Hello! 你好 (nǐ hǎo)!
Welcome to Q Bakehouse & Market’s newsletter. We are a neighborhood Asian American (specifically Taiwanese and Chinese) bakery and market on the west side of Ann Arbor, Michigan. We offer a frequently rotating menu of scratch-made pastries and savory food as well as a small selection of pantry items that are almost 100% Taiwanese product.
What Does “Q” Stand For?
Q is a Taiwanese culinary term to describe the sought-after bouncy, springy, and elastic texture of handmade noodles, mochi, tapioca pearls in boba tea, rice cakes, etc. It’s a texture that is well known and loved in Taiwanese and Chinese cultures, similar to what “al dente” is for Italians. Both savory and sweet foods can be described as Q. Saying something is Q is high praise, equivalent to the compliment of “not too sweet!”
Meet Rachel
Hi there! I’m Rachel Liu Martindale, the owner of Q Bakehouse & Market and the writer of this newsletter. I’m a self taught baker and have been running different iterations of baking businesses since 2017 after a tumultuous “quarter life crisis” where I left my engineering career before it ever really started. I’m a mom of a preschool son and a baby girl on the way. Q is a love letter to my cultural roots mixed with my passion for baking.
I started a food blog in college and really enjoyed sharing recipes with others; not only is this newsletter a way to share updates, it’s also the pouring out of my heart, revitalizing and archiving family recipes, and discovering/sharing how to cook and bake the things that feel like home. This newsletter is a way for me to connect with my cultures in what I think is the best possible way: through food.
Why subscribe?
This newsletter is our way of getting information out there. Free subscribers get access to all shop updates and are the first to be “in the know.” As a thank you for subscribing, subscribers get first dibs on any preorder sales.
Paid subscribers have the same perks as above but also get unlocked access to our archive of recipes and get additional recipe newsletters each month.
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