Kent mango vs. Ataulfo mango: which is better?

From March through July of each year, our household is loyal to Ataulfo mangoes, also known as champagne mangoes. They are relatively small, yellow, and have a sweet, honey-like flavor. The flavor is a bit one-noted, but it’s always deeply satisfying. The flesh is also a deep yellow/orange color and never fibrous at all. Very occasionally, I will buy Kent mangoes, which I always refer to as the Mexican mangoes available in the U.S. that are much larger than Ataulfo, but far less flavorful. They are also a bit hit or miss: you can easily get one that may smell fragrant, but once you cut into it, it’s stringy and fibrous. And as we all know, texture can be just as important as flavor in a piece of fruit. Who wants a stringy mango?

It’s been clear since we returned from our South America trip that the Ataulfo mango season is coming to its end. So while we haven’t bought any of these, while in Elmhurst this past Saturday, I came across a fruit cart that sold these huge, fat Kent mangoes, three for $5. I also remember a few people saying in my social media feed that this year’s harvest of Kents were at their very best. So I figured that $5 is a good price to try these out.

After I peeled and cut my Kent mango, I noticed a few things: this large Kent mango yielded about 2-3 times as much flesh as a single Ataulfo mango. The flesh was not fibrous at all, but on the paler yellow side when you compare it to the Ataulfo mango’s deep yellow/orange hue. This is not relevant to taste at all, but the Kent mango skin was much thicker than an Ataulfo’s, making it a bit more resistant to peeling (and a tiny bit more challenging as a result). And when I had a few chunks after cutting it up, I noticed that the flavor was more citrusy than an Ataulfo’s. An Ataulfo is more honey-like, almost creamy and rich. The Kent flesh is more juicy than it is creamy… if that makes any sense. I enjoyed both of them, but I think the flavor is much stronger in an Ataulfo than in a Kent.

And so, our love and preference for Ataulfo mangoes continues while we are in the U.S. Though, I will still buy Kent mangoes once Ataulfos are harder and more expensive now that we’re entering the month of August, assuming I find them at a decent price. I can’t say no to a mango (unless it’s flavorless and/or stringy!).

Thai jasmine rice: Hom Mali and government certification

I’ve been listening to Pailin (of Hot Thai Kitchen)’s new podcast, Sabai, like it’s my new best friend. I’ve been following her for years now. For the longest time, I thought that Thai food was too difficult or required too many ingredients to make at home. After watching just a few of her videos, I’ve realized that it’s actually quite approachable, easy to execute (well, most dishes…), and has quite the overlap with Chinese and Vietnamese ingredients I normally buy. Thai food is exactly what she says: if something is different than what you are used to, then you think it’s strange or too difficult. Pai does an amazing job demystifying Thai food and making it seem like easy home-cooking for anyone.

Pai recently had an episode where she and her cohost, Hong Thaimee, discussed rice. I had no idea what a commodity real Thai jasmine rice was. Unless we buy white or brown basmati or Japanese medium grain rice, we normally buy white/brown jasmine rice that is always imported from Thailand. But Pai and Hong specified in their rice episode that because Thai jasmine rice has become so popular, many “fakes” have come out in the market from Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos, and the quality and fragrance just are not the same. So they insisted for true authenticity, we had to look for the green circle logo for Thai government certification, which has some grains of rice in the image. And if we got this, we would know for sure that we were getting premium Thai jasmine rice of the highest quality. Of course, I’d take any recommendation Pai gave me, so I took a screen shot of the government certification image and saved it on my phone for future reference.

Yesterday, I went down to Manhattan Chinatown and visited my favorite Vietnamese market to pick up some more white jasmine rice. And I realized that the rice I had previously been buying actually *was* Thai government certified, and it wasn’t too expensive (five pounds for $7). Well, this was an exciting discovery: I had already been buying the “in the know” rice before I actually knew! I also picked up a bag of purple rice since I still had some space in my backpack. I ended up walking eight pounds of rice, a bottle of light soy sauce, and a small bag of Chinese bakery goodies, all the way from Chinatown and eventually up to Koreatown. I think that’s my rucking for the day.

Indonesian food: Under-rated, under appreciated

When I lived in Elmhurst, Queens, from 2008-2012, I felt like Elmhurst was always this under-the-radar type neighborhood in Queens that never really got its due. Then, the rents were cheap, the area was safe for families and kids (it still is, in both regards, relatively speaking). And what was top of mind to me was that the food was so, so eclectic. Before I lived in Elmhurst, I had zero idea what Indonesian food was. So to think that I finally lived in a neighborhood where, on a single block, I could pick up Colombian pastries, eat Indian-Chinese fusion, have authentic Taiwanese breakfast, grab some fresh tomatillos for homemade salsa verde, and then have a full Indonesian lunch spread, was just mind-boggling.

