egg tart from last night's chinatown adventures with iced coffee!

we got this from a new random bakery on chrystie and it was so good - one of the better ones.

i like it when the crust is flaky in layers of crisps (as opposed to more graham cracker crusty).

then for dinner, we got overloaded with ground beef burrito and chicken cemita at castro's.

i'd never had a cemita before, since i normally opt for a torta when i feel like a mexican

sandwich, mostly because tortas usually come with more fresh vegetables (tomatoes, lettuce,

avocado, etc). but weirdly (or not), this cemita was way better than their torta here, even with

no fresh veggies except avocado - just grilled chicken, cheese, chipotle, and avocado.

so good!!! their ground beef burrito is always a classic yummy.

these two also made for a good balance of flavors as we shared them.

another satisfying - and cheap!- meal at cong ly (who now has a B grade, instead of their C

last time).

m got his usual pho with everything, and i, for the first time at a vietnamese place since

living in NYC, got chicken curry over rice. i debated whether to get the french dip style with

a baguette, but somehow the broken rice was calling out to me. (it may have been because we

had donuts & sesame balls we'd bought before dinner in the bag already).

the pho is so perfectly umami and refreshing and soothing, noodles very chewy (more so than

other places we've tried in NYC so far). my curry was excellent - lighter than thai or japanese

or indian curry, coconutty and spicy and just delicious!

all this was only $13.50 (including tip!!) and we were fuller than after some $30 meals!

early breakfast at bergen bagels (mostly because nothing else was open, and we didn't

want another diner meal today). i do like eating bagel sandwiches, but i never seem to fully

digest it for about 3 days after eating them.

nonetheless, these were so tasty. whitefish salad with tomato/onion and egg & cheese, both

on everything bagels.

i braved the 90ºF heat (well, i did have a/c running -_-) and cooked!

super sour forgotten-in-the-fridge kimchi that has been in the ripening for about 2 months now,

cooked with some fishcake & garlic scopes, over cold silken tofu.

we had some csa lettuce that needed to be eaten, and we wrapped rice and the above dish in it

to make some ssam.

it was a little too sour and tangy for ssam, so the leftover batch of kimchi will most likely be

used for kimchi jigae.

breakfast at mike's coffee shop - we both felt like and got the same damn thing (shame shame),

waffle with sausages - at least sausages were different kind, pork & beef.

we needed coffee to wake our heads up more than anything and these were so good with it,

albeit a bit too rich with the heavy sausages. they do breakfast so well.

another night of pita hot dogs with cabbage slaw - this time with kale/cabbage slaw salad!

m had a couple with super overripe sour kimchi, and i had one with the slaw salad.

huge head of kale and cabbage, tossed in vinegar, fish sauce, soy sauce, chili powder and sri racha.

pretty dang good with drizzles of horseradish sauce!

farmer's market cinnamon sugar apple cider donut with iced coffee for breakfast. :)

i made a huge bowl of some cabbage/chard asian style slaw last night with our CSA vegetables,

and m used some to make this delicious hot dog wraps tonight.

applegate turkey hot dogs, topped with the slaw, wrapped up in toasty pita, with some

horseradish and ketchup. mmm so delicious, bursting with crunchiness and flavors!!

the last of the corn salad m made a few days ago with our CSA veggies and canned beans.

so good & spicy, and includes all kinds of veggies, like eggplant, carrots, peppers, even better

when topped with avocado. this was the best bowl from the whole batch, having been marinated

in the fridge for a few days with all the seasoning (chili powder, fish sauce, sri racha, vinegar, oil)

have drizzled down to the bottom.

dinner photos at café 232 korean never comes out right, since it's so dark in there

for iPhone cameras - these have been brightened up a lot, but still very fuzzy & noisy.

but their food was pretty dang good!

we got denjang jigae (soybean paste stew) & samgyupsal (pork belly bbq), a very good combo

that we rarely get, if ever. the bbq was very good, pre-cooked (they're usually grilled right on the

table at most restaurants), and we even asked for some lettuce for ssam, which they obliged,

albeit a bit reluctantly - it may have been on the qt.

their stew is a bit on the spicier side than regular denjang jigae, but i like it because it reminds

me of the way my mom used to make it, with a little extra gochujang in the mix.

unusual for us, but still very good meal.

we often forget to eat at 3 luigi's, but it's such a good place for cheap, yummy & filling meal.

