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Other than steam rice rolls with beef and egg, Ham Chim Peng is the one thing I must eat every time I go back home. From what I’ve seen, <5 Cantonese restaurants in San Francisco sell it. It’s less common than the “beef tongue” fried pastry (which, by the way, contains no beef tongue, just named after its shape). But Ham Chim Peng is my true favorite, because I am completely obsessed with the subtle but distinct aroma of fermented red bean curd.
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Walk into almost any Asian bakery and you never fail to find milk bread lined up next to its siblings: milk bread with raisin, taro, red bean, matcha, and so many more. But the OG plain milk bread is always the most versatile.
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If you’re staring at leftover Halloween pumpkins and feeling guilty about tossing them, while also thinking about what to bring to the Thanksgiving dessert table, I’m right there with you. That’s exactly how this easy Pumpkin Basque Cheesecake comes to rescue the day! It’s simple, cozy, and lets the pumpkin really shine.
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It’s mulberry picking season here in the Bay Area, and a friend generously gifted us a jar of homemade mulberry jam. While my partner experiments with mulberry-inspired cocktails, I went digging for baked goods recipes that could highlight the mulberry jam’s flavor.
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![[healthy] passionfruit pound cake – no cane sugar no butter](http://emmacado.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/PXL_20250606_0305305452-scaled.jpg)
When you’ve got a big jar of passion fruit jam nearing its expiration date, and your partner can’t quite use it up in cocktails, it’s the perfect excuse to get creative in the kitchen. I couldn’t let that tropical, tangy delicacy go to waste. So I started experimenting: first with passion fruit triple chocolate cookies (a tasty idea, but the seeds hardened in the bake), and then with a passion fruit pound cake, which turned out to be a delicious success.
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Contestants: Arsicult, Juniper, Jina Bakes, Jane the Bakery, Neighbor Bakehouse, and… Safeway (yes, we need Costco in here next time!)
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I first saw these car wheel–like, tightly layered pastries at Jina Bakes in San Francisco. They switched up the monthly flavors—strawberry, hojicha, lemon custard—and I loved every single one. Suddenly, they started sprouting in every bakery I visited, and I knew I had to bake it myself. My confidence was boosted after successfully baking croissants after 6 trials and experimenting with both sweet and savory versions. I rolled up my sleeves again and even bought pastry rings just to try making this viral “New York Roll” at home, filled with passionfruit coconut pastry cream and topped with dark chocolate ganache.
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The best banana bread I’ve ever had wasn’t even eaten by the person who made it. A former colleague, who’s lactose intolerant, used to bake incredible dark chocolate banana bread—but never tasted it herself. Instead, she refined the recipe based on feedback from lucky coworkers like me. Inspired by her, I always turn to banana bread when I have leftover ripe bananas. This version is rich with dark chocolate, subtly nutty from chunky peanut butter, and has a fun texture thanks to shredded coconut. It’s deliciously moist, indulgent, and still has room for future experiments!
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Bringing back what we learned from coffee class at Hanoi to the Bay Area 🙂
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Friend planned to propose on July 4th and hence made these heart shape mousse for the first time! Recipe is not optimized so needs to keep refining.
