Organization
Koliyan
Koliyan is a South Philadelphia bakery and kitchen making Cambodian desserts, owned by Moulika Anna Hitchens.[1][2] Her desserts are riffs on her grandmother's Cambodian recipes.[2]
History
In 2013 Koliyan supplied sweets for pop-up events in Philadelphia and multi-course tastings, and sold at festivals. That year Hitchens hoped to open a sit-down café within a year, serving desserts and coffee.[1] Her desserts had also appeared at the Franklin Flea.[2]
In April 2014 Hitchens and Peddler Coffee's Zachary James Urbanski and Richard Kessler signed a lease on a small shared storefront at 806 South 6th Street, where East Passyunk Avenue meets Catharine Street. By June it had opened as part coffee shop, part certified kitchen where Hitchens cooked, and part gathering place, with plans for classes, potlucks and tasting parties once the weather turned too cold for Peddler's road season.[2][3]
By 2015 Koliyan was a vegan, plant-based Cambodian kitchen. The filmmaker Cory Popp made it the first subject of his "Philly Makers" video series on the city's small businesses.[4][5] On February 23, 2015, Koliyan, by then a Cambodian test kitchen that also made vegan fish sauces and taught cooking classes, was invited to share its history and a few dishes at Maker Monday at CultureWorks Greater Philadelphia. The planned dishes were somlaw kokoe, a Cambodian stew, and num treap, sweet sticky rice bites.[6]
Desserts
The desserts are gluten-free.[1][5] Num asom is wrapped in banana leaves around a plantain core with black-eyed peas, and lightly sweetened with cane sugar and shredded jackfruit. Baht bun is made of coconut, cane sugar and cassava, which hardens into a chewy crust around a warm, soft center. Hitchens also makes an agar jelly sweetened with lychee and cane sugar and layered with coconut milk, and durian ice cream with a gluten-free coconut waffle.[1]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Gluten Free Philly, Dearly beloved: gluten-free Cambodian desserts (July 2013)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Philadelphia Magazine, The 806 Experiment: a collaborative business model for Peddler Coffee and Koliyan (June 2014)
- ↑ Philadelphia Magazine, The 806 Experiment (June 2014, restaurants section)
- ↑ The Temple News, Viral video turns spotlight on filmmaker (March 2015)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 The Constitutional Walking Tour of Philadelphia, Uncover Philly with videographer Cory J Popp (November 2015)
- ↑ The Philadelphia Inquirer, #PhillyFive things to do (February 23, 2015)