On the newest episode of @foodstoriestold I speak with pastry chef @smallorchids and we unpack the power of bodegas and third spaces. Learn why Paola believes bodegas are more than just stores – they’re vital third spaces where community, culture, and comfort food converge. In this conversation, she shares stories from her neighborhood, recounting how bodegas were a playground for learning and sanctuaries during times of need. She delves into the impact these third spaces have on food culture, symbolizing not just a cornerstone of life in the city but a center of community and connection and how she pays homage to it in her upcoming book “Bodega Bakes: Recipes for Sweets and Treats Inspired by My Corner Store.” We laugh, we chat bodega math and Paola shares the art of ordering the *perfect* chopped cheese. It’s a beautiful chat about the cultural hubs that shape us and I can’t wait for you hear her story. -What’s your go to bodega order? -Were you here for the penny candy or saving up for the big stuff? -drop your favorite bodega memories in the comments. PS: How is *your* bodega math?
Sumac & summer berries
Sumac & summer berries
Still dreaming of this combination 💕😜 #strawberryseason #gooseberries
Strawberries and gooseberries will be the combination of summer ‘24 & ‘25 😮💨🫂 #crostata #galette #pastrygram
GOOSEBERRY, GOOSEBERRY, GOOSEBERRY! Say that phrase 3x and magically my Gooseberry strawberry crostata will appear. I remember showing my mom this recipe and her realizing that I somehow found myself loving her favorite fruit the Grosella Espinosa aka cape gooseberries. She told me all about the dulces de grosella that she grew up eating well into adulthood and giggled. Traditionally in the Dominican Republic we love to candy, preserve and jamify our fruits to make our sweets treats. We’re not ones for the theatrical pastries, often enjoying un dulce con una galleta de Manteca (enjoying our jams with a “tipico” Dominican butter cracker). But what is a crostata other than a buttery flaky fluffy cracker that’s filled with jam. 😱 seems like the perfect Dominican dessert to me. If you want to get into this recipe and more like it, preorder my cookbook Bodega Bakes. The Gworls know! Preorder now, BAKE LATER! Next week we’ll get to see why my pie dough is called the lazy girl pie dough! Thanks for watching! 👋🏽 #crostata #gooseberry #summerfruits
Taking a break from posting about my book 😵 and posting about my plantain baguettes instead (just kidding I posted about my book earlier today) Ok! So let’s get into it, I am pretty happy with how these turned out! I think test no.4 was too salty for my taste 😩 I’ll be eating them with unsalted butter 😂😂😂 the 5th test batch was closer to what I want to see and aesthetically it’s been the best batch so far! It’s been so fun watching this lean dough interact with the starch and sugars from the plantains Also Im kinda vibing with finding creative ways to naturally enhance the plantain flavor I think now that I think test no.5 is my ideal texture and look im going to start tinkering to truly get the most plantain flavor in this baguette 😮💨 cooking is SO FUN! #foodscience #plantains #baguette #playingwithfood #bakingtechniques
Passionfruit half moon cookies no filter 😜 I know, I know friend, you’re going to ask, “recipe?” Well you’re in luck cause you can bake these cookies and more treats like it in my upcoming cookbook!!! 🥺📖 #passionfruit #nyccookies #halfmooncookies #blackandwhitecookies #bakingandpastry
Chocolate ganache under 1 minute using a microwave. Fun fact when I found out that I’d be competing on chopped sweets, learned to rework everything I knew about baking and pastry. I practiced unique techniques using liquid nitrogen, the blast chiller and the microwave. One of my favorite recipes to come out of that time was my 1 minute chocolate ganache. In my upcoming cookbook Bodega Bakes I teach you how to make it the traditional way (cause we gotta learn the basics before we can run!) but here I am sharing this technique for free.99 (like most of my content) because I love you! Hope this technique is as helpful as I found it to be on the show! Thanks for watching bb’s 🫂, Chef Paola #chocolateganache #cookinghack #easyganache #microwavehacks #pastrytechnique #oneminutecooking
Hi! Seeing if this video is a waste of my time; and it totally is 100/10 waste of time 🥴 #chefreactions
