Wrap my feelings in a blanket of rice dough
The world is a scary place and therapy is wildly inaccessible, so let’s eat!
Hello and welcome back to Five Things I Ate! This week, it’s time for more comfort foods. Check out past posts here, and please follow my Instagram @fivethingsiate.
Honeycomb ice cream at Van Leeuwen
This week’s newsletter was supposed to be filled with healthy and delicious salad recipes — I even had the draft sitting in my folder — but then life happened, and what I really wanted to write about, what I really really wanted to write about, were the foods that softened the blow of a hard week. And then I remembered I have no editor! And that I’m a grown adult with no chaperone! So here I am, writing about ice cream even though I’m lactose intolerant and had a draft about salads prepared. Honeycomb is my favorite flavor of ice cream at Van Leeuwen. In fact, it is the only flavor of ice cream I think is worth writing about from Van Leeuwen. To be frank, I find most of their flavors to be overhyped and overpriced, although whoever’s running their Instagram is doing a pretty good job of marketing. The honeycomb, though, that’s definitely worth the trip. It’s essentially a sweet cream base swirled with a burnt-sugar caramel. Oh, and don’t get this in the vegan variety; I find it to be too sweet and too chalky.
Taro and pork dumplings at Go Believe Bakery
239 Grand St, New York, NY 10002
Buying four packs of frozen dumplings from Chinatown and lugging them back to Brooklyn was the smartest thing I did all week. Now I can have dim sum on demand, from the comfort of my apartment. If you know anything about me by now it should be that whenever I’m feeling down, I like to wrap myself in a blanket of steamed rice goodies, and these dumplings are definitely a food hug. Plus, they’re small and plump and cute, which matters a lot to me. Go Believe is a homey, no-frills restaurant, and the food here reflects that attitude: These are dumplings with thick rice-flour skins, fresh and chewy and full of flavor, not some tiny, delicate things. The taro dumplings have a wonderful sweet and salty flavor, with little cubes of the root vegetable and bits of minced pork. I wish I’d gotten an extra pack.
Vegetable dumplings at Go Believe Bakery
239 Grand St, New York, NY 10002
Vegetarian dumplings are too often disappointing; most restaurants tack them to the menu like an afterthought. The ones at Go Believe are actually quite good. Filled with spinach and vermicelli noodles, they have a satisfying bite that doesn’t taste like a compromise. The wrappers are made of the same soft and chewy rice-flour dough that the taro ones are, and it works great with the filling. Pro-tip: I steamed these in the steamer basket of my mini rice cooker, but definitely line it with a cabbage leaf or parchment paper, or else you’ll be having bottomless dumplings instead of bottomless brunch, which is way less fun.
Fig and cinnamon oatmeal at my desk
Wherever microwaves can be found
As long as figs are in season and on sale at Trader Joe’s, I will keep making fig-flavored things. This week’s Fig Food of the Week is the opposite of last week’s show-off multi-step layer cake; all it takes is a microwave to make this simple-but-comforting recipe. Here’s how: In a large microwavable bowl, mix half a cup of toasted old-fashioned (or 1-minute) oats, a pinch of salt, and a cup of water. Microwave according to instructions, or about a minute and a half, depending on your microwave. Meanwhile, wash and quarter two large figs. Stir figs in hot oatmeal along with a few shakes of cinnamon. Drizzle with honey.
Pineapple buns from Tai Pan Bakery
194 Canal St, New York, NY 10013
There are no pineapples involved in the making of pineapple buns — the name refers to how these buns look, with their scored, golden crust. However, my coworker Caroline, who graciously brought these in, did report experiencing phantom pineapple syndrome as a child: She was so convinced that the buns were pineapple flavored, that she began tasting a fruity flavor. Gaslighting children aside, pineapple buns are one of my favorite Chinese bakery treats. They don’t taste like pineapple, but they do taste like wholesome childhood memories. These oversized buns are about the size of my hand, with a sweet fluffy bread base topped with a crackly cookie topping. They’re not too sweet, and perfect to dip in milky tea. Why have bread or a cookie when you can have both?
Sending you food hugs,
Soph
P.S. I want to give a shout-out to my new fave newsletter, Garbage Day by Ryan Broderick, a reporter at Buzzfeed News. What is Garbage Day about? It’s a little hard to sum up, but it’s definitely not about the news. There’s a lot of internet culture, and some references to hentai and serial murderers. It is sometimes mildly NSFW and always wildly inappropriate.
Many of you will hate Garbage Day, but I love it.