We came back to Elmhurst yesterday and stumbled across a coffee shop that turns into a fun wine bar at night called Elm Roastery, right on Broadway, which is the main artery of Elmhurst. We ordered an ube latte and a jasmine lemonade, both of which tasted strongly of what they are made of (you’d be shocked how often this is not the case). The service was very warm and friendly. The decor was modern, sleek, and chic. There are ample tables where you can meet up with friends one on one or in small groups. And they have a large open counter that is designated a laptop-free zone (which I LOVE) where it’s meant for socializing and meeting new people. One of the walls was lined with handmade items for purchase, all made by local Queens-based artists so that locals can buy local. The bathroom was huge, well designed, and even had a European-style changing table (very similar to the ones I used when in Germany), complete with a cushion for your little one and thoughtful little shelves for you to temporarily place things like diapers, wipes, and diaper cream. We used this, and I was so grateful to have a cushion for Kaia and to not change her on the floor. I was stunned; 12 years ago, I would have loved for a spot to be like this in my ‘hood! It’s the time for the rest of New York City to finally embrace Elmhurst now that fun spots like these are popping up!

We revisited one Indonesian spot that I’d eaten at with a friend about ten years ago. Then, it was called Sky Cafe, but it has since been renamed to Sumatera. The owner retired, but the staff, chef, and menu remained the same. When I’d visited here before, I had never been to Indonesia. So coming here now, I actually had something solid to reference. And this meal was just like a meal I’d get in Jakarta or Yogyakarta: we ordered nasi padang bungkus, which is basically a big stuffed banana leaf with a variety of delicious things, like seasoned rice, a boiled egg, beef rendang, savory jackfruit curry, spiced shredded kale, and sambal; mie complit, which is a big bowl of chewy wheat-based noodles topped with ground chicken, bouncy beef and fish balls, a soy-sauce marinated egg, bok choy, deep-fried wontons (fried to order!), with a side bowl of deeply flavored chicken soup; an avocado shake (topped with Milo!!); and while all the above was beyond delicious and flavorful, the biggest highlight for me was the homemade cendol, made to order. The first time I’d ever had gula melaka, this nutty, toasty palm sugar that comes from a specific type of coconut palm found in Southeast Asia, it was in Yogyakarta in a cendol. The flavor was so deep, nutty, toasty, and distinct that no regular granulated sugar could have replicated the same flavor. Here, when we ordered it, the server warned it it would take some time to make. They were literally churning out the cendol jellies to order, which were green from pandan. They added the jellies to a tall glass of ice, coconut milk, and thick, brown gula melaka. And after I had just one sip, I was taken back to Indonesia. The flavor was exactly the same. It was as though I was brought to Indonesian dessert heaven.

Indonesian food is a rare find in the U.S., but I’m grateful to have semi-easy access to it here in New York City, in my original neighborhood of Elmhurst, in my original New York borough of Queens.

First Saturday back from South America means… spicy food!

For the last two weeks, while we’ve enjoyed the food in South America, one thing that was blatantly missing in every single meal was… spice. There wasn’t much spice in almost anything we ate. Sure, there might have been cinnamon in some of the desserts we ate. But there wasn’t anything even remotely hot spicy. There were times we thought we might get it, like when we had a ceviche in Santiago or even ordered a lamb curry at a tapas restaurant in Montevideo, but there was literally no heat in any food we ate whatsoever. Towards the second half of our trip, Chris started making comments about this.

“This could be spicy… but it isn’t,” he’d comment. “If this just had a little heat, this dish would be even better!”

There were a few times I thought something would be spicy, and it wasn’t even a smidgen. The two times we had chimichurri sauce (a delicious oil based sauce made with blended parsley, coriander, and garlic, oftentimes served with steak) in Argentina, the chimichurri was not green as I anticipated, but red. I later read that these were red because the restaurants added smoked paprika and likely some red bell pepper. Unfortunately, neither of those ingredients are spicy-hot. They are tasty… just not spicy. Oh well.

Chris loves the food almost anywhere and everywhere we have visited in the world. But he definitely likes his spice. And he is generally a bit disappointed when he doesn’t get it for too long. So when we got back, I knew he’d be craving spicy food. And I had a big, big hunch that he’d choose a Thai spot for our Saturday afternoon outing. And if it wasn’t Thai, it would be Indian, but I was doubting that. I was almost certain it would be Thai.