Passionfruit half moon cookies are the new it girl. It’s like if Washington Heights & Arthur Ave had a cookie baby. The best of the city and the tropics in one bite. 🏝️🌃 If you’re like me and you can’t get enough of Passionfruit (chinola) and don’t mind that this cookie is cake pretending to be a cookie.. then this recipe is for YOU! If you want to get into this recipe and more like it, preorder my cookbook BODEGA BAKES The gowrls know: Preorder now, bake later! #passionfruit #halfmooncookies #blackandwhitecookies #chinola Cover photo by @laurenviedallen
#contentcreation – Excuse me ghost, please don’t distract me. I’m already procrastinating on making food reels 😂😂 – If you film solo as a creator you know the feeling 😅
Should your butter be ice cold almost to the point of it being frozen? Yes. Now that doesn’t mean I think you should use ice cold butter for your buttercreams… but for brioche recipes made in humid climates esp if they’re made in a Hobart, oh YEA. butter should be colder, to help the yeast not get buck wild as the friction of the machine heats things up. The humidity in the DMV is nothing to be played with. So if you think that your doughs are acting a bit wonky, well… your dough might be a little bit too caliente 🔥 What do you think? Is it room temp only or should we be playing with more cold butter in the pastry kitchen? 🥰 #butter
Story time: I often don’t talk about the work that I’ve done online, because I had this misconception of seeming like i’m bragging too much or like I was boasting. But I’ve been working on how I see the work that I’ve done and how I feel when I share these stories with you all. One of my favorite campaigns happened to be when I worked with Presidente and with the Alex Rodriguez. I’m a kid from the Bronx so you absolutely know that my head was spinning as I prepped to be on set for hours with someone that both Dominicans and NYers hold in high esteem. But the story isn’t about the campaign or boasting about the work. Which side bar: was absolutely SO COOL lol. The crew was so sweet and took over a bakery and transformed it into what they thought my future bakery might look like. (Insane!) But a story about human connection. During takes we A-Rod and I were staged next to each other, me on double Apple boxes so that my 5’2 self could look like a normal sized human next to Mr. Rodriguez. And in between takes I had to make small talk, so instead of making it awkward, I started telling A-Rod about my summers in the Dominican Republic. Which led me to one of my favorite stories to tell of the mango that fell like a rocket onto my head one summer in the Dominican Republic. The story goes, I remember the first time that I realized that you don’t stand under the mango tree during mango season. As a kid I wouldn’t always listen to my mother, as any free spirited creative kid does. So in trying to find shade from the blazing Caribbean sun I stood underneath one of my families mango trees. Unbeknown to me a slight wind would be unleashing a Banilejo mango that with gravity would end up feeling like a 10 ton anvil landed on the tender spot of my adolescent head. Trust me it was a shocking wake up call that taught me in real time Newtons laws of gravity. LOL I heard the soft sound of the wind rustling amongst the trees, a snap, a whoosh and then black out. A mango landed straight onto the top of my dome. I remember coming to, and hearing my aunt yell out to my mom “¡¡¡Un mango cayó sobre la cabeza de Paola!!!!!” T: “a mango fell onto Paola’s head!” Con’t:
Bodega Bakes: Lemon Cookies with a soundtrack! 🤣 – Available wherever fine books are sold 🍇💕 #BodegaBakes #LemonCookies #Cookbook #asmrbaking #asmrsound 🍋 Cover photo by @laurenviedallen
How I did it? With a wonderful team! Co-writer @egtimberlake Photographer @laurenviedallen @inherentlybeth @all.opal @jacquelineisabella Foreword @christinatosi Food stylist @hadleysui @iamsprung @duchessdelights Prop stylist @summer_stylist Designer @allychi Photography director @jenhalps My amazing editors @amandaenglander @clo_nyc Book agent @ricasuave Recipe testers @marymdodd @sugarchef62 Publicists @taa_pr @theashleydc @gansie @abakwawu And the amazing senior marketing and publicity manager Blanca from @unionsqandco Oh look it seems like it’s an all femme team 🥹🤝🏽🍇🧁 – Happy Friday everyone and remember, TEAM WORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK!
