This is the perfect dish to embrace two of my favorite savory ingredients in pork belly and mushrooms. Even before I lived in Boston, I always liked chowder for some reason. The idea of a warm, creamy soup with fun, random ingredients running through it was just reminded me of congee, but super Westernized. That…
Tag: cream
Orange Blossom-Peach Malvapoeding
Malvapoeding(a South African baked cake soaked with a custard-cream situation) is one of those desserts I make infrequently. Not because I don’t like it(they are soaked fluffy sponge cakes that are very addictive), but mostly because they take an infuriatingly long time to bake for such little cakes – most cupcake-type baked goods are done…
Ruby Kiwi Pate Choux
I first came across ruby kiwis in Taiwan in April, and they fascinated me. Now we have all seen green and probably all seen the yellow/golden kiwis, but reddish-pink ones sounded like an alien concept! The flavor of a ruby kiwi was just a bit sweeter than a regular one, but besides that, it tasted…
Pink Peach Mille Crepe
My obsession with pink peaches continues as we get towards the end of peach season. It’s crazy to think that summer is almost over – 2025 really has flown by. That being said, I wanted to make another dessert that would really embrace the prettiness of these pink peaches. For those who have not seen…
Blackberry-Yuzu Drifloon Pies
Drifloon is one of the cutest Pokemon out there, being a ghostly purple balloon with a yellow cross shape(I’m assuming that the balloon was popped and patched up), and a little wispy cloud on top of its head. I still have memories of playing Pokemon Pearl and finding them in the Valley Windworks on a…
Black Sesame-Milk Oolong Roll Cake
This cake was a fun reunion between me and a friend from middle school, Inna. Inna and I had been friends during middle school and high school, and while we did hang out a lot with the same people, and had similar interests(video games, anime, baking), we weren’t necessarily the closest of friends back then….
Milky Oolong-Strawberry Tarts
I have become fully obsessed with milky oolong, which is an alkalized oolong tea that tastes like those creamy milk nougats you might find in Asian grocery stores. I find that milky oolong is the perfect ingredient to pair with strawberries, as one is sweet and buttery, and the other is tangy and tart. I…
Peanut Milk Panna Cotta and Madeleines
This plated dessert was actually inspired by sweet peanut milk soup(花生仁汤), a popular canned beverage from my native Taiwan. I still remember the first time I had it, it was in my grandma’s apartment in the Shida district on a hot summer night. It was a milky beverage with these tender, braised peanuts. I was…
Hamburg Steak Dinner
This recipe is my slightly bougie-r take on a a meatloaf and mashed potato dinner. I had some ground beef I needed to use up, and I figured why not make a hamburg steak? Hamburg steak is a Japanese yoshoku-style dish that is basically a beefed up(pun semi-intended here) hamburger patty that is seared and…
Rayquaza-themed Mugwort-Kinako Parfait
So this recipe was the result of me being asked by The Pokemon Company to make a Rayquaza-themed dessert! The very first English Pokemon game I ever played was Pokemon Sapphire, and I loved beating the Elite Four, climbing the Sky Pillar, and catching Rayquaza. Rayquaza is a green serpentine Dragon/Flying-Pokemon that is meant to…
Pate Choux Swans
Whenever I think of retro, classic-but-not-trendy desserts, the first two desserts that come to mind are an ice cream sundae, and pate choux swans. I just remember seeing them on every cruise ship dessert menu. Two little cream puff swans with a chocolate sauce underneath to visually represent a lake. Even though I try not…
Strawberry and Cream Pancakes
This recipe is sort of my homage to that trendy mango and cream crepe-pancake thing I would see all over social media a year or two ago, but with my answer to needing to use up a bunch of strawberries I had on hand. I love making crepes because the batter is so easy to…
Milky Oolong Strawberry Cream Cake
One of my favorite finds while I was exploring a tea shop in Munich was a curious little tea called milky oolong tea. Milky oolong, also called jin xuan tea, has the toasty, nuttiness of oolong tea, but it also has these buttery, caramel-y notes, similar to Chinese milk candies. This flavor is the end…
Yuzu-Chevre No-Bake Cheesecakes
These no-bake cheesecakes took inspiration from several places. Conceptually, they were inspired by one of the few desserts my mom would make for me a kid, being cheesecake with a graham cracker crust. I was also inspired to go the no-bake route because of two reasons. The first there being how popularized nama or rare…
Tonka Bean and Yuzu Paris Brest
I made this dessert for my friends’ highbrow-lowbrow caviar night. We sometimes do this thing where we buy caviar to be bougie, and pair it with fancy things(like champagne and charcuterie) or less fancy things(like chips and fried chicken). In my case, I wanted to go the fancy route, since I am a bougie bitch…
Chocolate Mont Blanc Chiffon Sandwiches
My favorite after school snack my mom would get for me was the mont blanc from JJ Bakery in Torrance. Their mont blanc consisted of a fluffy chocolate sponge cake with chestnuts and chantilly cream in the middle, and a generous piping of the creamy chestnut puree on top. It was soft, light, nutty, and…
Streusel mit Pudding Brioche
This dessert was directly inspired by my visits to the German Christmas markets – if you have never been or don’t understand the hype, imagine the Disneyland Ride “It’s a Small World”, but that’s what an entire square in Germany becomes during late November/all of December. It is a wonderful sight to behold, and one…
Maple Pumpkin Pie
I have had this recipe on my to-bake list since the spring; I have a weird relationship with pumpkin pie where growing up, all of the pumpkin pies I ate tasted like cinnamon-caked cardboard in a pie crust. And it was a shame because on so many of the cartoons I grew watching, pumpkin pie…
Pork Loin with Pommes Aligot and French Onion Jus
This dish was in my to-make list for almost 8 months – I wanted to try my hand at making a French technique-driven dish, featuring a French onion jus and pommes aligot, and this is what came about from that. For those who are unfamiliar with where I was going with, a French onion jus…
Sylveon Strawberry-Vanilla Mousse Cakes
This was one of two desserts I got to create for The Pokemon Company when they contacted me for an opportunity to make dessert content for them to promote the Pokemon Scarlet and Violet World Championship series for 2024! This was a total dream come true for me, between having done Pokemon content in the…
Freddy's Harajuku 