Adrianna Tan
For my new project about making Chinese food more accessible, I would like to write a guide to Chinese bakeries.
Other than where to go and what to order, what are you curious about? What feels most scary (language is one, I’m sure)? Not knowing what to expect, etc?
Zack Stern
@skinnylatte @index what are the basic doughs in a Chinese bakery? I feel I’m ignorant and also maybe they mostly/only use the same dough for every pastry? That can’t be right?
I like going to random Chinese bakeries but don’t know if my selections have been wrong or there’s more variety.
(Haha although I know some American bakeries that mostly/only use croissant dough and they bore me. So maybe working with a single dough is just more practical and less elaborate than I want.)
ginevra
@skinnylatte @index I'd like the slightly sweet bread, but the only way I can identify sweet breads is if it has overly sweet toppings like jam, sugar, almonds. I used to know the right breads by sight/location but that bakery closed down
Adrianna Tan
ಚಿರಾಗ್ 🌹✊🏾Ⓥ🌱🇵🇸 (he/him)
@skinnylatte @index Dietary prefs (vegan) is def top of the list for me! Esp b/c I don't have enough cultural context to make inferences like I can in India.
Adrianna Tan
One time I bought a bunch of Chinese bakery items and went to a big event.
The buns (bolo buns) of all kinds were very popular but nobody liked the ‘chicken cookies’ except the Chinese people. There’s no chicken in chicken cookies but we put the stuff you would put on a Chinese roast chicken in a chicken cookie: five spice! Garlic! Etc
I love that stuff
Adrianna Tan
@mayintoronto oh I just assume everything is. Editing my sentence
May Likes Toronto
@skinnylatte It's usually made with chicken fat or lard, no?
Adrianna Tan
@mayintoronto I plan to interview this person who apprenticed with a Chinese pastry sifu about this :)
May Likes Toronto
@skinnylatte There's usually whole chunks of animal fat in that cookie. It adds to the character. 😁
your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦
focus on the techniques that make their baking different from EU baking.
sponge cake is the best example for this. you can do this in San Fran: compare birthday cakes from french, USA, chinese, japanese and mexican bakeries.
have not been able to get my hands on books on Chinese and Japanese baking in any of the languages i read, so am at a loss at what is the sorcery behind the ethereal sponginess of asian sponge cakes.
now i wanna bike down to Chinatown LOL
Adrianna Tan
@blogdiva @mayintoronto new book in english! Chinese Pastry School from Yeo Min (the singaporean person who apprenticed with the chinese pastry sifu)
Adrianna Tan
@blogdiva @mayintoronto seems out of print / hard to get. i will email her
this one also made me laugh with the Yeast Indies pun https://www.kitchenartsandletters.com/products/nerdbaker-2-tales-from-the-yeast-indies
Adrianna Tan
this thread has a pretty good convo with some discussion about chinese baking (from the perspective of expats in china) and it took all of my self restraint to not create an account to tell someone there (who seems to actually live in china) that they are wrong that 'there is no history of baking in china'
Jon
@skinnylatte what about Kueh? There are some amazing cakes in that category!
Jon
@skinnylatte you're making me think of chicken floss too.
Adrianna Tan
@freshstart that's more peranakan / malay chinese. i suppose folks in china don't know about it at all except perhaps in the southeast
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