In the first edition of the From the Kitchen Podcast, I talk to Abi Balingit, author of Mayumu: Filipino American Desserts Remixed, about how she got into desserts, moving from the Bay Area to New York City, and the uniqueness of her neon cookbook in a sea of beige sweets.
Significant Moments
01:00: I ask Abi about where she grew up and what she ate, and she talks about a multigenerational household and the ubiquity of adobo in her home.
05:00: Abi talks about working full-time and writing 75 recipes for her cookbook.
07:00: How the limited space of a New York City apartment with roommates influenced the way she wrote her recipes.
11:00: The use of color in Abi’s cookbook and her style in general.
13:35: Talking about cold desserts that aren’t baked and the use of agar-agar in Southeast Asian desserts, which influences my own tropical sweets in Puerto Rico.
17:00: The move from West Coast to East Coast and how this has changed the way she cooks because of ingredient access.
21:00: Talking about the process of developing the adobo chocolate chip cookie recipe that has been the breakout success of the cookbook.
23:30: How the restraints of baking are a place of freedom.
25:00: Is cooking a political act?
Next month’s cookbook conversation will feature Melissa McCart and Rick Easton to discuss Bread and How to Eat It—a bread book that is decidedly not about baking bread, a subversive turn that I’m very obsessed with.
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Paid subscribers are receiving this on Friday—just in time for weekend listening—while it’s going out to everyone else on Monday morning. For more, see the full audio archive of interviews with folks in food and culture, as well as the recipe index.
From the Kitchen Podcast: Abi Balingit