A chewy crepe with a layer of egg, filled with a spicy dobanjiang peanut sauce, green onions, and kettle chips – we’re making jianbing today!
We’d been up at 3:30 am to catch our flight from LAX to Portland. We took the train into downtown… and then got hopelessly lost, as the tall buildings interfered with our attempts to use GPS.
But that early in the morning, our hotel room wasn’t ready for us – so we dropped off our luggage and headed off to wander Portland.
In an exhausted daze, we walked, and ate, walked and ate some more. Hainan chicken and doughnuts, wandering across bridges that were a stark reminder of my fear of heights. We had just barely wandered into Powell’s when the text came – our room was finally ready for us.
All that walking had worked up a good appetite – so after we dragged our luggage to our room, but before our badly needed nap, we headed out once more.
Portland is known for its food carts, and lo and behold there was a food cart lot just a couple of blocks from our hotel. We wandered our way around it once, twice… so many options, how to decide?
We happened upon a cart called Bing Mi, which I recalled hearing about before our trip. They serve jianbing, which literally translates to “fried pancake” – Chinese crepes that were filled with egg, sausage, black bean paste, chili sauce, pickled vegetables, green onion, cilantro, and a crispy fried cracker.
It was the perfect pre-nap snack.
When Elgnad redeemed “chef’s choice” as her cookbook redemption and told me to choose any cookbook I liked, I instantly decided to cook from The Art of Escapism Cooking. Mandy Lee, the author, is the writer behind the Lady and Pups blog. I cooked a lot of recipes from both her blog and her cookbook back on my Twitch stream – I love how she puts an even more Asian twist on Asian dishes, and just about every recipe I’ve made of hers has been fantastic.
Some of her recipes can be a bit of a project, with a lot of components to make for the final recipe. And they’re absolutely worth it (plus I can just have Shrimpy cook them for me), but for the first recipe that I cook from Mandy’s cookbook on this YouTube channel, I wanted to make one of her simpler recipes.
Mandy’s version of jianbing starts with the batter.
All-purpose flour makes up your base, and then a whole grain flour such as spelt, rye, buckwheat, mung bean, or whole wheat flour. I happened to have a bag of rye leftover from a failed attempt at a sourdough starter earlier this year, so that’s what I’m using. This will add heft and flavor to your crepe.
Then, we’re adding tapioca starch, which will give your crepe a wonderfully chewy texture. You know we’re all about that QQ.
A bit of water and vegetable oil to bring it all into a batter.
And then just a touch of brown sugar and sea salt to round out the flavors.
Whisk that all together, and let it sit for half an hour.
While you’re waiting on your batter, make the douban chile sauce.
Doubanjiang is a spicy fermented bean paste used commonly in chinese cooking. It’s SPICY, so if you’re not a fan of heat, you can absolutely use less and tone down the spice a bit.
Add a little milk to thin it out.
And then honey for sweetness, and to balance the spice a little.
A bit of peanut butter, to add an earthy nuttiness that will come through the spice.
And a single grated garlic clove.
Mix all that until smooth, and set aside.
You should also beat together your eggs and dice your scallions, if you haven’t already.
Now it’s time to cook. Heat your empty nonstick pan over medium heat for about 30 seconds. The recipe says medium-high, but I had trouble spreading my batter thinly enough if it’s too hot.
Without adding any oil or anything, pour some of your batter into your pan. For most pans you can aim for three crepes, but I’d recommend starting with a scoop of batter, using a pastry scraper or back of a ladle to smooth the batter as thinly as possible, and then adding a little more batter around the edges if possible.
You really want the thinnest crepe you can manage – the first one we made ended up a little thicker, and it wasn’t nearly as tasty.
Let the crepe cook a few minutes, until it starts to brown in spots.
Pour a third (or less, depending on the size of your pan and how much batter you used) of the beaten egg over the crepe, and spread it evenly over the crepe.
Dust with freshly ground black pepper, and let it cook for a minute, until the egg has started to set.
Turn off the heat, and carefully flip your crepe. Brush the eggless side of the crepe with the douban chile sauce – a very thin layer! The recipe makes more sauce than you’ll probably need, as it’s quite spicy. We originally put a decent layer of sauce on the jianbing and practically had flames shooting out our ears. We were much happier with a very thin layer – but even then, it’s still pretty spicy!
Then scatter half the green onions over the sauce, and then sprinkle it with a handful of crushed kettle chips, which she uses instead of baocui or a fried wonton cracker.