And Thai it was. We went to Bushwick and ended up at Chiangmai Diner and Bar. It was a beautiful corner restaurant, with lots of beautiful green tiling, fun decor, glowing lanterns in the back of the restaurant with full floor to ceiling murals. Even the bathroom matched the restaurant’s chic decor and smelled heavenly (I even noted the candle that was fragrantly lit in the bathroom for futur reference). We had spicy papaya salad with a fermented fish sauce that we’d never had before, which made the salad far more pungent than usual; a fried fish fritter appetizer known to be popular street food in Bangkok, sai oua spaghetti, and boat noodles. Everything was delicious with lots of complex flavors dancing in your mouth all at once, and other than the fish fritters, everything was spicy. Chris’s favorite thing (and Pookster’s) was the sai oua spaghetti, which had a really addictive umami spiciness along with nice al dente noodles for a fun fusion Thai dish; the sai oua was most definitely house made with fresh galangal and makrut lime leaf, with a nice soft texture. But for me, it was a pretty close tie between the boat noodles and the sai oua sausage noodles. I’ve been listening to Hot Thai Kitchen’s Sabai podcast on Thai food and culture, and in one of her episodes, Pailin says that if she could have just one noodle soup for the rest of her entire life, boat noodles would be it. But when she said it, I doubted I’d ever had a really good or authentic bowl of boat noodles (no, I definitely have not. And I knew I hadn’t as soon as she said that authentic boat noodles are enriched with pig’s blood, which makes for a more intense and rich soup). But this boat noodle soup… I could definitely have this again and again.

So yes, this is one of many signs that I absolutely know my husband. He always loves to say that he knows me better than anyone else… At the same time, I would also like to say that I know him better than anyone else… regardless of whether he wants to admit that or not (out loud).

Yerba mate: the national drink of Uruguay, Paraguay, and Argentina

I first learned about yerba mate about 11 years ago. I had a colleague who had recently come back from South America, and he was addicted to mate. He drank it out of a cup that was oddly shaped (to me, at least, at the time) and used a peculiar looking straw. I saw what looked to be lots of tea leaves in the bottom of the cup, some were wet and some were half dry (as a tea drinker myself, I was truly bewildered by this sight; why would part of the leaves be DRY?), and I asked him what he was drinking. He told me it was yerba mate, a caffeinated herbal drink that was popular in South America. I asked him if it was a type of tea, and he said it was not. Technically, he was right: yerba mate comes from a specific holly plant that is indigenous to South America, whereas true “tea” has to be from the plant species camellia sinensis. I later learned that yerba mate is considered an “herbal” tea, similar to tisanes like chamomile and lavender “tea.” I remember he had a smile on his face when he described it to me. He said mate was healthier than tea; it supposedly has more antioxidants/polyphenols, and has lower caffeine content than coffee for an equivalent sized serving. Some research suggests that mate may help enhance physical performance and boost energy levels, so occasionally, you may see mate as an ingredient in sports or energy drinks.

Well, yerba mate was inescapable as soon as we arrived in Uruguay. It did not matter if someone was doing a brisk walk or jog along the Ramblas or walking through the bustling Sunday market with friends. You would see people walking with their calabash squash mate cup (the drinking cup is also called a mate), with mate leaves half dry and half soaked in hot water, with their bombilla (the name of the interesting shaped reusable metal drinking straw, which also serves as a mate leaf filter) in one hand; in the other hand or arm, they’d be carrying a long thermos to continue topping up their mate cup. If you were to walk through the streets of Montevideo and not notice this, you likely would either be blind or not have eyes; these mate cups and thermoses were literally everywhere and being consumed by everyone! After a while, I loved looking out for them as we people watched.

We walked into a couple supermarkets in Montevideo and Buenos Aires, where they would have full sections of the shop (in some cases, an entire shelf or wall!) devoted to all the different brands of yerba mate. And it was so cheap, too: you could get a kilo (2.2 lb!!) of loose mate for the equivalent of just a few U.S. dollars. As I stood to admire one wall of mate and all the different brands I was unfamiliar with while at a supermarket, at least eight or nine different people made a beeline for that wall to grab (what I’d assume was) their favorite brand of mate and headed to check out. Mate is very, very serious here, and essentially a household staple.

