Friday, August 31, 2012

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.

Thursday, August 30, 2012





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!

Wednesday, August 29, 2012




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.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012



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.

Monday, August 27, 2012


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.

Sunday, August 26, 2012


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!

Saturday, August 25, 2012


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

Friday, August 24, 2012



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!!

Thursday, August 23, 2012


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.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012




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.

Monday, August 20, 2012




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.

Sunday, August 19, 2012




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).

Saturday, August 18, 2012

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.

Friday, August 17, 2012








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!

Thursday, August 16, 2012





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!

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

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!

Tuesday, August 14, 2012






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!

Monday, August 13, 2012




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.