David

I've always felt like no one can outmatch me in speed and quantity of food eaten in one sitting because I inhale my meals as if I grew up the runt of a family of 10 and had to aggressively stuff my face lest I starve to death (note: I was a spoiled only child for 9 years). And then I met David. Always down to be a fellow piece of shit. For this, I appreciate you man. David identifies as Korean. I technically met him when I visited the Geltor office before moving to the Bay, but I really met him a week after I officially started, and he got back from his French vacation - just as grumpy and filled with profanities as my new bosses described him as. Well after a few years of sitting next to each other, I have successfully taken a few years off his life via irritation and worry-induced stress, and now (Jennie and) I am (are) the best little sister(s) he's never had.

David's list was largely composed of things his mom and grandma made, which gives me lost of fuzzies, especially because I would depend on his family's persimmon, fig, and jujube trees to feed my obsession every season.

So his dumpling dish became a mashup of grandma's galbi jjim and mom's eggplant parm.

The filling was Korean short ribs (braised and then chopped) with all the typical seasonings per recipe but also add tomato basil sauce. And roasted eggplant. But as you can see, IT DIDN'T STOP THERE.

I seared the little dumps to get a nice crispy bottoms, and then nestled them into a dish, tucked with layers of leftover filling and extra tomato sauce and big ass flakes of parmesan cheese.

Then I topped it all with crushed white cheddar Cheez-its - a childhood and adulthood favorite. [We used to crush handfuls of them when they'd appear in our company snack stash.] And baked it all until it was hot and bubbling. I present to you.... dumpling lasagnaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

Fuuuuuuuck.

Damn I love any excuse to make Asian-y tomato sauces. It's like an umami slurry. I know that doesn't sound good to anyone but me. God bless the humble little tomato. Solanum lycopersicum. Maybe you think of pizza and pasta sauce and your mind goes to Italy, but the tomato actually originated in South and Central America, and its domestication was likely cultivated by the indigenous peoples of Mexico. Then the Spanish conquistadors brought it back to Europe. And then Europe conquered everyone else, bringing the sweet and acidic little tomato with them. And then fast forward to today-ish when children's classrooms everywhere are debating whether the tomato is a veg or a fruit. To which I say, porque no los dos. No, actually. The tomato is a botanical berry and a culinary vegetable making it one of several incredibly versatile ingredients. I love a fresh, super sweet, almost candy-like cherry tomato as much as I love a hot and savory, umami-packed pot of tomato soup (with basil). Tomatoes provide such a complex flavor whether its fresh or processed, and it is upsetting to know that as it stands today, the tomato is just not the same flavor-packed fruit it used to be (see: almost every domesticated veg...and animal we eat today). Throughout centuries of breeding, the tomato has gotten much larger and less sweet... and with that, it's lost a lot of the genes associated with flavor. Because as we select for our desired traits, we weren't always selecting for flavor, so just by random chance, we have created this diluted  what-could-have-been crop.

Enter the heirloom tomato market. Though an heirloom tomato label doesn't guarantee a Ratatouille moment, there's a romantic element of the-way-we-used-to-do-it, and the point of growing them is often to achieve optimal flavor. Tomatoes share flavor components of "bananas, honey, roses, apples, melon rinds, vanilla, berries, sweaty cheese, peaches, chocolate, lawn clippings, lemongrass, and a little dash of wasabi," and there isn't really one compound that stands out as characteristic of tomatoes (like bananas, for example). So waxing poetic about peak season tomatoes is like an annual sport if you have a garden or gardener friends or a local farmer's market, but I'm so into it.

Thing I'd do differently: more cheese, always more cheese.

David's complete list:

rice with american cheese melted on top

white cheddar cheez-its

mom's sponge cake, baklava, pound cake with nuts and raisins

also mom's cherry cheesecakes

homegrown peaches, plums, apples, asian pears

grandma's galbi jjim and galbi

korean flavored beef jerky

homemade toasted seaweed

round table everything pizzas

mom's ginger sauced whole baked salmon and eggplant parmesan