Back in December 2025, I bought my first stand mixer to finally try baking. My only experience with baking is from baking pre-made cake mixes and making cupcakes in an oven toaster or a full cake in a rice cooker. Where I'm from, it's not common for families to have ovens, some would have an oven toaster and that's it. I've always wanted to bake but something always got in the way. When I was young and lived with my parents, every time I tried to bake, my mother would get mad at me for wasting electricity. When I finally started renting a condo, I moved quite often and every unit only had small kitchenettes. Renting condos in the Philippines is not the same as renting an apartment here in Austria. A lot of units often come fully furnished and in small sizes. It's uncommon for people to just purchase pricey furnitures and bring them into their apartments unless they decide to live there for a long time.

To be honest, it's not even something I thought about often. I lived in Metro Manila where I can get any kind of food I want. Even when I decided to do low carb, there were several ghost kitchens offering prepared meals including desserts that fit your diet. But now that I have none of those conveniences, I rent my own apartment, and I have a space with an actual oven, I decide to finally try baking for real. I've been complimented for my cooking but baking felt intimidating to me. I expected to make a lot of mistakes.

Pan de Siosa

This was the first thing I made. It's a pull-apart bread that originally looks nothing like the one I made. The first problem is that I didn't have a mould. When they bake, they are supposed to squeeze together and rise up a bit more but since I just placed them in the tray, they just expanded sideways. Still, it smelled and tasted just like what I have from my memory. It's less fluffy but still tasted nice. While making this, I also learned how to make Russian buttercream - a mix of butter, vanilla, salt, and condensed milk.

Silvanas

The second thing I made is silvanas. It's a cookie made of two meringue cashew cookies pressed together with a buttercream in the middle that is then covered with a bit more buttercream so more crushed cashews and biscuits can stick to the surface. I didn't have cream of tartar so it was hard to reach the required batter consistency. I also didn't follow the directions of having it reach "stiff peaks" before adding more sugar so I ended up with a very liquid batter. I decided to save it by using muffin pans so it could keep the round shape.

While making silvanas, I also learned how to make sabayon buttercream which is made by mixing pasteurised egg yolks, sugar, and softened butter. I just whisked the egg yolks in a bowl that's placed over boiling water until the mixture turned almost white then I slowly mixed in the sugar and then the butter until smooth.

Carrot Cake

My boyfriend's sister makes really good carrot cakes. I could eat half the entire cake in one day but when I started eating low carb, I had to eat only a very thin slice of it. I decided to search for low carb recipes online. The carrot cake below is made with almond flour and is very dense. I mixed in some chopped walnuts for extra texture.

While making these, I also learned how to make some cream cheese frosting which is just a mix of softened cream cheese, butter, sweetener, and vanilla extract. I topped it off with some cinnamon.

Burnt Basque Cheesecake

This is my favourite of them all. This time, I actually followed one recipe with just a slight modification. Since I didn't have enough cream cheese, I substituted some of it with my home made Greek yogurt. It still turned out pretty well. I have since made this cheesecake thrice and I honestly preferred the ones with the Greek yogurt. The recipe I followed can be found here.

What Else Did I Learn?

• There's a ton of sugar in baked goods. You might say, 'Duh?' I've seen baking recipes before so I know how much sugar goes into baked goods but it's a different kind of "knowing" when you bake it yourself and have to measure the amount of sugar for a single recipe. It takes so much just to get a tiny bit of sweetness. It makes me wonder how much more of that you need for really sweet desserts.
• Making your own sweets is easy and somewhat relaxing. In the past month, I never bought snacks aside from nuts and fruits. Now that I kinda know how to bake, I try to limit my baking to once a week and just make a batch that's good for a week. It's a nice break from working in front of the computer.

Materials

• Barrina T5 LED Plant Lamp, Yellow, 29 cm, Full Spectrum Sunlight, Chainable Grow Lamp, LED Grow Light Strip with Switch, Plug and Play
• MICCYE Plant Lamp LED with Stand UV-IR Full Spectrum 286 LEDs Grow Lamp with 4/8/12H Timer, Dimmable
• Masterblend 4-18-38 Complete Combination Hydroponic Fertiliser Set, Hydroponic Nutrient System
• A USB fan

A few months ago, I posted about my first experience in growing cherry tomatoes and how I started growing them indoors again. Here's the post:

My Experiences From Trying To Grow Cherry Tomatoes

First Experience (Outdoors) The first time I grew cherry tomatoes was in 2020 during the pandemic on the balcony of my condo unit in Metro Manila, Philippines. After killing a thyme plant from a grow kit, I did some research on other ways to grow plants and one of the

Grow. Cook. Code.grococo

I wasn't expecting much since I read a lot of posts from people online who have trouble making the tomatoes fruit or ripen indoors but about a month after that post, I harvested a few cherry tomatoes and threw them in my salad. I realised that I harvested them a bit too early. They weren't really ripe enough and the fruits weren't so sweet.