This isn’t part of the recipe, but if you have it, you could also add cilantro or pickled vegetables such as mustard greens into your crepe.
Fold the sides in to make a square, cut in half, place in a paper bag, and serve immediately!
Spelt (or rye) Jianbing with Kettle-Cooked Potato Chips
1/4 cup (35g) whole grain spelt (or rye, buckwheat, mung bean, or whole wheat) flour
1/4 cup (32g) tapioca starch
3/4 cup water
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp light brown sugar
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
Douban chile sauce
3 tbsp doubanjiang
2 tbsp whole milk
1 1/2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp smooth peanut butter
1 garlic clove, grated
Toppings
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp finely diced scallions
2 tbsp chopped cilantro, optional
2 tbsp chopped pickled mustard greens, optional
2 small handfuls lightly salted kettle-cooked potato chips
Cooking Directions
In a large bowl, whisk all the batter ingredients until smooth and lump-free. Let rest for 30 minutes at room temperature before using.
To make the douban chile sauce, in a small bowl, mix the douban chile sauce ingredients together until smooth and set aside until needed.
It’s best to use a nonstick crepe pan about 13″ in diameter, which will make 2 jianbing. If you have a smaller crepe pan, that’s fine as well, and you’ll probably end up with 3 smaller crepes.
Have a pastry scraper ready on the side. Heat the crepe pan over medium-high heat, without oil, for about 30 seconds, until warm. Pour half of the batter into the pan (if your pan is smaller, you’ll need less), and use the pastry scraper to spread the batter outward with a circular motion until it just thinly covers the entire pan. Don’t worry about getting it perfect in the first spread. You can keep spreading the batter over itself, and it will eventually smooth out any uneven parts. This is why you want the pan to be warm and not hot, so you’ll have more time to spread the batter out. Let the crepe cook for several minutes, until the first side starts to show a few browned spots here and there (lift the crepe up with a spatula to check).
Now pour one-half of the beaten egg on top (again, you’ll need less if the pan is smaller) and use the pastry scraper to spread it out with the same circular motion until it covers the entire crepe. Dust with freshly ground black pepper and let cook for 1 minute, until the egg is set enough to be flipped (it should still look a bit wobbly), then turn off the heat and flip the crepe over.
Brush a generous amount of douban chile sauce on the eggless side, enough to cover the entire crepe. Scatter some of the scallions, cilantro, and/or pickled mustard greens all over, then lightly crush a small handful of potato chips in your hands and scatter them in the middle. Fold two sides of the crepe towards the middle, then the other two sides as well to make a large square pocket. Serve immediately in a paper bag.
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I’m not much of a bar person – I don’t really drink – but I love the concept of bar food. Tasty, greasy, sometimes spicy, snackable foods.
I particularly love izakayas – bar food, but make it Japanese.
Edamame, karaage, sashimi, tebasaki, yakitori… y’all can keep your booze, I’m just here for the food.
One dish often found at izakayas and yakitoryas is grilled shishito peppers. A generally non-spicy pepper (although once in a while you’ll get one with a kick), they’re often grilled in the same manner as yakitori.
Today we are making something that, to me, is the perfect intersection between American and Japanese bar food. (The perfect intersection between American and Japanese? It’s me!)
This salt n’ pepper shishito recipe from Life’s Ambrosia is something that we make every time we can get our hands on shishito peppers, because it’s so snackably delicious! They’re smoky and garlicky and have that craveable salt n’ pepper flavor that you so often find in Chinese cooking.
Whether you’re a beer kind of person or not… you should definitely try these if you ever see shishito peppers in the market.
First things first, we’re going to make the FLAVAH. This garlicky oil will be added to the shishito peppers as soon as they’re done cooking, so we gotta make it ahead of time.
Mince a bunch of garlic. Like, a BUNCH. The recipe says six cloves, which I’m taking to mean like 20 tiny ones. We’re using fresh garlic and mincing it ourselves this time, because you want those fried garlicky bits at the end.
Mix that with some olive oil, salt, and pepper.
Now it’s time to prep our peppers – about half a pound or so of shishitos. They should be firm and without blemishes. We’re going to cook them whole, and they’re typically not a spicy pepper, so there’s no need to remove the seeds.
We’re going to dry-fry them – so no oil or anything – in a cast-iron pan until they’re nice and blistered. Get some color on them, start to smell that fruity, smoky char. The shishitos will transform from that bright vibrant green color to a lighter yellow-green, and start to soften as they cook.
