San Mateo County Libraries welcomes Abi Balingit on Thursday, September 14, at 6:00 PM as she discusses her debut cookbook Mayumu: Filipino American Desserts Remixed and hosts a cook-along with the audience.
Once you've registered, you'll receive your free Zoom invitation as well as the ingredients list to cook alongside Abi!
Best of Both Homes
When the pandemic started her lonely work-from-home life in 2020, Abi Balingit channeled all her energy into the one thing that brought her joy: baking. In her tiny, dimly lit, shared kitchen, she produced hundreds of “pasalubong” (souvenir or homecoming gift) boxes filled with especially creative treats that blended the Filipino treats and Western style baked goods she grew up with. Each time, she’d sell out within hours and donated the proceeds to support her community in need.
Now Abi shares some of these cult-favorite desserts with Mayumu (which means “sweet” in Kapampangan, which is one of the dominant languages in Philippines), an incredibly fresh baking book of 75 recipes that span from the never-before-seen, incredibly inventive flavor combinations that Abi dreamed up, to the more familiar, classic Filipino favorites:
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- Adobo Chocolate Chip Cookie
- Strawberry Shortcake Sapin-Sapin (Rice Cakes)
- Ube Macapuno Molten Lava Cakes
- Matcha Pastillas
- Melon Chicharron Crumble
Throughout, essays following Abi’s heritage and self-discovery introduce the flavors and experiences that have shaped her life, from visiting the motherland and her parents’ birthplace in Pampanga, Philippines, to California where she grew up and went to school, to her now home Brooklyn, NY. This beautiful book is a celebration of the Filipino American experience, perfect for home bakers wanting both nostalgic and excitingly new recipes.
Get to Know Abi Balingit
“I would describe my personal style as vibrant, eclectic, and fun! My bubbly personality and style show up in the diverse range of desserts that I make. It’s a joy to take risks with flavor combinations and punching up the color of many of my bakes. I consider myself a maximalist person and baker.”
Abi Balingit is a Filipino American home baker and author based in Brooklyn. Her debut cookbook, Mayumu: Filipino American Desserts Remixed was released this year. When she’s not working full-time at a live music company, she is running a baking blog called The Dusky Kitchen. Her #PASALUBONG treat box series helps to raise money for mutual aid organizations. She has been featured in Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, Eater, Thrillist, Food52 and more.
Praise for Mayumu
“Balingit’s recipes are fueled by memory and appetite and tell a story of culinary evolution and pleasure and, in the process, steamrollers into submission the idea that any one culture is monolithic with a single, ‘pure’ story in common. Mayumu is a cross-generational, cross-border story on her own terms. It is, indeed, her life.” — Nic Miller (Tales From Topographic Kitchens)
“Mayumu is crammed full of recipes for adobo chocolate chip cookies, halo-halo baked Alaska, lychee madeleines with hibiscus tea glaze and dried rose petals, and a host of other sweets...that are sure to make you the most popular person at your office cookie swap or school bake sale. (Or, best of all, you could make Balingit’s recipes for no occasion whatsoever; trust me, they’ll get eaten.” — Emma Specter (Vogue)
“Mayumu: Filipino American Desserts Remixed is the liveliest and most interesting baking book I’ve come across for a long time. It just buzzes with exuberant creativity, and Abi Balingit, its Brooklyn-based author, seems to possess a positively kinetic sense of flavour, and a gift for compelling combinations, both culinary and cultural.” — Nigella Lawson (Cook Eat Repeat)
“Among a still narrow selection of Filipino cookbooks available in the U.S., this one stands out for its inviting and singular look at the sweet side of Southeast Asian baking and for Balingit's reminiscences of a childhood and young adulthood full of family, warmth, and memories made through food.” — Booklist
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