How much could I eat in Osaka in three days? I didn’t know, but I was excited to find out! Friends had told me that Osaka was unparalleled for its street food culture, which got me super excited to visit. I arranged a four night stay in the trendy Namba district, where I was surrounded…
Category: Food and Drink
Home Cooking (poem)
Home Cooking november 1994 I lay awake under a heavy veilOf mosquito nettingThat defends my sweet American bloodFrom the thirsty insects of my homeland.The early morning lightSteps softly into this upper roomOf my grandmother’s home,Gently warming the slumberingCousins, aunts, and unclesThat lie on the floor all about me. It has been a hard weekThis first…
Yummiest Things I Ate in 2022
I’m a little addicted to making these lists for some reason this. Whatever, I’m going with it. Here’s all the yummiest foods I ate in 2022: View this post on Instagram A post shared by Riki Panganiban (@rikomatic) BEST PASTRY: Hands down, this has to go to the creme brulé kouign amann from Jane the…
2022 in Review: Cake Bakes, Feeding the ‘Gram, Flexing My Diet, Disney with a Kid!
The year 2022 was a return to “normal” post-Pandemic life, which was wonderful. There were no major life changes, but there were a lot of wonderful moments to remember. Health I feel blessed to be in my 50s and able to do all that I do, from skating to dancing to biking everywhere. The biggest…
My First Sponge Layer Cake: 4 Layer Mango Cake!
We celebrated a milestone birthday for our mom this weekend. So for the occasion, I decided to try to make my first sponge layer cake. Mom wanted a mango cake, so made one based on this recipe from Tatyana. The cake came together pretty easily in my stand mixer. I let them cool for several…
Making Claire Saffitz’s “Ultimate Strawberry Layer Cake”
For my colleague Merissa’s maternity leave party I decided to make a cake. Searching for what cake to make, I came across this video of Claire Saffitz making her version of a strawberry layer cake. This seemed right up my alley. As Claire describes it: This cake is my platonic ideal of a spring or…
My Trip to Nawlins: Laissez les bons temps rouler!
At the end of June, I had the good fortune to be sent on a work trip to the great city of New Orleans, one of my favorite places in the world. After finishing a work conference, I spent a couple more days relaxing in this iconic American city. It has been at least a…
Adventures in Baking: Red Velvet Tres Leches with Ube Frosting
So we had another work social event involving baking a week ago, and I brought something I’m pretty proud of: a Red Velvet Tres Leches cake with Ube Frosting. The occasion was something called “NPR Cake Week” where stations around the country all make cakes around certain themes. I was a bit fuzzy on the…
Why I Intermittent Fast: Overall Health, Weight Management, Longevity, Easy
I was talking to friends about intermittent fasting the other day and I realized I’ve been doing it for so long I had started to forget the reasons why I was doing it in the first place. On the one hand, it’s good that I have so incorporated this diet into my life that I…
How to Make Halo-Halo Pie (recipe)
For Pi Day this year, I wanted to come up with something silly, personal and not too hard. I remembered one of my favorite desserts of all time is Filipino halo-halo. Halo-halo (literally “mix mix”) is a a colorful conflagration of crushed ice, condensed milk, various candied fruits and beans, ice cream, and flan. It’s…