Turn off the heat, and add that oil mixture in with the peppers. Cast iron retains heat, so this will continue to cook things – cook just a minute more. You definitely don’t want to burn your garlic, because it will end up bitter, but a nice brown will get the perfect toasty garlic flavor. Everything should smell toasty and garlicky and delicious by now.
Add in a sliced green onion for that bright pop of flavor, remove it from the pan immediately so none of that delicate garlic burns, and you’re ready to eat!
Stir together garlic, olive oil, black pepper and salt.
Heat a cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Add in peppers and cook, stirring frequently, until they start to blister and blacken.
Once most of the peppers have started to blacken and soften, turn off the heat and add in the garlic oil. Toss the peppers to coat for 1 minute, so the residual heat just cooks the garlic. Add in green onions and toss once more.
Immediately transfer to a serving platter and serve hot.
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And now, it’s what you’ve been waiting for… time to make the mooncakes!
We are using a recipe from Omnivore’s Cookbook, which I’ve used several times with good results.
The Key Principles of Football Betting Analyzed by Betzoid
Football betting has evolved from informal wagers between friends into a sophisticated, multi-billion-dollar global industry. Today, millions of bettors across the world engage with football markets daily, drawn by the sport’s unpredictability, statistical richness, and emotional depth. Yet despite the widespread participation, a significant majority of bettors consistently lose money over time. The difference between those who sustain profitability and those who do not rarely comes down to luck. Instead, it hinges on a disciplined understanding of core principles that govern intelligent wagering. Understanding these principles is not merely academic — it is the foundation upon which any serious approach to football betting must be built.
Understanding Value: The Cornerstone of Profitable Betting
The concept of value is arguably the most important principle in football betting, yet it remains one of the most misunderstood. Value does not simply mean backing the team most likely to win. Rather, it refers to identifying situations where the probability of an outcome is greater than the probability implied by the bookmaker’s odds. In mathematical terms, a bet holds value when the expected return is positive over a large sample of similar bets.
To illustrate this, consider a coin toss. If a bookmaker offers odds of 2.10 on heads, that bet holds value because the true probability is 50%, while the odds imply a probability of approximately 47.6%. The same logic applies to football. If a bettor calculates that a particular team has a 60% chance of winning a match, but the available odds imply only a 50% probability, there is a 10% edge in the bettor’s favor. Consistently identifying and exploiting such edges is how professional bettors generate long-term profit.
Developing the ability to assess true probabilities requires deep knowledge of the sport, including team form, injury reports, head-to-head records, tactical setups, and situational factors such as fixture congestion or managerial changes. Bettors who rely solely on intuition or popular opinion will rarely identify genuine value, because bookmakers employ sophisticated modeling teams specifically designed to set accurate lines. The path to finding value lies in developing an analytical edge that the market has not fully priced in.
It is also worth noting that value betting is inherently a long-term strategy. A single match result tells very little. Over hundreds of bets, however, consistently backing positive expected value wagers will produce returns that reflect the mathematical edge. This requires patience and emotional discipline, two qualities that are difficult to maintain but absolutely essential for anyone serious about football betting.
Bankroll Management and Staking Strategies
Even the most skilled value identifier in the world will eventually go broke without a sound bankroll management strategy. Bankroll management refers to the systematic approach of determining how much to wager on any given bet relative to the total funds available for betting. It is the structural backbone that keeps a bettor in the game long enough for their edge to materialize.
One of the most widely discussed staking methods is the flat staking approach, where a bettor wagers the same fixed amount on every bet, regardless of perceived confidence or odds. This method is simple, transparent, and effective at controlling variance. Another popular approach is the Kelly Criterion, a mathematically derived formula that calculates the optimal bet size based on the perceived edge and the odds offered. The Kelly Criterion maximizes the logarithm of wealth over time, but it requires precise probability estimates and can recommend aggressive stakes that expose bettors to significant short-term volatility. Many professionals use a fractional Kelly approach — typically between a quarter and half Kelly — to reduce variance while still capitalizing on their edge.
The research and analytical framework provided by platforms like Betzoid offers bettors a structured way to evaluate football markets, understand statistical trends, and approach staking decisions with greater clarity and discipline. By combining rigorous data analysis with transparent methodology, such resources help bettors move beyond guesswork and toward evidence-based decision making.
A commonly recommended guideline is to never wager more than 1% to 5% of the total bankroll on a single bet. This range preserves capital during inevitable losing streaks while still allowing meaningful growth during winning periods. The psychological dimension of bankroll management is equally important. Bettors who overextend during a losing run in an attempt to recover losses — a behavior known as chasing — almost always compound their problems. Establishing clear staking rules before placing any bet removes the temptation to make emotionally driven decisions in the heat of the moment.