There were times when I got too busy or lazy to deal with any of the plants so they just grew wildly. Since I use a timer to turn the grow lights on and off, this wasn't really a problem. Growing them hydroponically also helped because the water + nutrient buckets they were in could last for several weeks. I was surprised to look up one day (the plants were upstairs) and see several fruits of different colours - green, orange, and red. I climbed up and took pictures.

Light

Engulfed by the leaves are three pieces of Barrina T5 LEDs. I tried drilling them to the ceiling but it was too messy. I tried taping them to the ceiling and unsurprisingly, it didn't work so I just clipped them on to the net over the fence. Of course, these three lights weren't enough to grow tomatoes. I added more light support with a standing LED lamp from MICCYE. I placed it facing the fence where the plants are. I bought everything from Amazon.

Pollination

Since there's no wind and pollinators indoors, I first tried to pollinate the flowers myself. Using a cotton swab, I rubbed the centre of the flowers. After some fruits formed and several flowers appeared, I got too overwhelmed and decided to use a USB fan instead. I just angled it so the air "wiggles" the branches where the flowers are. I switched up the angle every few days or until I see fruits forming.

Automation

Nothing fancy here. Just a good old timer set up to make sure the plants get at least 16 hours of light per day. You need less if you're growing outside but grow lights are less intense than the sun. For the timer, I just bought one of those 3 EUR socket timers.

While this wasn't the best condition and you can see signs of neglect when I basically forgot about the plants, they still managed to produce fruits. Tomatoes are just great like that. Some of the fruits were so red and ripe so I decided to harvest them. This time, they tasted very sweet.

This post is a bit late and I have cleared up the space upstairs and removed the tomato plants last autumn. It was sad cutting off the living plants and throwing them into the compost but I knew from the beginning that it would just be an experiment if I could do this in Austria, indoors, without heaters or expensive LED lights, etc. I'm just so tired of reading stuff online like "you need X watts, humidifiers, a heater, a mylar tent, and this and that to grow tomatoes indoors, otherwise don't even think about it". I want to try things out myself. If it fails, so what?

For this space upstairs, I placed several golden pothos with climbing poles next to the fence. I'm hoping that it would grow high and thick enough to make some kind of "wall of leaves". Then I will probably place a mat and turn it into some kind of nook for reading, drinking tea, or just a quiet place surrounded by plants in general.

When we visited Greece last October 2025, I was only expecting to be by the beach again and hopefully eat a lot of seafood. Seafood is expensive and doesn't have much variety in Austria for geographical reasons. I lived most of my life in the Philippines where you can find seafood everywhere - grocery stores, small eateries, street food vendors, restaurants, and fastfood chains. Even McDonald's sometimes offer shrimp burgers and fish & fries. After living in Austria for three years where this isn't the norm, re-living this lifestyle in Greece made me very happy.

Restaurant Anna

On our first day in Paros, the receptionist highly recommended "Restaurant Anna". I'm usually a bit skeptic of recommendations but we decided to try it anyway. We went there for dinner and every dish we ordered was fresh and delicious. The owner and waiters were also very nice and gave us free desserts that we still managed to enjoy despite us already being very full. A few days later, we decided to go back there for dinner again to try their other dishes.

Restaurant Anna · Δρυός 844 00, Griekenland

★★★★★ · Restaurant

Restaurant Anna · Δρυός 844 00, Griekenland

The servings were generous and while the free dessert looked simple, it tasted a lot better than it looks. The Greek yogurt was cold and very thick, it was like eating gelato and the fruit jam had big chunks of fruit. It didn't taste too sweet, it was just right. It was funny to see another tourist eat the dessert, close his eyes, smile, and nod. It tasted THAT good.

Taverna Julia

On another day, we visited a restaurant called "Taverna Julia". Here, we really failed to finish our food. Not only did we order mostly fried food, we also ate the bread that every restaurant in this area leave on the table. All the dishes were delicious but they weren't as good as the previous restaurant but maybe it's not a fair comparison due to the type of food we ordered. The sausage was really good though.

Taverna Julia · Unnamed Road, Drios 844 00, Griekenland

★★★★★ · Restaurant

Taverna Julia · Unnamed Road, Drios 844 00, Griekenland

My excitement for visiting Greece was mostly for the seafood so I wasn't expecting the sausage to be so delicious. It was a great surprise. The fried small shrimps with shells reminded me of the Philippines. Back home, we ate this with vinegar but in Greece, we ate it with lemon. Same function, I guess. I really enjoyed eating this dish although I know it's not for everyone but the shells add extra crunch and taste to the dish.