m got a huge thing of cheese steak (pizza style, whatever that means) sub, and i ordered a garden

salad and a slice of margherita and a hawaiian.

the sub wasn't what m had in mind with the tomato sauce, but it was better when we stuffed

some salad veggies in it, which balanced out the heavy cheese and the delicious pepperiness of

the steak.

the salad was decent, but next time i'll remember to ask for the dressing on the side.

pizzas are good here too, though i prefer il porto for the margherita, the hawaiian here is so good.

smokey bacon flavor with the sweet pineapple! even yummier with sprinkles of cracked chili.

finally it's not steamy or burning hot anymore so we can sit outside to enjoy a nice,

crisp, overcast evening while enjoying some yummy food.

we went to castro's for some good ol' mexican food - i got their fish tacos and m got a

chicken tinga burrito. i requested the tacos to be made with flour tortilla, and i thought it

was quite a bit better, especially since i never eat the second layer of corn tortilla anyway.

chicken tinga was good, as always - they gave us extra salsa (smoked chipotle) which made

everything better (and hotter).

the classic banh mi from nicky's (and their pho, not pictured today)

after a long walk. pretty darn good as always - although the last time we had banh mi was

in sunset park, which will overshadow pretty much any other banh mi experience to follow.

after nicky's, we strolled in the cool evening breeze, ending up at one girl cookie for their

last slice of apple pie & iced coffee :

we had never seen pies there before, and had this been a little warmed up, it might have

taken one of the top (imaginary) prizes i'd given out to all the apple pies around i've tried!

plus their iced coffee is always excellent, with their special coffee ice cubes.

a pretty darn perfect evening.

it'd been a long long time since we last went to a happy hour tapas special at olea.

their menu had been updated, and although we missed some of our old favorites, like grilled

baby octopus (which i felt a bit too guilty to be eating anyway), their tapas dishes were just

as good, always a cut above some other places we go to.

we ordered 4 tapas - fish sticks with harissa aioli, lamb kefta meatballs, celery & pea shoot salad,

and spanish pizza.

everything was perfectly harmonious in flavors, except the pizza was a little too aggressively

salted, for our taste anyway. it would have been much lovelier to have tasted the natural balance

of the quince paste and manchego cheese alone.

we also indulged and got creme catalana (spanish crème brûlée), a bit on the sweet side with

citrusy flavors. so good with coffee.

such a surprisingly filling meal - i hardly could walk afterwards!

mmm~ menkuitei, we've missed you!

summer is thankfully winding down, but it was still a bit hot.

so we got ourselves a kirin draft, a mabo-don, and a cold jarjarmen (photos pre-mix and post),

their flavors are just so well-balanced, with umami/spicy/fresh, everything!!

such a perfect summer meal!

we braved the storm/rain and took a walk over to brooklyn kolache co. to finally try

a kolache for ourselves!

there were still so many to choose, but we decided to try sweet cheese flavor.

it was so fluffy and creamy (dreamy), kind of between a donut and pastry.

and since we'd ordered a large iced coffee, it was free (after 4pm)!

above one in the photo was actually an extra given to us upon leaving (and their closing)

by the super sweet duane working there, along with the amazing chocolate flavor.

next time i'll be sure to try their savory kinds!

delicious dinner at national thai - we started with a tom yum koong and summer rolls,

which were both very good. but their summer rolls were so fresh, filled with some shrimp and

crisped tofu and lots of vegetables, with some mustard sauce. mmm~

then for entrees, we had chicken & vegetables in ginger soy sauce and beef panang.

it had been ages since we'd had panang curry, and it was very good - creamy, spicy, well-seasoned

and cooked. the chicken dish was excellent, aromatic with fresh ginger and cilantros, and ended

up balancing out the meal very well. the food here is so very satisfying!

it had been ages since we last had eaten at shanghai café deluxe... the last time was probably

this last winter or spring. it just had been simply too hot to crave something like this.

but today, though it wasn't cool by any means, we felt like it.

we got our favorites, the squid with pickled cabbage over rice, broccoli with garlic sauce,

and the requisite xlb dumplings - they were all so good!

the squid with pickled cabbage might be one of my favorite things there - perfectly cooked squid

with sour crunchy pickled cabbage. mmm~

then to cool off again and get some sweets, we stopped by fay da bakery:

sweet iced coffee (we always forget to ask for no sugar at chinese bakeries) with japanese style

fluffy cheese cake and good ol' egg tart.

good, but i think fay da is better at fluffier goods than things like egg tarts.