Market Analysis, Odds Movement, and Line Shopping
Football betting markets are dynamic ecosystems where odds shift in response to a variety of factors including team news, public betting patterns, sharp money from professional bettors, and broader market sentiment. Understanding how and why odds move is an essential skill for any serious bettor.
When a bookmaker first releases a line, it reflects their initial assessment of the probabilities involved. As money flows in on one side of a market, bookmakers adjust the odds to balance their liability and protect their margin. Tracking these movements can reveal important information. For example, if a team’s odds shorten significantly despite no obvious news development, it may indicate that sophisticated bettors — often referred to as sharps — are backing that side with confidence. Conversely, if odds drift on a team that appears to be the logical favorite, it may signal inside knowledge about injuries or team selection that has not yet been made public.
Line shopping is the practice of comparing odds across multiple bookmakers to ensure the best available price on a given selection. Because different bookmakers have different margins and risk appetites, the same outcome can carry meaningfully different odds depending on where the bet is placed. Over hundreds of bets, consistently securing the best available price can add several percentage points to a bettor’s overall return. This seemingly small advantage compounds significantly over time and is one of the distinguishing habits of profitable bettors.
Beyond individual match analysis, understanding the structure of different football betting markets is critical. The Asian Handicap market, for instance, eliminates the draw as a possible outcome and offers more granular handicap options, making it particularly popular among sophisticated bettors seeking tighter margins and more precise wagering options. The Over/Under goals market, meanwhile, is heavily influenced by tactical considerations and weather conditions, requiring a different analytical lens than match result markets. Each market type rewards different forms of expertise, and bettors who specialize in a particular league or market type tend to outperform generalists over the long run.
Psychological Discipline and the Long-Term Mindset
Perhaps no principle is more frequently discussed and less frequently practiced than psychological discipline in football betting. The emotional landscape of betting is treacherous. Winning streaks breed overconfidence, while losing streaks trigger anxiety, frustration, and irrational decision-making. The bettor who can maintain a consistent, process-oriented mindset regardless of short-term results possesses a significant advantage over the majority of the market.
Cognitive biases play a substantial role in undermining betting performance. Recency bias leads bettors to overweight recent results when assessing team quality. Confirmation bias causes bettors to seek out information that supports a pre-existing view while ignoring contradictory evidence. The gambler’s fallacy — the mistaken belief that past results influence future independent events — is another pervasive trap. Recognizing and actively guarding against these biases requires a level of self-awareness that most casual bettors never develop.
Keeping detailed records of every bet placed is one of the most effective tools for cultivating long-term discipline. A comprehensive betting log should include the date, match, market, odds, stake, bookmaker, and reasoning behind each bet. Reviewing this data regularly allows bettors to identify patterns in their decision-making, recognize which markets or bet types are generating positive returns, and spot areas where emotional or analytical errors are costing them money. Without this kind of structured self-assessment, it is virtually impossible to improve systematically.
The long-term mindset also involves accepting that variance is an inherent feature of sports betting. Even a bettor with a genuine 55% strike rate on even-money bets will experience extended losing runs due to statistical variance. Understanding this reality intellectually is one thing; maintaining composure during a 20-bet losing streak is another challenge entirely. Bettors who frame their activity as a long-term probabilistic exercise rather than a series of individual contests are far better equipped to weather the inevitable turbulence that comes with the territory.
Finally, responsible betting practices are inseparable from long-term success. Setting strict loss limits, taking breaks when emotional equilibrium is compromised, and never betting with money that cannot be afforded to lose are not merely ethical considerations — they are practical prerequisites for sustainability. The bettors who endure and ultimately thrive are those who treat football betting as a disciplined craft rather than a shortcut to easy money.
Conclusion
Football betting, approached with rigor and discipline, is a genuinely complex intellectual pursuit that rewards preparation, analytical thinking, and emotional resilience. The key principles — identifying value, managing bankroll intelligently, understanding market dynamics, and maintaining psychological discipline — are interconnected and mutually reinforcing. No single principle operates effectively in isolation. Together, they form a coherent framework that separates informed, sustainable betting from reckless speculation. For those willing to invest the time and effort required to master these fundamentals, football betting offers a uniquely engaging challenge where knowledge, patience, and discipline are the ultimate determinants of long-term success.