Walking Around Parikia

On another day, we visited the main port, Parikia. It was sunny and there weren't many people. Several restaurants were still open and we weren't really sure where to eat. In the afternoon, we tried some Greek coffee at a place called "Secret Cafe". Neither of us is a fan of this coffee, unfortunately. Still, it was a nice place to rest and pass the time before checking out the old town.

Bountaraki

After walking around the old town, we decided to eat dinner at a place called "Bountaraki". This place seemed to have a lot more locals in it. The waitress who served us was super friendly. She joked about us giving some of our Baklava to an old man who raved so much about it. Sorry, old man, the Baklava is ours. That old man was eating at the table next to us. He is a local and is very friendly. Before we were served our dessert, he approached us to introduce himself, had a bit of small-talk with my partner and complimented the Baklava.

Bountaraki · ΠΑΡΟΙΚΙΑ-ΠΑΡΟΣ ΜΠΟΥΝΤΑΡΑΚΙ ΠΑΡΟΣ, Paros 844 00, Griekenland

★★★★★ · Grieks restaurant

Bountaraki · ΠΑΡΟΙΚΙΑ-ΠΑΡΟΣ ΜΠΟΥΝΤΑΡΑΚΙ ΠΑΡΟΣ, Paros 844 00, Griekenland

While eating our Baklava, it started raining outside where we were seated. It looked like even the rain wanted our dessert. We hurried inside and finished eating. While waiting for the rain to stop, it was hard to resist the temptation of ordering another one but we were so full, we just decided to wait until we can walk around the old town again.

Let's switch our focus off the Baklava and talk about the Dakos salad. They served us this big bowl of salad with some kind of croutons in it that they call "rusks". All the other ingredients like tomatoes, cheese, capers, olives, and others tasted so fresh, it changed my view on salads. Before this trip, I was never really a fan of salads. I even disliked tomatoes at some point while living in Austria. Aside from a few exceptions, whenever I hear "salad" in the West, I think about lettuce and I find that so boring. On our first week of arrival in Austria, Dakos salad was one of the first dishes I made. I really liked it a lot.

Restaurant Anna (Again)

Our one week of stay in Greece was about to end and we wanted to enjoy a full day of just chilling at the beach before we leave. We decided to eat at Restaurant Anna again and order some take-away for the next day.

Conclusion

I'm really happy we visited Paros, Greece. Aside from the beach and the delicious seafood, I learned a new salad recipe that I know I can always enjoy.

Some time around March, I started growing potatoes in grow bags. I'm not sure about the variety of the potatoes but they were small and tasted the best out of all the potato varieties I've eaten in this country so I decided to grow them - the same decision-making I used when I grew cherry tomatoes. That's also the fun part about growing crops. When you buy something from the store and you like it, you can take its seeds and grow it yourself. It probably wouldn't save you time and money but it's enjoyable and you learn something from it.

Starting Indoors

We usually buy a bag of potatoes and some of them sprout over time or get those white bumps on the surface. We should probably do a better job in storing them but it doesn't matter because that's exactly what I wanted anyway. Once the potatoes have sprouted, I buried them in a soil mix (coco coir, soil, perlite, rice hull) in a grow bag. I left the bag under a table and waited for green plants to come out. It took maybe two weeks or more before I saw some green coming out of the soil but soon after that, they started growing really fast.

Moving Outside

In April, I moved the bags outside on the balcony. I watered them every few days. To be honest, I don't remember. I only just started using a tracker for my plants. I probably fertilised them too often as well. Almost every week when the plants have grown tall enough, I would "hill" them or add more soil until most of the plants are covered. Roots are supposed to grow from the buried stems and those roots should grow potatoes. This process was easier using a grow bag because I just had to keep unfolding the bag every time I added more soil. I noticed some roots growing out through the bags but apparently, this doesn't really harm the plants because those roots will be air-pruned anyway or when the roots exposed to dry air stops growing and trigger the plants to grow new roots.

By the second week of May, the leaves have exploded. I even saw some flowering. I read online that these could be caused by too much fertiliser. I have some hydroponics plants and whenever I re-filled their containers, I mixed the leftover nutrients with more water and used it to water my potato plants. I should take note not to do that in the future.

The leaves started browning around the second week of June. I was excited and nervous because I couldn't see if there's actually anything growing in there. I was afraid I might have messed up too much and end up growing nothing in the end. I just kept in mind that I'm just doing it for fun and to learn for the first time.

