Freddy's Harajuku

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….

Stuffed Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies

Stuffed cream cheese cookies had quickly become an addiction of mine when I made those cranberry bliss cookies a while ago. The tender, soft, buttery cookie just melts in your mouth, while it is contrasted with the creamy, tangy filling. So it got me thinking, what other flavors could I go for with this cream…

Sourdough Bolognese Pizza

While I was experimenting with sourdough pizza crust, I happened to also have meal-prepped a giant vat of bolognese(meat sauce), just to have throughout the week for potential dinners. Originally, this was going to be a bolognese pasta post, but I forgot to photograph that, and decided instead, let’s use the bolognese on the pizza…

Strawberry Custard Cream Cake

While I was at my friend Hannah’s wedding, I happened to befriend a couple sitting next to us, who also lived near the South Bay area(of Los Angeles, not San Francisco). It’s not every day that you meet people who live in that part of LA county, especially because it is a much more residential…

Sourdough Red Bean Shio Pan

About a year-ish ago, I made sourdough shio pan using my sourdough starter Horacio. Shio pan is a Japanese pastry, literally translating to mean “salt bread”. I like making it from time to time, and I have made sourdough variations of it in the past with my starter! The funniest thing was that I did…

Egg-Free Hummingbird Cake

Hummingbird cake is my obsession. I love banana desserts(get your minds out of the gutter), and the concept of hummingbird cake, being this Southern hummingbird cake with Caribbean roots, is just so fascinating to me. Plus the name is just so pleasant and cute. My version of hummingbird cake usually is made with this brown…