We are going to start with a bit of golden syrup. Mine is store-bought – it’s reasonably easy to find online. But if you can’t get that, it’s also possible to make your own golden syrup at home – you just need a bit of time.
Next, add in your kansui. This is lye water – and if you happen to make ramen at home, you might already have some on hand. However, it’s also fairly easy to make at home. All you have to do is bake some baking soda to make it more alkaline, and then mix it with water. I used the homemade version.
Mix those together well, until emulsified.
Next, we’ll add in a bit of oil – peanut or a mildly flavored vegetable oil would work well. It won’t completely combine, but try to blend it as well as possible.
And then your flour. I’m using cake flour here. It makes the dough very tender, but you can also use all-purpose.
And just a little bit of salt.
Gently fold that together until thoroughly combined, then knead it just a few times. Seal it in plastic wrap, and let rest for an hour, kneading it again halfway through.
Next step – filling your mooncakes! If you need some ideas for more traditional fillings, you can check out the post we published last week, where we showed how to make mung bean, red bean, and lotus seed pastes.
If those aren’t as accessible to you, you can pretty much use any sort of filling that will be solid enough to roll into a ball at room temperature, and that is already cooked and safe to eat since the baking time of mooncakes isn’t very long. Bean pastes, lotus seed, black sesame, and nut fillings are common, but I even tried out a mooncake with pumpkin pie filling and it worked out great.
Depending on the fillings you’re using, you may want to take them out early and let them come to room temperature. For me, the mung bean filling really needed to warm up before it was malleable, but the red bean and lotus seed needed much less time.
When you’re ready to make your mooncakes, make a ball with your fillings. If desired, you can carefully form the ball of paste around a salted egg yolk – but note, you’ll have to use a larger press – we’ll talk about mooncake molds in a minute. For small (50g) molds aim for quarter-sized balls; for large (100g) molds, it’ll be closer to the size of a golf ball.
If any of your fillings are too soft, you can form balls and then stick the balls back in the fridge to harden up.
This isn’t as traditional, but you can also have a bit of fun with it. We decided to experiment with che ba mau mooncakes. Che ba mau is a Vietnamese three color dessert, and it’s made with mung beans, azuki beans, and pandan jelly. We already had two of the three flavors, and to make the pandan layer we just mixed pandan flavoring with some of the mung bean paste until we were happy with the color and flavor.
Then we took a tiny ball of each flavor, and layered them before wrapping – which is our next step!
In order to wrap the mooncakes take a small ball of dough. Roll it into a ball (depending on the size of your mold, you may be aiming for a quarter-sized or silver dollar-sized ball), then roll it out. You can use a rolling pin if you’d like, but I found that using my fingers to press it into a thin sheet worked just fine.
Once your piece of dough is nice and thin, wrap it around your ball of filling. Make sure all of the filling is enclosed. Roll it into a smooth ball, and now it’s time to press!
These are the presses I have – the kind where you fit the ball into the mold, and then firmly press down with the handle to shape the mooncakes. The one I have came with two shapes and two sizes, with three patterns each, for a total of 12 different mooncake designs.
There are also wooden molds where you press the mooncake into the mold with your hands.
Either way, if you have trouble with the mooncake dough sticking to the mold, you can lightly dust with more flour before molding your mooncakes. I didn’t have any issues with my plastic molds, but I imagine wooden molds might stick more.
But what if you don’t have mooncake molds and don’t want to purchase any? If you want to form them into shapes, then you could probably press it into a muffin tin or cookie cutters. But honestly, they work wonderfully as balls! Just put your ball of filling and dough on your baking sheet, and continue as is. (We’re henceforth calling these Moonballs!)
If you’re making mooncakes with multiple fillings, you can use food coloring to mark which mooncake is which.
Now it’s time to bake! Preheat your oven to 350F. Place all your mooncakes on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, making sure there’s about an inch of space between them. Then bake for 8 minutes.
While they’re baking, whisk an egg with a pinch of salt for your egg wash.
After 8 minutes, take your mooncakes out, brush them with egg wash, and then put them back in the oven for another 8 minutes.
Once they’re done cooking, let your mooncakes cool completely, and then store them at room temperature in an air-tight container. Technically you can eat your mooncakes immediately if you’d like, but realistically you should let them sit at least 24 hours before eating. If you can hold off, they’re even better after 3 days – the oils from the filling will seep into the dough, and the wrapper will change from crumbly to super soft and luscious.