But whenever we’d stop in cafes or bakeries in Montevideo, we would never see yerba mate listed as a potential drink you could order. I kept my eye out for it, and it yielded no opportunity to just have a cup. I ended up spending $2 USD to buy 200 grams of organic mate from a supermarket near our hotel to bring home; I paid a relative premium for this mate because the bags were so small. The smallest average bags you’d see mate being sold in were at least 500 grams. I asked our hotel in Uruguay about this, and the front desk person said it was because it’s mostly consumed at home among family and friends, and not meant to be something in public restaurants or cafes. So while in Buenos Aires, when we did a tour of El Zanjon, which was a very deep house that had restored labyrinths and served as one of the first B.A. settlements back in 1536, our tour guide mentioned mate and a shop called Mate Ame where we could finally do a mate tasting. It made sense that a place like this existed in B.A. but not in Montevideo. Buenos Aires had more of a tourism scene, and so they could cater to this. Montevideo gets far fewer tourists than B.A. does.

Mate Ame was a short walk from our hotel, so we visited yesterday morning for a tasting of a traditional mate (plain) and an herbal one (with added herbs like mint, plus some green tea). Wow – this was not for the faint of heart — it was definitely potent! Mate on its own is actually quite in-your-face, imposing, and bitter! This is an acquired taste, not one that the average person would enjoy right off the bat. The herbal version was much easier going down for me, but Chris actually enjoyed the traditional version more. There is definitely a method to drinking it that the Mate Ame person walked us through. You’re supposed to put about 1-2 tablespoons of mate in your cup (basically half fill it), then tip it on its side to make sure you have the right amount. After that, you fill the other half of the cup (assuming you have a regular glass and not a calabash squash cup, which is meant for just one person given it can mold…) with less-than-boiling water — not too hot, otherwise you’ll burn the mate and ruin the taste! You dunk your bombilla into the cup, and DO NOT STIR. You sip slowly and enjoy. Once you hear this distinct scratchy sound from your straw, it’s an indicator you are out of water and need to top up. And so the process continues… until you reach the end of the water in your very tall thermos!

Traditionally, friends and family used to drink mate from the same cup (not super hygienic given the calabash squash gourd drinking vessel, but it is what it is) and pass it around; one person (the owner of the cup, I think?) would be responsible for topping up the hot water. For home brewing, I’ve read that a lot of people, even in Argentina and Uruguay, will just use a French press or equivalent and steep. That’s probably what I’ll end up doing when I go home.

There are distinct ways of drinking mate in each of the three countries. I’ve read that Uruguayans are the purists; they do not like anything added to their mate. Argentines are much more amenable to additions like mint, tea, and other spices. And in southern Brazil, people enjoy mate as well, and especially like to add a sweetener like honey to it. I can totally see this being delicious, but sacrilegious to Uruguayans! And generally, Uruguayans prefer their mate ground to almost a powder, whereas Argentines like it more rough cut like you’d imagine some varieties of tea leaves.

Mate is the most consumed beverage across Argentina and Uruguay after water. I think that says quite a lot about these countries and their drinking habits. While I do not love it, I really did love observing mate consumption throughout both Montevideo and Buenos Aires, and I loved staring at all the different styles and varieties of mate drinking cups and the bombillas. The bombilla, along with its many variations, is likely the most intriguing straw I’ve ever seen in my life. The version that I liked the most was the metal straw that had a flat spoon-like bottom with little holes to filter out the mate leaves. The part of the straw that you drink from is not rounded like the majority of straws, but instead, it is flat and thin, like a very thin rectangle. I’d imagine it would be a pain to clean, but I guess I don’t have to worry about that since i’m not buying one!

We actually did get two bombillas (the cheaper version, not with the round straw bottom I liked) to take home, which was included in the price of our mate tasting. It’s a cute souvenir, but honestly, I’ll be unlikely to ever use it for mate drinking at home. I’ll just drink it, hot and strained, out of my mug!

The alfajor: a decadent sweet treat

I first learned what an alfajor (plural: alfajores) was when I was in college. One of my best friends had a friend whose family had lived in Peru (they immigrated twice: once from Japan to Peru, and then a second time from Peru to the U.S.), and during that time, they were introduced to these little sweet treats. My friend used to rave about her friend’s family’s homemade alfajores. And although I’d never tasted them, occasionally I would see them at Latin American bakeries here in New York, and I’d pick up one or two. I loved all the different textures and flavors in a single bite.

