season 10, there were three things I sought to learn more about/perfect. The first was tarte tatin, the second was cooking in a cast iron, and the third, which I finally have gotten around to doing, is learning more about Latin flavors. After that disastrous showing with prickly pear, I knew I…

At dusk, I will think of you: a mirror glaze cake

I felt like it had been a while since I made a proper mirror glaze cake, so I just set out to make one for the sake of making one. I just happened to buy a mamey sapote fruit(it is a cousin of persimmon, and very similar to a papaya or sweet potato in texture),…

Marimo truffles

I love how the Japanese manage to make everything cute. From clione (basically sea slugs, but they’re called sea angels), to daruma (those giant red and white dolls with the crazy eyes and mustaches), to marimo (little aquatic moss balls that some children even keep as pets). Marimo are super adorable, just because they’re perfectly…

Duck banh mi with homemade baguette and purple yam chips

One of my absolute favorite sandwiches is the banh mi. A Vietnamese-French hybrid, it features a baguette that has pate, some sort of meat, pickled vegetables, chilies, and cilantro on it. It’s been one of my favorites for years ever since I had one from Lee’s Sandwiches(yes, I know it’s a chain, but still, the banh…

Raspberry craquelin choux

These puffs are super simple to make, and so satisfying to see coming out of the oven. Craquelin or sablage refers to the cookie that is baked on top of the pate choux. It is really gorgeous and I have used it several times throughout my recipes on this blog. Besides the craquelin itself, the…

Eton mess with creme patissiere

For my second lesson with Lemonade, Marcin and I wanted to tackle another common ingredient, this time being eggs. Truthfully, the lemon meringue cookies could have been used for both lessons, since I showcased how to use the yolk and the white in a dessert, but I figured I would tackle an entirely different dessert with…

Lemon meringue cookies

For my cooking mini-series with Lemonade(my friend Roshni’s social platform company), my co-host Marcin and I were actually tasked with making three different classes with three different themes. So we decided to go with ingredients, and to fit with the name of the company, we went with lemon dishes for the first class! For my…

Counting stars: a plated dessert

I actually came up with this concept when I was testing a dessert recipe for an upcoming pop-up in Dallas. Unfortunately, the test run didn’t necessarily go as planned, but I didn’t want to throw away the ingredients, so I shifted gears, and went with a rice pudding instead. What I love about rice pudding…

Loaded: a chocolate-caramel-misugaru tart

Since every grocery was raided of all all-purpose flour, I had to resort to several all-purpose flour alternatives so that I could continue baking regularly. For this dessert, I had a ton of fun making it, actually, just because I used kinako(7 to 17 grain mix, popularized in Korea), in place of flour. Misugaru is…

Tiger sugar boba ice cream

So these have been a dessert craze that had taken the Internet and all of my local Asian supermarkets by storm. For those of you who don’t know what they are, these are ice cream bars/popsicles made with milk, brown sugar syrup, and chewy, soft boba. Despite being frozen, the boba is still soft, which…

Strawberry-mochi crepe cake

Continuing on with my gluten-free desserts, I made this one actually out of curiosity. I used to love going to Harajuku Crepe in Beverly Hills(RIP, because they’ve been closed for years now), and they specialized in gluten-free crepes made with mochi. Now, I could NEVER get the same consistency, no matter how hard I tried,…

Love yourself: a plated dessert

I feel like whenever I make a chocolate cake, I’ll always be remembered for the one I made on MasterChef. Which is fair, since it was a pretty iconic moment for the show(and my life), but it’s important for me to move on and make better things than that with every dish or dessert I…

Sakura-matcha affogato with homemade boba

I really only came up with this recipe because I was testing out some homemade boba recipes, and I also had to get rid of my leftover cherry blossom ice cream. Truthfully, this was a really simple dessert, at least for me, to make, just because the most labor-intensive thing was the ice cream. Making…

Devil’s food chocolate cupcakes with chocolate-cheesecake frosting

Whenever I think of the first cake I ever baked, I remember the vegan chocolate cupcakes I made in high school. Cupcakes were really where it all began for me, specifically, from binge-watching Cupcake Wars and practicing from the recipes from the show that would get posted online. Since chocolate cupcakes was where it all started,…

Vegan baklava with pistachio ice cream

Baklava is one of my absolute favorite Middle Eastern desserts. Layers of flaky phyllo(or spelled filo as well, but same thing), with a toffee-like filling of caramelized nuts, and a delicious spiced syrup that soaks through everything and really brings it together. The really cool thing, for me anyways, about Middle Eastern desserts is the…

Sanctuary: a mirror glaze cake

When I was conceptualizing a dessert for “Sanctuary” by Utada Hikaru, I wanted to make something that represented the aesthetic of Kingdom Hearts, specifically the all-white aesthetic of Castle Oblivion and the tropical feeling of the Destiny Islands. I wanted a mirror glaze cake with a clean white exterior, blue and white-swirled interior to represent…

Beet red velvet cupcakes with rose cream cheese frosting

Thanks to my friend Roshni, I was invited to be one of thirty featured “artists” for Lemonade’s Lemonade Social Festival. For this live streaming event, I got a chance to demonstrate how to bake something, and in my case, I decided on a fun take on red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. I wanted…

Matcha-coconut cookies

Continuing along with the dessert Instagram lives I have been doing with Shari, we decided to do cookies as our next demonstration. This is funny to me, just because we went with something as technical as working with yeast to something even less forgiving like a souffle to something a lot easier, being cookies. I…

Kouign amann egg tarts

When I was figuring out some Easter themed desserts, one thing I couldn’t get out of my head was the idea of doing something egg-themed. It was either that or something rabbit themed, but I’ve done that for the past two years and kind of wanted to change it up. So instead, I went with…

Rabbit rack with carrot puree and warm kale salad

For my second rabbit dish, I wanted to feature the loin and rack instead. I always loved the look of a chop of meat, be it a tomahawk steak or a lamb rack, because it appeals to that carnal instinct we all have from being descendants of cavemen. Despite that being an inspiration, I wanted…