Nestled on the west side of Ann Arbor, Michigan is Q Bakehouse & Market, a neighborhood Asian-American bakery and market offering small batch pastries, cakes and prepared food made by hand with seasonal ingredients.

Rachel Liu Martindale is a Taiwanese-Chinese American and University of Michigan alum who has a degree in engineering. Suffering from burnout in the corporate world, the self-taught baker left her job to pursue her passions in the food and beverage industry.

After completing an internship at Ann Arbor cake shop Sweet Heather Anne, Martindale made her first professional cake in the spring of 2017, and thus her business Milk + Honey was born. For a few years it was a side business, which turned into weekly pop-ups in downtown Ann Arbor, before eventually settling in to its first commercial location in Milan, Michigan in January 2020 – right before the world changed.

Milk + Honey weathered the storm of the COVID-19 pandemic, and after five years in business, it rebranded to Q Bakehouse & Market, keeping the cakes and expanding to offer Asian-inspired pastries and foods to reflect Martindale’s heritage. There are many standouts on the menu, including the coffee bun, which features a milk bread bun with coffee pastry cream and a coffee cookie topping. Another item that wowed those in attendance at the tour was the chili crisp scone, made with sharp white cheddar, scallions and chili crisp.

Q is a Taiwanese culinary term used to describe the sought-after bouncy, springy and elastic texture of handmade noodles, mochi, tapioca pearls in boba tea and rice cakes. It’s a texture that is beloved in Taiwanese and Chinese cultures, describing both sweet and savory foods. Saying something is Q is equivalent to the compliment of “not too sweet.”