Alfajores are Spanish in origin, but they have taken on different iterations as they have traveled the globe. An alfajor comes in a number of different shapes and sizes, but in Latin America, you can expect it to consist of two round buttery cookies, usually made with butter, corn starch/nut/wheat flour, sandwiched between a thick layer of dulce de leche. If you are lucky, in some parts of Latin America, you can even find alfajores filled with cajeta, or goat’s milk caramel, instead of dulce de leche, which is technically sugar and cow’s milk caramel. They are also sometimes rolled on their sides in shredded coconut. They are buttery, flaky, crunchy, soft, sweet, and not too sweet all at the same time!

Almost everywhere we went in Montevideo and now Buenos Aires, we saw alfajores, mostly made with corn starch to be even more flaky and nutty. Most of the time, they were dusted in powdered sugar and sometimes rolled in shredded coconut. You can find them in bakeries made fresh, as well as at supermarkets and random little grocery shops pre-packaged individually. Argentina is particularly obsessed with alfajores, as they are known to be the world’s largest consumer of alfajores, consuming more than a billion alfajores per year. The food packaging, likely by law, is also very transparent and honest: they are high in both saturated fat (butter) and “excessive sugar.” So far, the best one that I’ve enjoyed on this trip has been at the Mercado Ferrando in Montevideo, at the bakery that is on your left when you walk in. They have several types of alfajores, including a chocolate and a chocolate-filled one, but I wanted the more classic variation and just got the alfajor de maicena (with corn flour). It was flaky, buttery, and not too sweet. I was obsessed and fought the urge to buy another one. I’ve had many cookies in my lifetime to date, but I will say that the decadence of a South American style alfajor really ranks up there when it comes to the meaning of “decadence” in a single bite of dessert.

Regarding dulce de leche — it is truly ubiquitous here, regardless of whether you are at a bakery, looking at a restaurant dessert menu, or at the supermarket. You cannot escape dulce de leche here! We found out that there are even dulce de leche taste contests across some South American countries, probably similar to the baguette contest in France. Though oddly enough, we’ve noticed that dulce de leche here actually isn’t as cloyingly sweet and rich as the ones we’ve eaten back home. Not sure if it’s just us, but it’s something we both concluded, after having quite a bit of dulce de leche in almost everything and anything sweet here.

Customer service wins – Burlap & Barrel

I found out about the spice company Burlap & Barrel about three years ago. The Sambal Lady was coming out with three different spice blends that she created in partnership with this spice company, and I was intrigued. They work directly with farmers to get to the source. There’s accountability for things like farming practices, ethical treatment of workers and wages, and the spices are just fresher. You’re closer to the source. Of course, this comes at a much higher price tag, but occasionally, especially when it comes to the ingredients I cook with, I am definitely willing to splurge. What we put into our bodies is really important.

Last year, I bought this really rich, pungent sumac from Burlap & Barrel. It was totally different than the last sumac I had purchased from Fairway. The color was this really dark, deep burgundy color. The fragrance wafted strongly out of the bottle. And the feel on my fingertips of the sumac flakes was really rich and oily. I was really blown away by the quality almost immediately. They even suggest starting with half of what a recipe recommends for a given spice because their spices are that much fresher and richer. And I believe it. I’ve done just that and never felt like I was skimping out on spicing my foods with their spices.

But this past Sunday, I had a total snafu. I was about to roast a tray of vegetables and was sprinkling sumac directly from the bottle when the little shaker top on the bottle fell off. And plop! Almost half of my beloved, rich, and expensive sumac came pouring all over my tray. I tried to salvage as much as I could, but it was already too late. It was contaminated, and some sumac flakes even got some olive oil on them.

I sent an email to the B&B customer service, and within minutes, someone from their customer service team responded and said they would send out a replacement bottle immediately. Given shipping would be free, she asked me if I wanted to add anything to my order. Free shipping on just two bottles? Ummm, yeah! So I added a bottle of herbes de Provence, which I’ve been wanting to try. She even threw in a free kitchen towel! I was floored.

Now, if every customer service team could be that responsive and empathetic, while also taking immediate action, every single person on earth who buys anything would be happy.

Hidden cafes in Philly

Yesterday, I came to Philadelphia for a quick overnight trip to have a meeting with a customer. The only real alone time I would get to walk around and explore would be early Thursday morning before my flight, so I walked around Center City and Rittenhouse Square before getting into an Uber going to the airport. In the last several weeks with the hot weather and my obsession with having cold brew / iced coffee in the morning, I was definitely in a coffee mood. So I did a quick search for places walking distance from my hotel where I could get a unique coffee drink. I found a place that was about an 8-minute walk from my hotel. It was completely nondescript; if I didn’t map it or look it up, there was little chance I would have stumbled upon it, especially since it was barely marked from the outside and was in an alley.