100g cake flour and extra to dust the mooncake dough
1 batch of your desired mooncake fillings
1 egg
Cooking Directions
To make the dough:
Combine golden syrup and kansui in a large bowl. Mix with a spatula until emulsified.
Add oil and mix again until evenly blended. They will still appear separated, but try to mix as evenly as possible.
Sift cake flour into the bowl. Gently fold the dough with a motion of scraping from bottom to top, like you are folding a cake dough. Do not stir the dough in a circular motion. It will toughen the dough.
When the flour is fully combined, shape the dough into a ball. The dough should be soft and a bit sticky but still hold its shape. Slowly add more flour if the dough is too difficult to handle. Gently knead the dough a few times with hands, with a folding motion. Seal with plastic wrap. Let rest for 30 minutes.
Gently knead the dough a few more times and place it back in the plastic wrap. Let rest for another 20 to 30 minutes. Then the dough will be ready to use.
To assemble mooncakes:
Work on the mooncakes one at a time. Scoop 2 tsp dough, roll into a ball, and press into a flat disc.
Place the filling ball in the center of the dough sheet. Carefully wrap the dough around the filling. Spread the dough until it seals the filling in completely. Try to wrap the filling in a thin, even layer of dough. If you find the dough on some spots is too thick, pull off the dough and smooth the surface. It is doesn’t matter if the dough is so thin that it reveals the color of the filling.
Dust both hands and the dough with a bit of cake flour. Roll the dough betweens hands so the surface will be dusted evenly.
Carefully place the mooncake into the mold. If you find it difficult to do without scraping off dough, you can gently roll the mooncake to fit into the mold.
Place the mold on the parchment and press the handle until you cannot move it any further. Pull the handle up and release the mooncake.
Carefully hold the mooncake without squeezing it, and remove the pattern disc.
If you find the process too difficult and cannot shape a clear pattern, wrap all the mooncakes first and shape them into balls. Place the mooncake balls onto a large baking tray and seal it with plastic wrap. Place in fridge for 10 to 20 minutes until the dough hardens a bit (do not chill the dough for too long).
To cook mooncakes:
Preheat oven to 350F.
Place mooncakes on a baking tray, 1 inch apart. Spray a thin layer of water onto the mooncakes to prevent the dough from cracking.
Bake on the middle rack for 8 to 9 minutes, until the dough toughens and the edges of the mooncakes start to turn golden.
Meanwhile, beat the egg in a small bowl with a pinch of salt.
Remove the mooncakes from the oven. Brush a thin layer of egg wash on the surface of the mooncakes. Only brush the top surfaces, not the vertical surfaces. If you accidentally brush too much egg wash and it fills up the pattern, use a small brush to clean the gaps and remove excess egg wash.
Place mooncakes back in the oven and continue baking until the egg wash turns golden brown, about 8 minutes.
Let mooncakes cool in the tray before removing. Use a spatula to gently push mooncakes to detach them from the baking tray. Transfer to a plate to cool completely.
Store mooncakes in an airtight container. The mooncakes can be served after 24 hours, and they will look and taste better after 3 days.
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Now that we’ve made our salted egg yolks, the question is – what filling to make for our mooncakes?
Mung bean, azuki bean, and lotus seed pastes are some of the most common fillings, and I love them all. Personally, I’m especially partial to lotus seed – which is your favorite?
But I’ve also seen some more modern interpretations – black sesame, chocolate, fererro rocher… if you could put any filling in a mooncake, what would you try?
Pumpkin pie might be good. Pecan pie? Or… what about the flavors of che ba mau, the Vietnamese three bean dessert – azuki bean, mung bean, and pandan?
6 tbsp coconut oil, or other solid fat of your choice (i.e. lard or shortening)
Cooking Directions
Soak the beans overnight in plenty of water.
Drain and place in a medium pot with enough water to submerge the beans or seeds by at least an inch. Simmer on medium-low heat for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, adding water as necessary to keep the beans or seeds covered, until the bean mashes easily between your fingers or the seed is fork-tender.
Drain and place in a food processor or blender with the sugar and a slight pinch of salt, if desired. If you don’t have a processor or blender, you can make the red bean paste simply by mashing with a spoon or potato masher, but I wouldn’t recommend making lotus paste without one. Blend until smooth and about the consistency of hummus.
Return the paste to a saucepan and combine with the coconut oil over medium heat. Cook, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula, until the paste thickens considerably and turns glossy. When it resembles very soft cookie dough and sticks to your spoon in one mass, you’re done. Chill the filling in the refrigerator while you make the mooncake skin — ideally, the filling should be firm and cold by the time you assemble the cakes.