The Only Lemon cookie recipe you’ll ever need! 🍋 Today we’re baking an OG recipe from my cookbook Bodega Bakes. THE Lemon cookie, a recipe so good that the kids in my family forgot my name!!! When I would spend away from work for the holiday you could find me with a few dozen of these cookies. Extra lemony zest, juice and citric acid take this lemon cookie to the next level. And if you’re like me a sour candy champion, add a few more sprinkles of citric acid to make your mouth look like the war heads packaging 😗 I’m happy to report that the kids in my family have learned that calling me by my name is better than calling me the cookie lady. But that doesn’t mean that they don’t still ask for cookies when they see me (the adults too haha) If you want to get into this recipe and more like it, preorder my cookbook Bodega Bakes PREORDER NOW, BAKE LATER! 🍇 Lemon cookie photo by @laurenviedallen
I want to try an elote latte 🥹 Dios mio, I’m not fighting at all this spring for my summer body. HELP. #chefreation #reactionvideos
Living my best SEÑORA era! I might be a cringey millennial but at least Im ✨free✨LOL. – OK, on a serious note, what are some of the things that you fear when you are going to post online and why is that holding you back from posting whatever you wanna post? #postitanyway #millennialcore
A New Flavor of the Month just dropped! I recap the month of April, things I liked (things I didn’t like) and talk gingham, ceramics and coconut water 🥥🤯🎉 🎶TIME IS SLIPPING AWAY FROM MEEE🎶 how is it almost May already? Visit community updates to read all about it! 😊💕
BTS: filling plantain sticky buns 💕 – You’re probably thinking, “plantain sticky buns?” Yes that’s exactly what I said haha sticky gooey yummy plantain sticky buns. For those of you have been here for a while you already know alll about these buns! But for those of yall who are new here. Welcome 👋🏽 If you want to find out how to make these plantain sticky buns this recipe and so many more will be in my upcoming cookbook Bodega Bakes (available where books are presold 😂) PREORDER NOW, BAKE LATER! 🫂
Seeing if this video is a waste of time; LOL NOT A WASTE OF TIME! I’m screaming lololol – Want more chef reaction videos? Tag me or DM me your favorite ones with the words “blind react” so I know not to watch it before hand Lolol 😂😂😂😂 Happy Sunday!
Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting @deukihong & @mattrodbard for their DC leg of their book tour for KoreaWorld, their newest cookbook! When chef @erikbruneryang reached out to me for this event, he also mentioned that it was the 9th anniversary of @maketto1351 and I knew I was down to participate. There was no menu guideline except Chef Erik’s instruction to have fun. Haha, so I did! I decided that I wanted to melt together the flavors of the Dominican Republics most beloved sweet treat habichuelas con dulce (sweet red bean porridge) and reduce it down as one would for red bean paste. Spiced red bean paste, rum soaked raisins and an extra fluffy coconut and vanilla infused empanada (pastelito) shell fried until golden brown and later iced with a salted coconut icing for vibes. Needless to say, I think this little empanada was a bridge for Korean, Taiwan and the Dominican Republic to all meet in celebration of these two amazing accomplishments. Thank you for having me! And for letting me do what I do best PLAY! 😃 Plus I got to spend the best time with the @magpieandthetigerdc dynamic duo last night as they fed me all the treats! Thank you @not_loren @calebyjang for such fun convos and for all the doggo pictures 😍. With gratitude, Paola