I walked inside the cafe, and it was huge. Even though I travel quite a bit, because I am so used to the small, cramped spaces and limited seating in New York, I still always marvel at the space inside cafes in other cities. The floor space was so wide, and the tables were large with lots of walking space between them. I ordered an iced strawberry oat milk latte plus an almond croissant from a local nearby French bakery. The oat milk was blended with pureed strawberries and infused with beet juice, and it really complemented the espresso well. I love finding unique drinks like this when traveling, even on short notice.

Oyakodon – “parent child bowl”

Once I made my dashi this past Sunday, the first two things I could think of to make with this potent umami ingredient were miso soup and oyakodon. Oyakodon, for whatever reason, has always seemed like a deceptively simple dish. All it really is made of is chicken, egg, some kind of seasoning/broth, over a steaming hot bowl of rice. Oyakodon is one of the main comfort foods of Japan – it’s satisfying, comforting, hot, and quick to make (and eat). In Japanese, “oya” means parent and “ko” means “child.” This references the chicken (parent) and the egg (child).

Before I made dashi, I always assumed that oyakodon was complicated. Whenever I’ve had it at Japanese restaurants, it always tasted so complex yet comforting. Steaming hot chicken and egg with Japanese seasonings over rice is hard to get wrong. But with a sweet savory combination of homemade dashi, some soy sauce, a little sugar, and some scallions, chicken slices and onions get simmered and become this umami bomb of flavors. The egg is swirled in during the last minute of cooking to barely be done and look like ribbons on top of the bowl.

Now that I know how easy this is to make (as long as you have dashi, or even dashi powder), this could become a new staple to make. It’s even a one-pot dish! It’s funny how over the years, when I’ve thought things were too complicated to make, they’ve actually become quite simple once you get one or two basic ingredients or steps down.

Vegan lemon olive oil cake

Vegan baking is not something I ever imagined really getting into while I was in high school or college. I did bake a few vegan brownie recipes while in college because someone I worked with one summer inspired me with her own veganism. But I always thought of vegan baking as annoying because of all the substitutions that have to be made, and how not intuitive it all is. Eggs are typically used as a binder for cakes, cookies, and pancakes, so what do you use in place of them? The two major options in the realm of vegan baking seem to be a) flax egg (1 Tbsp ground flaxseed to 3 Tbsp water), and 2) aquafaba, which is a term for the bean liquid left in a can of garbanzo beans (chickpeas). How do you get buttery or creamy richness without butter or cream? You can use a rich oil like coconut oil or olive oil, or you can make cashew cream with soaked cashews blended with some water.

Once I started reading about all the alternatives, I realized it actually wasn’t that hard after all. But you can’t really just tweak a recipe and make 1:1 substitutes to make it vegan. You really have to start from scratch. And so I had this vegan lemon olive oil cake bookmarked for ages, but I never made it until today. I got inspired to make it after the non-vegan orange olive oil cake was such a hit at Chris’s mom’s cousin’s place a couple months ago, and I wanted to see how I could make a version of that cake but a) not use as much olive oil and b) not use as many eggs, or any eggs at all, as that recipe I originally used calls for a LOT!). All these ingredients can get really expensive. Plus, we’re living in high inflation times. And for baking, I rarely have heavy cream or cream cheese on hand, so it would be nice to get substitutes that are more pantry-based. This recipe had no egg substitute. I wondered if it would really bind together well or if it would totally fall apart. But I had been following this vegan baking blogger for ages, and she had over 68 5-star reviews, so I figured it had to be a pretty good recipe. I also thought it would turn out well when I saw metric measurements noted on her site. Ever since I got my cheap $10 digital kitchen scale, I don’t think I can go back to regular measuring cups for baking anymore. It’s so exact, and it’s just fun!

So I mixed the batter, added it to my greased, parchment-lined loaf pan, and baked it in the oven for 60 minutes. I let it cool and then unmolded it. Then I took it out and had a small slice, and wow – the edge piece was really crunchy, and the lemon and olive oil flavor really came out beautifully. The crumb was very moist and tight — not even a remote sign of falling apart. I used 10 grams less sugar because it just seemed like a lot of sugar, and the cake was just sweet enough to be called dessert.

I’m planning to share this cake with some neighbors, one of whom just had her second baby. I can’t wait to tell them that this cake is vegan!