For the past four years, Andrew Hong has been working to establish his own identity apart from the one that has earned him renown in San Jose. Along with his sister, Hong manages the San Jose location of Van’s Bakery. Known for its Vietnamese, Chinese and French confections, Van’s was founded in 1985 by Hong’s parents in Southern California. Today, the bakery has outposts in Los Angeles, Orange and Santa Clara counties.
Known online as Droo the Baker, Hong has garnered a Bay Area following for his creative take on mooncakes and his baking skills in general. In early February, Hong brought his baked goods to the “thoughtfully curated” Albany gift store Morningtide, which hosts pop-ups on its front doorstep every weekend. Two men with robust 9 o’clock shadows stood next to each other, eyeing the small jewel boxes containing Topogato Chocolates and answering customers’ questions in tandem.
For each one of his Droo pop-ups, he curates about a half-dozen items. “One’s going to be a type of cream puff. The flavor will change depending on the location,” he said. “Then sliced cakes and jar desserts.”
Upcoming locations included this month include Coffee & Water Lab in San Jose, 1 Oz Coffee in Mountain View, and 365 Night Market in the Grand Century Mall.
Droo’s Vietnamese honeycomb cake is a bestseller. Tinged green from pandan, it’s as light as an angel food cake. Air bubbles form in the batter when it bakes. Out of the oven, the hardened bubbles resemble, abstractly, the shape of a honeycomb. “Most recipes use single-acting baking powder,” Hong said. “You also preheat your pans. Once you pour the batter in, it’s going to start that reaction right away that causes those bubbles to form.”
I was also lucky enough to try a “Choux: Linda,” his cream puff named in honor of Belinda Leong, the baker behind b. patisserie. A crisp hazelnut craquelin crowned the choux pastry, which, in turn, held a sumptuous combination of vanilla cream diplomat, cassis jam and a hazelnut buttercream. Hong first tasted those flavors together at b. patisserie. “I had their cake and that blew me away because it was my first time ever having cassis,” he said. “They don’t have hazelnuts in their cake, but I thought that was a nice nut pairing to make a little trio of flavors.”
Mooncakes, according to Hong, are generally round with a yolk in the middle to symbolize the harvest moon. “It’s supposed to be a time for gathering; to give thanks and hope for a bountiful harvest,” he said. Home cooks and professional bakers make them every year to celebrate the Lunar New Year. While making them at Van’s, Hong discovered how labor-intensive they are.
In his Droo the Baker incarnation, he decided to tweak his mother’s mooncake recipes to modernize them while maintaining their essence. “I don’t want to throw in Nutella or make it super Americanized,” Hong said. “But I wanted to take a stab at creating my own flavors.”
He makes his red-bean mooncakes with a raspberry dough. “Nothing too crazy, just different flavor combinations. Lookswise, tastewise, it sounds different but when you eat it, it’s still very much a mooncake,” he said. On a trip to Vietnam, he tried a drink that mixed pandan, coconut and macadamia nuts together. This combination inspired his variation on a snow-skin mooncake, a version that’s coated in a rice skin reminiscent of mochi.
Hong believes the term “Asian fusion” doesn’t really apply to his methodology. “When the term was first coined and got popular, it was primarily meant for restaurants,” he said. “For baking and pastry, it doesn’t really apply. It’s more like an Asian influence.”
Eventually he’d like to have a brick-and-mortar of his own, but for the short-term he’ll continue with monthly pop-ups and bake sales. For the past couple of years, he’s been gauging what customers respond to at a variety of different coffee and tea shops.
“I need to build a strong enough customer base and also, for me, to experiment and see what people like,” Hong said. “I want to get feedback so I can also grow and build a more solid identity and business.”
Upcoming pop-ups: March 9 at Coffee & Water Lab in San Jose, 11:30am–2:30pm; March 16 at 1 Oz Coffee in Mountain View, 11:30am-2pm; and March 28-29 at 365 Night Market in the Grand Century Mall in San Jose, 4–11pm. Visit droothebaker.com or follow @droothebaker on Instagram to confirm Hong’s schedule.