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A few months ago, on our SushiCodes channel, we played a bunch of game demos during the Steam Game Festival. One of our favorites was a game called Going Under – a satirical roguelite dungeon crawler, where you’re a new intern at a failing startup.
Your first task is to clear out the Joblins who have infested the basement – and off you go! Just about every object in the game can be used as a weapon, and there are powerups galore. Every now and then, you’ll happen upon an in-house coffeeshop, where you can purchase more powerups and boosts.
When we started tossing around the idea of making food from indie games, I knew I wanted to make something from Going Under – especially when we realized it was coming out soon! They have lots of fun foods in the game – did I want to make a riff on avocado toast, or try to invent a real life version of Fizzle – the sparkling water meal replacement that the game’s startup is selling?
But the food item that really caught my eye and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about since is the Joblin Spice Latte. “Latte” implies that it’s a coffee drink, but the model in the game looks more like a frappuccino – a frozen blended coffee drink topped with whipped cream. It’s got the slightest purple tint, which in my mind goes directly to ube.
A frozen ube coffee drink? Sounds appropriately hipster to me!
First things first, make your coffee. You can brew this however you’d like – the Vietnamese phin coffee filter is the only coffee maker I own, but a normal coffee maker or even espresso is fine – just make sure it’s strong. My body doesn’t love coffee so I’m going with decaf, but feel free to caffeinate yourself to your choosing.
Let your coffee cool completely, then put it in a blender.
I wanted to complement the ube flavor, so I decided to go with coconut milk instead of dairy. We’re using a whole can’s worth, so go ahead and add that to the blender as well.
Next, your ube flavoring! I considered using ube halaya, which is an ube jam popular in Filipino desserts, but couldn’t acquire any in time. So instead I’m going with this ube flavoring, which I love because it’s strongly ube, but also adds this vibrant purple color. I’d recommend using this type of ube flavoring, as ube extract may not work quite the same.
Since it’s a Joblin spice latte, there had to be some sort of spices in it! I wasn’t sure what spice would go well with ube, but cinnamon ended up working quite well.
A little brown sugar for sweetness, just to round out the flavors and complement the cinnamon.
And then a bunch of ice. I used four cups, but I’ve got rather large cubes. If you’re using smaller cubes or crushed ice, you may need less.
Blend that all up until it’s nice and frothy, and then pour into glasses. This recipe makes enough for four servings.
Top with a bit of whipped cream, and if you’d like, you can add sprinkles for a touch of color.
And enjoy!
We were really happy with how this turned out. It’s got a gorgeous color, and tastes just like the sort of drink you might get at Starbucks. The ube flavor really came through, and altogether it ended up being a really refreshing drink.
I’d highly recommend making yourself a Joblin Spice Latte to enjoy while crawling startup dungeons in Going Under!
A little over a week from now is this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival, or Moon Festival. The actual date is different every year, but this year it will fall on October 1st.
If you know me, or follow me on Instagram (I’m @sushiday!) then you’ll know by now that I love mooncakes. Every year around this time, I post pictures of the mooncakes that we bought from 85C Bakery or M? Hi?p Bakery in Little Saigon, or the ones Son’s parents got us, or even, one year, the ones I made!
They’re a lot of work – but I’d say a YouTube channel is the perfect excuse to make the effort, wouldn’t you?
We love mooncakes, so much.
I’m a no-yolk kinda gal, but Son? He LOVES the salted egg yolk.
If I’m making mooncakes, I can’t NOT make the salted egg yolks for Son.
So that’s what we’re doing today!
Last time I made mooncakes on my old Twitch cooking stream, I didn’t plan far enough ahead, so all I had time for was some quick-cured egg yolks. They weren’t bad… but they weren’t nearly as good as the ones we’re used to getting.
This year, I planned well ahead, and a month ago started brining some eggs.
But I wanted to do a true test – compare the two techniques, and see how we feel about both of them up against each other!
Therefore, I will be showing you both methods today – and then we will be tasting and comparing the two at the end.
First, the brine technique.
Boil one part salt in four parts water, until the salt completely dissolves. Let that cool completely – we don’t want cooked eggs today!
Place however many eggs you want to cure in a glass container, and pour the brine over them, making sure the eggs are fully submerged. The eggs will float, so you may need to put something in the container to push them down – I used a smaller lid, turned upside-down, or you could use crumpled up parchment paper.
