ARC Review: Modern Asian Baking by Kat Lieu
A cookbook inspired by the popular Facebook group, Subtle Asian Baking
Modern Asian Baking at Home, Kat Lieu
Genre: Nonfiction, Cookbooks
Length: 176 pages
Publisher: Quarto Knows (Quarry Books)
My rating: 3.5 stars
Synopsis: “From the Subtle Asian Baking community comes Modern Asian Baking at Home, must-have recipes for beloved sweet and savory treats found across Asia.” (Goodreads)
You have to post at least one food-related post for Asian Heritage Month. It’s the law. @subtleasian.baking is one of my favorite non-bookish IG accounts, so when I saw the founder, Kat Lieu, was coming out with a cookbook, I was immediately intrigued.
I received a digital galley from Quarto Knows and Quarry Books in exchange for an honest review. Modern Asian Baking will be released on June 28th and has a preorder campaign going on now!
As a book blogger who’s always trying to sneak subtle Asian bakes into her Bookstagram posts, I cannot think of a book more on-brand than Modern Asian Baking at Home.
I have a soft spot for cookbooks. Growing up, one of my favorite things to do with my mom was to flip through cookbooks and look at recipes together. We didn’t make most of the ones we’d marked because there were so many (some things never change,) but I remember having fun just going through a cookbook and pointing out recipes. Both then and now, my favorite part of reading cookbooks was looking at the pictures, and Modern Asian Baking would’ve been my favorite as a kid because each recipe comes with its own picture.
Modern Asian Baking is a book for everyone. It’s a cookbook by amateur home bakers for home bakers.
My request for an early digital copy of Modern Asian Baking was granted literally seconds before I was about to turn off my laptop and get ready for bed, and I couldn’t help but sneak a peek which, in hindsight, was probably a bad idea for my sleep schedule. (As every reader knows, “just one more page” is the biggest lie ever.) Page after page, recipe after recipe, I got more and more excited until it got to the point where I not only wanted to keep reading but also I wanted to pull out some flour and start baking. (Don’t worry, I did the grown-up thing and ignored the urge to ignore all responsibilities until I baked my way through the ever-growing list of recipes I was amassing so no patients were harmed by my reading habits.)
Flipping through Modern Asian Baking took me right back to the early days of the pandemic. I loved reading Subtle Asian Baking’s origin story and learning about Kat Lieu’s baking journey, and I was surprised by how relatable it was.
I’ve always liked baking and like much of the world, picked it back up in 2020. COVID-19 hit, and I broke out my Kitchen Aid mixer. One afternoon during the early days of toilet paper hoarding and panic buying, my mom came home with a 25 lb (11.3 kg for you international readers) Costco-sized bag of flour because it was the only thing available with the sudden sourdough-induced shortages and because a good Asian will never pass up a good deal. The thing was enormous, but I figured I’d use as much as I could and we’d toss whatever went bad (idk how long that takes, but it was a LOT of flour).
So I joined my fellow humans, stayed home, stayed safe, rolled up my sleeves, and baked, and baked, and baked. But while my fellow home bakers were cultivating starters in their mason jars, I was experimenting with Subtle Asian Bakes without realizing it. As a hungry child stuck at home and fresh off a patient diet, I made different versions of dan tats, scallion pancakes, chiffon cakes, and tong yuan. (And okay, also 5–6 variations on banana bread.) It was kinda exciting to see a lot of these dishes listed in Modern Asian Baking. It’s almost like the cookbook is a little scrapbook that commemorates my baking adventures.
Modern Asian Baking is a book for everyone. It’s a cookbook by amateur home bakers for home bakers. There are recipes for every skill level, and it’s not just for Asians! If you’re unfamiliar with Asian desserts, Modern Asian Baking is the perfect place to start. Asia is a large and diverse continent, but Kat does her best to provide a little variety from different countries.
For those who didn’t grow up with these flavor profiles or may be unfamiliar with some of these desserts, Kat makes Asian baking approachable and breaks down the ingredients with simple, easy-to-understand terms. Each recipe is introduced with a short description of the bake. I’m the type of person who always scrolls down to the recipe and complains when a blog doesn’t have a “jump to recipe” button (sorry food bloggers; I just don’t care about your son’s two-year old birthday party,) but I actually enjoyed reading these brief intros.
While I’ll be sticking with my own recipes for some things like mantou and souffle pancakes, there are a ton in Modern Asian Baking I want to try. I already have a million and one Asian dessert recipes saved, but it’s one thing to have them all scattered across the internet or pinned on a Pinterest board, and it’s another thing to see them curated and bound together in a book. What’s great about Modern Asian Baking is that it saves me from scouring the internet for good recipes, comparing sites and trying to find the best. Kat’s provided a great jumping-off point so I can stop scrolling and start baking.
- Pineapple and coconut cream buns.
- Matcha basque cheesecake.
- Tanghulu.
- Mochi donuts.
- Boba.
These were all things I’ve been wanting to try, and now I don’t have to try to figure out which version of a recipe to use!
And then there are all the new bakes that have been added to my list of things to bake:
- Korean garlic cream cheese milk buns.
- Tri-colored Japanese-style cheesecake.
- Asian bakery fresh cream cake.
- Matcha lava tangyuan.
- Milk tea popsicles.
- Mango lassi.
My biggest issue with Modern Asian Baking is I don’t know where to start!
Since writing my review, I’ve been able to try the “super easy milk bread” recipe and am happy to report it was the best-yeasted loaf I’ve attempted so far despite the fact that I over-kneaded it a little. I’m not really a bread baker but really want to learn, and Kat’s recipe makes a seemingly intimidating bake something anyone can try. Her instructions were straightforward and easy to follow.
My only complaint is that I wish the recipes went into more detail. I would’ve loved more pictures to go with the step-by-step instructions and information on troubleshooting for some of the more involved recipes like the milk bread. I was fortunate enough to get some tips from Kat when she saw I was tackling the bread recipe, but not everyone is lucky enough to get some private coaching in their DM’s.
I’m really excited about Modern Asian Baking. I’ll admit, part of it is the nostalgia factor-the thought of being able to physically flip through it brings me back to my childhood days of recipe browsing with my mom-and part of it is my inner grandma. There’s just something about the physical heft of a cookbook that doesn’t compare with baking from a screen. (And I can finally stop cleaning flour off my phone and keyboard.) So I’m especially excited we’re getting a published collection of Asian recipes and hope this is just the start of Asian desserts getting some recognition in the cookbook world.
Are you a baker? Share your favorite recipes and/or cookbook recs!
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Originally published at http://littlecornerreads.wordpress.com on May 15, 2022.