I had three grow bags and they didn't brown at the same phase. By the end of June, the one in the middle had all its leaves turn brown. I put one hand in there and felt a potato! It was an amazing feeling! I actually grew something. I excitedly called my boyfriend over to the balcony to feel it himself. Is this how people feel when a child kicks inside them for the first time? At this point, I wasn't sure how much potatoes I will get but something actually grew and for a first-timer like me, that's awesome.

Harvesting and Curing

After a few more days, I was ready to harvest the potatoes.

I put the potatoes in a basket and covered them up with some cloth. I made sure there's enough airflow but that light doesn't pass through. I read that this process is called "curing". It's done to thicken the skin of the potatoes, let some "wounds" heal, and prepare them for storage. You are not supposed to wash them until you're ready to cook them. I just removed as much dirt as I could before curing.

Since there weren't many potatoes, I decided to cook them all after a week.

I paired the potatoes with some pork steak covered in mushrooms and gravy. They were delicious! I can't wait to harvest the two other bags. Maybe I can grow another batch before Winter comes.

Prior to this experience, I had the mental image of potatoes just growing in the void underground. Sure, I've seen some time-lapse of potatoes growing underground and I know how the potatoes are formed but I felt like I only truly "knew" when I dug them up and plucked each one off the roots. It's really like plucking an apple off its stem. The mark that it left on each potato, I don't think I've ever noticed them in my years of buying potatoes from the grocery stores. I saw the marks but never really cared or understood what they were.

What's Next?

• I want to see how the other two grow bags perform. Maybe they will produce more and bigger potatoes. I will post an update.
• Learning from my mistakes:
  • I will keep a tracker from now on to prevent fertilising too often. Maybe my hydroponics nutrients is not the best for this purpose as well, I have to do some research on that.
  • It's possible that I put too many seed potatoes in one bag. That could have led to having many potatoes but most of them in smaller sizes. I don't remember how much I put in one bag, could use a tracker there as well!

I have several basil plants growing under grow lights inside the apartment. Like most people, I put several seeds per one grow sponge to make sure at least one of them germinates. Usually, you clip off the weaker seedlings and leave just one but I decided to keep all of them so I often end up crowding the small containers I put them in. The containers I use are random - plastic cups, medicine bottles, glass jars from pasta sauce, milk bottles, etc. I had a phase where I drank a lot of iced coffee in 250ml cup containers so I washed and re-used those cups to grow my plants hydroponically. Many articles online advise against using such small containers but I just use whatever I have and work with what little space I have. But working with 250ml containers means re-filling the nutrients every week and as the plant grows, especially if you have multiple ones per cup, it becomes inconvenient to re-fill the nutrients more often which beats the purpose of hydroponics for me.

Resolution Through Propagation

This didn't turn out to be a big deal when I first tried to propagate basil. In the beginning, I used a rooting hormone but when I was lazy, I just clipped the stems, removed the lower leaves (and used them in dishes), and put them directly into water. They grew roots really fast even without the rooting hormone - less than a week. This is how I started allocating one plant per cup. Once I see two or more plants have grown enough leaves in one cup, I clip them off until only one plant remains in the cup. I soak each clipping in their own respective cups and wait for them to grow roots before adding in some nutrients.

Transferring to Soil Outdoors

Our balcony looked abandoned since we moved to the apartment in autumn last year. When spring came and it got warmer, I decided to move some of the plants outside to make some space in my office which I haven't used for months because it has turned into a jungle. I bought some planters online and thought it would be nice to have a box for herbs. I transplanted the rooted basil plants to the planter with a soil mix (coco coir, perlite, rice husk, and soil).

In the first few days up to a week, I regretted this decision because it seemed like the plants weren't adjusting well with the sudden change from hydroponics to soil and indoor to outdoor. The leaves were droopy and they didn't fill the planter too well (there were some bald spots). A wise person would acclimate them slowly by exposing them outdoors for a few hours each day for some time before leaving them out completely and letting them adjust to soil indoors at first. But while that wise person is a part of me, sometimes the "what if we do this, maybe we learn something new" part of me wins and that's exactly what happened here.

After a week, I stopped regretting my decision. The leaves have some small marks on them and less than perfect compared to when it was growing indoors hydroponically but that is expected. The basil plants have adjusted to their new situation and they are thriving. I noticed that the smell of the leaves have also gotten stronger and more fragrant. In addition to the other plants I placed outside, it became more pleasant to sit outside on the balcony.