Put that in the fridge, and a month later, your eggs will be ready to use! Hard-boil the eggs, use the yolks for mooncakes, and eat the whites with congee.
That’s the longer technique – now for the quick method!
Three days before you want to use your yolks, separate the yolks from some whites and place them on a bed of salt. You can save the whites for some other use. Cover the yolks with more salt, and stick them in the fridge for 3 days.
After the three days have passed, brush off as much salt as possible, and then rinse the yolks in apple cider vinegar to get the rest of the salt crystals off. If they still look crystallized, you may have to cut off the outer layer – otherwise they’ll end up suuuuper salty.
Your yolks are ready to use!
If you want to see how we’ll be using salted egg yolks in our mooncakes, make sure to subscribe – Shrimpy will be making the fillings for us, and then we’ll finish off our mooncakes later this week!
And make sure to watch the video to see our reviews of each type of salted egg yolk, and which was our favorite!
Boil the salt and water until the salt is completely dissolved. Let cool completely.
Check the eggs to make sure there are no cracks. Discard any cracked eggs.
Place the eggs in a glass container, and pour the brine over the eggs. Make sure the eggs are completely submerged – I used an upside-down smaller lid, but crumpled parchment paper will also work fine.
Cover and refrigerate for 1 month.
After 1 month, remove eggs from the brine. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Hard-boil the eggs, use the yolks for mooncakes, and eat the whites with congee.
For the short method (start 3 days ahead)
Ingredients
salt
egg yolks
apple cider vinegar
Cooking Directions
Place a bed of salt on the bottom of a dish. Gently lay the egg yolks on top of the salt. Completely cover the yolks with more salt.
Cover and refrigerate 3 days.
When the three days are up, remove the eggs from the salt, making sure to brush off all the salt from the yolk. If needed, you can use apple cider vinegar to rinse off the salt.
Use the yolks for mooncakes!
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It’s been A Week of filming, filming, and more filming.
The beginning of the week was still smoky, but in the last couple of days it finally cleared up. I can go outside again!
Been in a breakfast sandwich kinda mood lately.
This was bacon (left over from the okonomiyaki video), frico egg, and watercress on a roll.
Due to all the smoke keeping me from getting outside lately, I’ve been having some SERIOUS anxiety + insomnia (this ended up being oddly relevant).
On one of the worst days, I gave up on sleep and just cleaned. Finally packed up a bunch of glasses and mugs that I got when my grandma passed away, but I mostly don’t use, so sticking them in storage for the time being.
Noticed this cool pattern on one of the mugs.
IT’S MOONCAKE SEASON!!!!!
99 Ranch was giving away free mooncakes if you order $120 worth of groceries shipped, so YOU KNOW I made sure to hit that limit.
The lotus seed salted egg yolk mooncakes were so good.
I rarely ever take selfies, mostly because I’m REALLY BAD at them and I always hate how I look in them.
But on a whim, I took a selfie when I laid down in-between shots, while I was waiting for Son to do something.
And lo and behold I actually managed to take a good selfie. It’s a miracle!
I have a problem and it is my addiction to these salted egg potato chips.
Experiments.
It’s taken YEARS, but I love that I’m finally confident enough in the kitchen that I can just whip up a recipe on a whim.
I did it twice this week!
The above do chua (vietnamese pickles) were because we found a bag of frozen eggrolls that Son’s mom had made for us around New Year’s!
I managed to somehow not cook anything dinner appropriate this week… so the eggrolls were perfect.
More breakfast sandwich goodness.
English muffin, sausage, frico egg, and arugula.
Prep…
(From bottom: lotus seed paste, mung bean paste, azuki bean paste, and pandan mung bean paste!)
It’s a do chua type of week, it seems. My sis in law’s mom made some with mustard greens, and gave us a whole jar!
Can’t test out cheese curds (oops – spoiler alert!) without turning it into poutine!
Freezer fries, homemade cheese curds, and the second of my spontaneous cooking adventures – gravy!
More recipe testing – this is something you’ll be seeing later this week!
One thing I never expected from switching from Twitch to YouTube – SO many more people make the recipes I post!
Twitch streamers, Instagram friends, random strangers… even my mom (who NEVER watched my Twitch stream as far as I know) has cooked something from my YouTube channel!
It makes me so freaking happy every time I see it.
OH HEY MOONCAKE SEASON
Taste testing.
Had some work done on our house, ended up with broken glass in the yard.
So got a big vacuum to clean it up.
(It was oddly satisfying hearing the vacuum suck up things.)
