Olive Oil and Salt.

Now as I am getting into habit of posting habitually, I save the pictures first, in hope that these pictures will lure me into writing my post quicker, and give me more pressure will power.

I woke up once early, looking through the fridge, and was wondering what I should do. I have always dreamed of baking somethings savory and sweet and with olive oil. Olive oil is one of my favorite everything. As a condiment, as a spread, as a dip, as a flavor itself (olive oil ice cream!! Otto in NYC puleazzee come to me!! SQUEAL.) I have tried it in granola, spread on toast, on bread in peanut butter sandwiches (instead of butter), with baguettes and salt, in spain, in salads, ahh the list goes on. But, always with salt. Salt and olive oil go together like sisters, twins, best friends, like bread and butter, like peanut butter and jelly, granola and yogurt, milk and cookies, like honey and gorgonzola, dark chocolate and port, and on.........

At last, I have tried it in cake. 

This rosemary olive oil cake was born. Leftover rosemary intrigued me. (why did I buy this? I forgot.... I think it was due to some cookies I wanted to make. <coming soon I will upload pictures first -.^) Found some leftover pear and almond studded dark chocolate, chopped them up and mixed them in. 

Only those who have tried the warm cake with gooey chocolate with moist crumb with a spike of savory olive oil will know how delicious this cake was. 

Even my mom who does not approve my baking, said she would have another slice. (Okay, I finished cleaning up the kitchen even before she woke up. So there.)

Afternoon was another cooking project. Making homemade dumplings! We looked up some recipes. My mom was so confident that homemade dumplings had a different touch to it. Her dumpling memories were always warm and yummy. 


And chopping raw pork was so tough. You chop them roughly, chop them again, then finely so the flavor of the pork can integrate into all of the ingredients. My sister started off and then left them droppings to me. 

We add pork, chives, tofu, kimchi, sesame oil, and on. And then we mix with hands. 

Experimental dumplings being steamed. 

They were okay. Mediocre. Ah. Our disappointment. Then we were on a roll. We ripped apart the original dumplings we were making, went out and bought more wrappings. We added more kimchi. Made another few. Steam. Eat. Added more kimchi. More chives. All of the leftover tofu. Then wrapped them all and just ate them whatever. We were never cooks anyway.

What is the secret to amazing dumplings? 


And I love dumplings. I love dimsum, not only because of their variety, but maybe because you bite into one and then you can taste whatever secret insides juice out. Chives, chicken, shrimp, duck, tofu. There are fried dumplings, steamed, in soup, soup inside them, in noodles, the varieties are endless! And I love varieties, like korean banchan. I love picking around different dishes, different choices, even if takes forever for me to choose. 

From that one bite, you can grasp the flavor of the dumplings makes it more fun too! I don't know exactly why I started to love dumplings. My mom still thinks my sudden crave for dumplings is weird. 

To satiate our somewhat dissatisfaction/disappointment, we go back to our nostalgic snack. Cream BBang! It is an old school snack, which even my mom remembers. The cream has a slight citrusy flavor and a slight factory mass-production smell. The bread is soft, but not that soft. Just like I remembered. One bite is enough, but that leave you enough crave it a few years later.