A tropical plant from Southeast Asia has taken root on menus at bakeries and restaurants across Chicago.
Known for its floral taste and bright green color, pandan — specifically the leaves — is becoming a go-to ingredient for several local chefs, from Pilsen to Albany Park. Right now, chefs are using it to enhance cakes, cookies, ice cream, lattes and cocktails.
When Filipino baker Katrina Requiron saw the trend taking off in the U.S., she had one thought:
“Finally, something other than ube!” she said of the ubiquitous purple yam.
There’s still buzz surrounding the tuber indigenous to the Philippines that’s also used in sweets, but pandan is poised to be the next big thing. Both are popular among diners who have become increasingly interested in Southeast Asian cuisine, and colorful, Instagrammable items. Like Requiron, who co-owns Crumbs.nd.Creams in Albany Park, many bakers and chefs are happy to offer pandan-flavored dishes because they remind them of their home countries. Others, like the culinary and beverage team at Pandan Restaurant in the Gold Coast, are simply excited to experiment with different ingredients.
“We like to say pandan is the new ube,” said Merrilie Daluz, director of marketing at the Viceroy Chicago hotel in Gold Coast, which houses Pandan Restaurant. “People are always looking for new trends. Ube was really trending for its color and taste. The next logical ingredient was pandan, because of its refreshing notes. Southeast Asian flavor is such a common thing now.”
Buko pandan sylvanas provide a taste of home
Crumbs.nd.Creams, 4825 N. Pulaski Rd.
Of course, pandan has long been used in Southeast Asia, often in place of vanilla. Some macerate its long leaves to produce green powders, extracts or juices. Others use it to create infusions to flavor everything from syrups to sticky rice. Many times, pandan is paired with coconut to bring out its nuttiness.
Growing up in the Philippines, Katrina Requiron remembers eating buko pandan, a fruit salad-like dessert with young coconut (buko) and cream. At Crumbs.nd.Creams, she and her husband, co-owner Mharloe Requiron, have captured that taste in their buko pandan sylvanas, or traditional Filipino sandwich cookies. Buko pandan buttercream is tucked between two pandan-flavored cashew meringue wafers, which are dusted in cake and cookie crumbs.
It’s a bestseller among their many sylvana flavors, which include cookies and cream, butter pecan, apple and blueberry.
Katrina began making the cookies years ago as a treat for her family. But she started to get requests from friends when Mharloe posted photos on Facebook. The demand grew, and the Algonquin couple decided to open their bakery in September. And they have a significant amount of Filipino customers.
‘They’re like, ‘Oh my God, nobody makes that here,’” Mharloe said. “I love hearing stories like that, when someone would come here and say, ‘The last time I had this was back in the Philippines.’”
But they also enjoy introducing others to the treat.
“The community has been very supportive,” Katrina said. “We’re just so lucky and glad that they accepted us.”
A pandan sundae pays homage to a Thai treat
Crying Tiger, 51 W. Hubbard St.
Across town, the Southeast Asian restaurant Crying Tiger in River North is serving up nostalgia with its two-tiered toasted coconut sundae, made with coconut sorbet, salted peanuts and pandan-infused caramel. Although the dessert is not green, many Southeast Asian customers light up when they recognize the taste of pandan, said the eatery’s owner and chef, Thai Dang, who is from Vietnam.
“I’m waiting for that reaction,” he said.
Dang tasked pastry chef Juan Gutierrez with creating the dessert to resemble a treat served in the food courts of malls he’s visited in Bangkok, Thailand.
“They cut the coconut open, took the water out, but then filled it back in with ice cream and toasted peanuts and sauce,” Dang said. “I was like, ‘Man, this is amazing.’ Juan did such a great job understanding diving deep into these flavors.”
Known for winning Netflix’s “School of Chocolate” reality competition series, Gutierrez said he is inspired by Asian flavors, and even hopes to open an Asian-inspired bakery in the future. He said he enjoyed the challenge of experimenting with pandan when he joined Crying Tiger.
“What I love about it is how aromatic it is,” said Gutierrez, who also has created desserts at Miru and Summer House. “When you smell it and when you taste it, it gives notes of vanilla, and I put vanilla on everything.”
Gutierrez also has noticed pandan’s surge in popularity.
“Pandan, matcha, ube: Those three items are the new big thing,” he said. “I feel like people are just getting more excited about color. Everybody wants a pretty picture.”
Pandan crinkle cookies, Instagram-ready out of the oven
HaiSous Vietnamese Kitchen, 1800 S. Carpenter St.
Dang is also incorporating pandan at his Pilsen restaurant, HaiSous Vietnamese Kitchen with freshly baked pandan crinkle cookies. The confections are made with flour, pandan extract, young coconut, powdered sugar and orange citrus to mimic pomelo, which is common in Vietnam. They are served with a side of whipped young coconut mousse on the side for dipping.
Dang said he likes the textural contrast of the creased exterior with the interior of the cookie.
“When you bite into it, it’s so soft and tender,” he said. “The guests love it so much that when we run out, they get really upset.”
He said pandan, called “lá dứa” in Vietnamese, is becoming more popular outside of Southeast Asia due to more people traveling and using social media.
“It allows people to be open-minded,” he said.
“This is our food. This is our flavor. As a Vietnamese chef, it is such a great pride of mine to be able to showcase Vietnamese food and Asian ingredients, especially something like pandan.”
Elevating margaritas and root beer floats with pandan
Pandan Restaurant, Viceroy Chicago, 1118 N. State St.
At Viceroy Chicago’s Pandan Restaurant, customers can eat and drink their pandan, if they so choose. In addition to ordering pandan ice cream — separately or with ube flan — they can try out a pandan root beer-inspired cocktail or a pandan margarita.
The latter is prepared with tequila, lemon juice, lime juice, pandan powder, pandan liqueur and a house-made pandan syrup.
The drink is light, refreshing and floral, with notes of vanilla, said Sayo “Chi” Anise, the beverage director at Viceroy Chicago. “A traditional margarita is going to be a lot more punchy,” she said. “This is a way to elevate and soften it.”
The other pandan cocktail, “Not Your Average Float,” is made with rum, amaro, tiki bitters, soda, pandan foam and sarsaparilla, the raw ingredient used in root beer.
Enjoying the drink is a way to “unleash your inner child,” Anise said.
Located on the 18th floor of the hotel and populated with plants, Pandan Restaurant was designed to be a “jungle above the sky,” said Viceroy Chicago Director of Marketing Merrilie Daluz.
“We felt like there was definitely a gap in the market in Chicago,” Daluz said. “You have a lot of Southeast Asian bakeries and restaurants, but that cocktail lounge experience was missing.”
Whether it’s pandan or another trendy ingredient, Anise said she welcomes the opportunity to experiment and create cocktails that are novel but still approachable.
“That’s the best part of what I do,” she said.