Water spinach, also known as Morning Glory or Kangkong, is a staple vegetable where I was from. While there's a different variety of spinach available in Austria, I prefer the taste of water spinach. It's mild, crunchy, and has a bit of a nutty taste. I decided to order some seeds online, soaked them in water for 24 hours, and placed them in net cups together with some hydroton or clay pebbles. I bought a sieve tray that fits my buckets well, placed the net cups there, and submerged the bottom of the net cups in water. After a few days, leaves started sprouting from the seeds.

Below are the products I used:

• 10 liter bucket
• 10 cm tray

I started adding a little bit of nutrients into the water, very diluted. For example, if the instructions said that for 5 ml of nutrients, add 1.5 litres of water, I added 3 litres instead. My idea was to feed those that already grew leaves while not causing nutrient burn and also harming the seeds that haven't sprouted yet. I placed a small oxygen stone in the bucket to add aeration. I checked the water level every few days to make sure that it's still hitting the base of the net cup. After a few weeks, the plants were all grown, some of them climbed up to one of the LED cables. I have these plants under a computer table that was given to me by someone who doesn't use it anymore.

It's normal for some seeds not to germinate so I had some net cups that didn't have anything growing in them. When this happened, I took cuttings from the ones that already grew tall or had about six leaves on them. I made sure that the cutting and the plant I'm cutting from both had two-three leaves so they could still absorb light and grow. I left the cuttings in a cup of water and waited a few days for them to grow roots. I then placed the plants with roots into the net cups to join the rest of the plants in the bucket. Soon, each net cup had 1-3 plants growing in them.

My pak choi plants didn't do as well as the water spinach indoors but after a few weeks out in the sun, they were thriving. I was able to harvest them at the same time and added them to a soup dish. Nothing beats the taste of a dish cooked with vegetables that you've just harvested! Knowing that you grew them yourself adds more satisfaction to it.

Preparation for Outdoor Growing

Around May, when the weather was getting warmer, I started getting the plants ready to be put outside. I decided to transfer them from hydroponics to soil just because it's easier - I don't have to deal with sealing my containers in case it rains and dilutes the nutrients inside.

1. I cut up some plastic milk containers and drilled holes at the bottom for drainage.
2. I filled it halfway up with my soil mix (coco coir, soil, perlite, and rice hull).
3. I transferred the plants that have grown roots from the cup of water to the container.
4. I filled it all the way up with more soil mix.
5. I kept the plants indoors and waited a week to see if they will grow or die.

The plants had no problem adjusting from hydroponics to soil. At the moment, some of my pak choi plants are being ravaged by whiteflies and I'm trying to cure them so I decided not to put the water spinach outside. It's really nice to have some plants outside in the summer and I want to learn how to deal with pests and diseases but this is the clear upside of growing plants indoors hydroponically. I never had to deal with pests until now.

What's next?

• I will figure out a better setup so my room can accommodate growing more greens like water spinach and pak choi.
• I will try to learn how to deal with pests outside.

This dish is simple, healthy, and doesn't require too many ingredients. It's not the most beautiful looking dish out there but it tastes really good, often eaten with ketchup.

Ingredients:
- eggplant (one eggplant per egg)
- egg
- salt
- pepper
- oil

Instructions:
1. Grill or boil the eggplants
2. Set aside or drain (if you chose the boiling method)
3. Peel off the skin or leave it on, whichever you prefer
4. Repeatedly press a fork down into the eggplant to flatten it
5. Season with salt and pepper
6. Dip it in beaten eggs
7. Heat some oil in the pan, just enough to cover the surface of the pan
8. Pan-fry one side of the eggplant and then the other side until brown

You can dip the fried eggplants again in the remaining eggs if you don't want to waste what's left and then fry it again. I sometimes do this and it makes it more crispy.

Methods

There are multiple methods of cooking and softening the eggplants, the two most common ones for this dish are:

• grilling - the traditional way
• boiling - an alternative way if you don't have a grill

Eggplant Varieties

If you have the longer but thinner variety of eggplants which is common in the Philippines, you can grill or boil it as is. Do not remove the stem or the top part of the eggplant, this helps keep the vegetable intact as it softens.

If you have the rounder variety of eggplants like what we have here in Austria, you have to cut it in half. When you cut it in half, make sure to also cut the stem or the top part of the eggplant in half so that each half stays intact.

Keeping the stem intact makes it easier to flip the eggplant when we pan-fry them. It also makes it look nicer and easier to share.

After I bought my first hydroponics kit, I stopped buying most of its parts except for the nutrients. I've always been curious how I can make the nutrients myself. I also wondered why when planting in soil, it seems to be the default to buy a bag of soil and some fertiliser. I know you can compost food scraps and make a nutrient-rich soil but what if I want nutrients that I can also use for hydroponics? I want to make both my hydroponic plants and soil plants happy.

