Olive oil in everything 🧁

Hello and welcome back to Five Things I Ate! This week, we bake some cakes and sip some tea, as per usual. Check out past posts here, and please follow my Instagram @fivethingsiate.

Orange olive oil cupcakes with honey olive oil buttercream at my place

You can make these, too!

I wasn't the biggest fan of the way these cupcakes turned out (although my coworkers disagreed, and gobbled them up happily). They're on the sweeter side of things, a bit coarse in the crumb, and a little muffin-y, especially in contrast to last week's fluffy sponge. But the frosting? That's a whole other question. I never thought to put olive oil in buttercream before, but it's a fantastic addition. If you beat in just a spoonful or two of high quality stuff, the flavor adds a clean and bright note to the butter, without changing the texture. You can find the recipe for both cupcake and frosting over at the Kitchn, but if all you want to do is know how to make olive oil buttercream, just beat a stick of softened butter with a big drizzle of honey, grated orange zest, and a big drizzle of olive oil, and beat in enough powdered sugar to make a spreadable frosting.

Oat milk rose tea latte at home

Please make this at your place, too.

This “recipe” is so simple, it feels silly to write it down — but it brought me immense joy, and I hope it brings the same to you. As we all know, I’m a huge fan of anything rose-scented (perfume! Tea! Don’t even get me started on macarons!), and my go-to order at Boba Guys when I’m feeling like a splurge is a rose tea latte with oat milk, 25% sugar please. It turns out replicating that is easy at home. Here’s how: Set a kettle of water to boil, and scoop a tablespoon (you want it strong!) of rose petal tea leaves into a strainer or tea pot. Steep tea for about five minutes. Meanwhile, pour a bit of oat milk into a mug (I swear by Oatly brand, full fat only) and zap in the microwave for 30 seconds, or until steaming. Use an electric frother to foam the milk. When tea is ready, carefully stream it into the mug. Stir in a spoonful of honey if desired, and sip contently.

Peppercorn catfish sandwich at Num Pang

28 E 12th St, New York, NY 10003 (and other locations)

It’s been years since I first discovered Cambodian sandwich shop Num pang. Prices have definitely gone up since then— a sandwich and coconut juice came out to $15. But my order has stayed the same (peppercorn catfish all the way!) and so has the satisfaction. It’s like a bahn mi, but the bread is even lighter and toastier and the fish nice and spicy. If you don’t live near one of the sandwich shop locations, you can try making this at home, from the Num Pang cookbook. It doesn’t look too difficult to replicate — if you try it, please let me know how it turns out!

Steamed chicken soup dumplings from Trader Joe’s

At your neighborhood TJ’s

These are not the best soup dumplings you’ve ever had — that’s for sure, especially in a city like New York where you can get Joe Shanghai’s or travel to Flushing for Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao (my all-time fave, although I have yet to test their new location). But they are… very convenient, which amounts to a whole damn lot. Just like the best camera is the one you have on hand, the best soup dumplings are the ones you can have ready in the microwave in under two minutes when you get home at 11:30pm from dance rehearsal. At the midnight hour, these more than make do.

Vanilla Oatly ice cream* at your grocery store

I’ve seen these at Whole Foods and also my corner market.

Another non-dairy ice cream review, you say? Of course: The life of the lactose-intolerant never stops. I was pleasantly surprised by the Oatly ice cream; yes, it did have an oat-y flavor, but the texture was very good, the vanilla flavor was strong, and honestly, so much of the regular vanilla ice cream you find in the freezer aisle doesn’t have a great dairy taste anyways, so this works just fine. I had it with some breakfast cobbler (i.e. fruit cobbler, eaten as breakfast) and I very much enjoyed it.

*Frozen dessert.

Have a sweet weekend,

Soph