While looking up composting, "bokashi" came up. As someone who lives in an apartment with a small balcony and no garden, the idea of a pre-composting method that requires little space and produces no foul smell was appealing to me. I ordered a set of two bokashi bins including a bag of bokashi bran from Amazon.

I placed our kitchen scraps - egg shells, vegetable trimmings, banana peels, pieces of brown paper bags shredded into small pieces, and even small pieces of meat. Yes, meat is allowed in bokashi. I was reminded of my cherry tomatoes that grew so many branches and leaves. I trimmed them every week and kept the leaves out in the open until they are brown. I put the brown leaves in the bokashi bin. I added some fresh leaves too. I also have some Thai red chilli plants that grow a lot of "suckers" or little plants at the base. Now I can put them to good use.

I followed the instructions - sprinkle a bit of bokashi bran into the bottom of the bin, add a layer of food waste (about 1 in or 2.5 cm), add 1 tablespoon of bokashi bran, layer of food waste again, bran, repeat.

The bins came with rubber lids that are supposed to help push the materials down and remove air since this method works through anaerobic (without oxygen) fermentation.

I add food scraps to the bin and check the bottom of the bin for liquid every few days. It's recommended to collect the liquid to avoid foul smell. It was after a week that my bin produced what is called "bokashi tea". It's the nutrient-rich liquid produced during fermentation. The liquid smelled like alcohol and.. banana. I remember putting only three banana peelings in there but it doesn't matter. The point is it didn't smell foul at all and that's a good thing since I have the bins in my office.

I read that you are supposed to use the liquid within 24 hours of collection. At the time, I just fertilised my plants so I ended up using the liquid to clean up the drains in the apartment. I read that it's good at breaking down debris. I just poured it directly down the drains, left it for a few hours and then washed it off with water. The liquid can also be added to existing compost piles to speed up the process of composting.

I will keep posting updates about this topic since this process takes a while. Next, I would like to:

• Make a comparison of two plants where one is supplemented with bokashi tea
• Harvest the solids from the bin and turn them into soil

The first time I had a project involving artificial intelligence as we know it today, ChatGPT wasn't a household name yet. I was one of two software engineers working with a group of data scientists. If we wanted to extract specific details (e.g. names, addresses, etc.) from a document, we used regular expressions and the library "spaCy". Dealing with typos is another thing. Performing such a task was more tedious back then.

These days, anyone can access LLMs for free. Just paste a document to ChatGPT and ask it to extract names, addresses, etc. You will get your answers in a few seconds. But with this convenience comes a bigger challenge and that's figuring out if the information presented to you is even based on an actual source or if it was made up. Machines have become so good at presenting their answers with such confidence that many people just believe them.

I experienced this while testing out Google's Gemini Gems last March 2025. I asked it to tell me the subject of the last email I received. It gave me an answer that seemed convincing at first but after checking my inbox, I had no email like that at all and I don't remember ever seeing that email. After trying it out again today, it gave me a correct answer. The thing is I asked for information I already knew about so I was able to easily identify that the answer given to me was wrong. But for a regular use case, we ask LLMs questions that we don't know the answer to.

As a Normal User

To verify if the answers you get are factual, you can check the sources or citations. Tools like Perplexity.ai and Google Gemini already include this in their answers. In Perplexity.ai, there is the "sources" tab and in every few sentences, you will see numbers that you can click on.

In Google Gemini, you will see the hyperlink symbol. Clicking on these icons will send you to the source of the information.

After checking the sources, it's now up to you to decide whether the source is credible just like you normally would when you search for information using a regular search engine like Google Search.

As a Software Engineer / AI Engineer

The title doesn't matter as long as your role involves using LLMs to provide answers or generate content, this could be useful to you. DeepEval is an open-source LLM evaluation framework. It has several useful metrics including the hallucination metric.

Basic Question and Answer

Let's say you have an online shop and you decided to add a chatbot that customers can ask questions to. You use several document and database sources (e.g. product specifications, instructions, inventory table, etc.) together with a base LLM. A customer asks, "How much does the blue ogre miniature cost?" Your chatbot responds with a price except there is no blue ogre in the inventory.

This is a simplified example, ideally you would have a table with the size, colour, and other details about the product but this is just to showcase what this evaluation framework can do. Below is an example test case for this. Assuming that you have deepeval installed, save this code as `test_chatbot.py`

from deepeval import evaluate
from deepeval.metrics import HallucinationMetric
from deepeval.test_case import LLMTestCase

context=["A highly detailed 28mm-scale green ogre miniature, standing 55mm tall and cast in durable resin, features interchangeable weapon options and comes unpainted with a 40mm base for use in tabletop games. Price: $15"]
actual_output="The price of the blue ogre miniature is $15."

test_case = LLMTestCase(
    input="How much does the blue ogre miniature cost?",
    actual_output=actual_output,
    context=context
)
metric = HallucinationMetric(threshold=0.5)
evaluate(test_cases=[test_case], metrics=[metric])

Now run the test by entering this command from your terminal: `deepeval test run test_chatbot.py`. In the results below, you can see that the test failed and the reason is provided - there is no blue ogre miniature. This evaluation is based on the `context` provided. The context is an excerpt from a source (e.g. a paragraph in a document) where the model pulls the information from in order to answer a specific query. This is a big topic on its own and I will discuss how this works in a separate article. For now, think of it as your source of truth.

Now change the value of `actual_output` in your code to "There is no blue ogre miniature available but there is a green variety. The price of the green ogre miniature is $15." and run the evaluation again.

Now it's successful. Technically, it didn't answer the question about the price of the blue ogre but that's the point. LLMs don't think like humans do. You will find that a lot of times, it strives to give you an answer - any answer, even if it's wrong or made up.

Long-Form Content Generation

While the approach above would also work here, generated content using LLMs in long format is even more difficult to evaluate. It usually involves a bigger set of sources and longer responses unlike basic Q&A chatbots. If you are getting several pages of content as a response, how do you even begin to test it? You can start with generating synthetic tests. Both DeepEval and Ragas have synthetic test generators. You can supply these tools with your documents and they can generate sample datasets that you can use for your evaluation. I will go into more detail about synthetic tests in another article but basically, take the test case in the code snippet below:

context=["A highly detailed 28mm-scale green ogre miniature, standing 55mm tall and cast in durable resin, features interchangeable weapon options and comes unpainted with a 40mm base for use in tabletop games. Price: $15"]
actual_output="The price of the blue ogre miniature is $15."

test_case = LLMTestCase(
    input="How much does the blue ogre miniature cost?",
    actual_output=actual_output,
    context=context
)

That's one test case. Now imagine manually creating multiple test cases for all the different possible inputs or questions that a user might ask - dreadful. Now imagine using a tool to automatically generate those tests for you - nice.

I've seen many people dismiss the value of setting up an evaluation framework because it's "a lot of work" and settle for manual human evaluation instead where they literally just look at paragraphs of content and decide whether it's good or not. You hear the phrase "vibe check" a lot and this is just another example. Often, the content passed some human's vibe check and fails many of the concrete evaluation metrics in place. Just like in every type of code, both manual and automated tests are important.

The hallucination metric is only one out of many metrics that can be used to test your model's performance. In future articles, I will discuss other helpful metrics, how to use them, and what they are for.

I've been using Perplexity AI a lot lately. For many topics, it has become my default search engine. Instead of scrolling through a list of links from traditional search engines, it's just more convenient to have all the information compiled and presented to me in a readable format. As long as you make it a point to check the citations or links to its sources when researching facts, I think it's a pretty good tool.

Figuring out what to cook out of whatever ingredients we have in the kitchen takes a lot of time and can often be stressful. Scrolling through different websites, closing pop-ups, and skipping all the way down to where the actual recipe is only to find out that there are several main ingredients that I don't have is time-consuming. Since this is a common thing that I'll be searching for, I decided to explore Perplexity AI's Spaces feature.

What Are Spaces?

According to the Perplexity AI's official website: "Spaces allow you to organize your Threads and files by topic or project, making it easier to collaborate and manage research." In simple terms, it's a dedicated space for a specific topic that you can go back to anytime you want without having to provide specific instructions every time you use it. Let's go ahead and create our own space to understand it better and see how this could be useful to you.

• Install Perplexity AI on your device or go to https://www.perplexity.ai
• On the left side, click "Spaces" and then "Create a Space"
• Type in whatever title or emoji (not required) you want
• Enter the instructions, you can copy the example below:

You are a helpful culinary assistant. When a user provides a list of ingredients they have on hand, suggest 2-3 recipes they can make using only those ingredients. For each recipe, include:
- The dish name
- A brief description
- The main ingredients used (from the user’s list)
- Optional additional ingredients or substitutions
- Basic preparation steps

If the user specifies dietary preferences or restrictions (e.g., vegetarian, gluten-free), make sure your suggestions comply. Be straightforward and keep instructions as simple as possible.

Example Input:
chicken, soy sauce, vinegar, peppercorns, garlic

Example Output:
Chicken Adobo
A popular savoury dish in the Philippines. The chicken is marinated overnight and is known for its savory, tangy, and sometimes slightly sweet taste, often served with white rice. 

Main ingredients: chicken, soy sauce, vinegar, peppercorns, garlic
Optional additions: bay leaves, ground black pepper

Preparation:
- Marinade: Mix soy sauce, vinegar, peppercorns and garlic together
- Marinade the chicken overnight
- Brown the chicken in oil
- Put the rest of the marinade mixture into the pan and simmer until cooked

After clicking "Save", you can access the "Dish Helper" under "Spaces" anytime you want. Just type in all of the ingredients that you have.

Spaces are pre-prompted similar to having your own custom GPT (ChatGPT from OpenAI) for free. A similar tool is Google's Gemini Gems. "Pre-prompted" means that it is provided with initial instructions or contexts that is followed for every query that you make. In this case:

• Initial instructions (pre-prompt) - the instructions you enter upon creation of the space.
• Query - the ingredients you enter while in the space (e.g. beef, onion, etc.)

Not satisfied with the output? You can edit the space anytime you want and tweak the instructions to your liking.

The first time I grew cherry tomatoes was in 2020 during the pandemic on the balcony of my condo unit in Metro Manila, Philippines. After killing a thyme plant from a grow kit, I did some research on other ways to grow plants and one of the things that came up was hydroponics. Looking back, I probably killed many of my plants due to overwatering. I ordered my first hydroponics kit online. The kit contained a small container with six holes on the lid, net cups, sponges, an air stone, and an oxygen pump. The "quiet" pump was really loud so I decided to order a USB air pump and I've been using the same thing since.

Eventually, the tomatoes grew too big for the container. I remember having several trips to the hardware store just to find a suitable container only to end up getting a semi-transparent one. Big mistake! I had algae issues and I had to wrap the containers up with aluminium foil. It wasn't the internet's fault, I ignored its warning of using transparent containers but I guess I just had to learn through experience. My thought was that if I used transparent containers, it would be easier for me to see the water level.

When I harvested the tomatoes, I was amazed of how good they looked. I compared them with what we had in the grocery stores. They also tasted a lot better. It was then that I knew it wouldn't be the last time I'll be growing crops.

Second Experience (Indoors)

Winter 2025 in Graz, Austria. I decided to try and grow cherry tomatoes again. For some reason, I didn't like the tomatoes here as much as the ones back in the Philippines. One day, we picked a different variety and it was so good, I decided to collect the seeds and grow them.

I received an IKEA computer desk from someone because they had no use for it anymore. I attached some LED lamps to the underside of the desk and placed my plants below it.

The plants grew so fast and it was still Winter so I had to find a spot where the plants could crawl and the underside of a desk just wouldn't work anymore. I live in an apartment with high ceilings and my office had an "upstairs" area with a fence. I placed the net and the plants there. A few weeks later..

Status as of May 2025

It is now Spring. I've cut off some stems and put them in water to grow some roots. My plan is to put them outside on the balcony where they could get more heat and sunlight once they are ready. I would still keep the ones I have indoors.

This plant was given to me by our landlord when we moved into the new apartment in Autumn. He requested us to keep it alive over the Winter since he lives in the basement. There were holes in the leaves and I could see some browning but overall, the plant still looks good.

I did some research on this plant and found out that it’s very easy to care for. My home office receives a lot of sunlight so I brought it there and placed it by the windowsill. I sprayed it with some neem oil to kill the insects that are feeding on its leaves. A few weeks passed and it started growing new leaves until the vine has gotten so long, I had to cut it.

I looked into cloning and watched a bunch of videos about it. I’ve grown plants from seeds before with soil and hydroponics but I’ve never tried cloning. On the first try, I made a mistake and just cut a stem with a leaf on it. It looked like I was doing the same thing as what was being done in the videos I watched but I was wrong. I found some resources mentioning “nodes”. What do you mean “nodes”? I know now.

Nodes are those bumps you find along the stem. I cut some pieces, this time with the nodes and soaked it in water. I was so happy when I checked after a few days and saw roots! A few months later and I have so many golden pothos. Most of them are in my office and I’m slowly adding them to other rooms because they are just so easy to care for. I have since moved the original plant to a bigger pot and planted some of its clones into the same vase to make it look bushier. The original plant remains in soil but the rest, I grow in water with minimal nutrients.

I plan to keep cloning them until I have enough to cover the fence in the upstairs of my home office. I experimented in mixing the golden pothos with an orchid. I placed the orchid in the middle and wrapped the golden pothos stems around, securing it with a small cable tie. I put water and a bit of hydroponic nutrients in the vase. It's been weeks now and they seem to be getting along.

The best compliment I've ever received is that they look fake. The leaves are flawless and shiny. Still, I refuse to cut off the damaged leaves from the original plant.