big big salad from all our csa veggies from last week - only to learn that we won't be getting a share this week due to hurricane sandy. lettuce, choy, spinach, fennel, potatoes, radishes, chili, and deliciously cooked eggs - then with some tinned smoked herring for extra kick. yummy!!!!!

after dinner we went for a walk and went by a huge halloween block party in the neighborhood, with live band and all kinds of dressed up people. 

and poor bento had to wear a temporary cone made out of a yogurt container (FAGE brand since it comes in the largest tub, to fit his fat head) - to keep him from licking a scabby wound on his front leg.

silly kitty!!

dinner at pequeña - my grilled fish tacos & m's chicken enchiladas. so so delicious!

my tacos came with huge chunks of grilled fish, topped with guacamole and pickled onion, which i think really makes the dish. the enchiladas were great, perfectly cooked, with delicious beans & rice.

yum yum.

unfortunately, on our walk around the neighborhood, we saw lots of uprooted big trees, a couple that crushed cars. :(

night of the hurricane sandy, we stayed cozy at home (thankfully & luckily nothing happened to our neighborhood, although it's still sad to see all the other damages :/ ), and i made this oden soup - customized with kimchi, dumplings, and copious amount of requisite fish cake. i used up some of our csa watermelon radish in lieu of daikon for the broth, but it turned out very well, as far as flavor goes! 

we walked around before it got really windy, then looked out our window after dinner to find 2 large callery pear trees knocked down across the street, one blocking an entrance, even. :(

luckily nobody was hurt nor was any car.

pre-storm burger after walking around the neighborhood to assess what was happening.

lots of people stocking on up stuff, all the stores were crazy! maybe not watching the news/tv is a good thing since we're not freaked out, but maybe it's not a good thing either, since we're not too prepared.

we ended up (after getting some groceries) at clinton park café for some burgers amid some pratt students - m got his usual mushroom swiss burger, with a side of sweet potato fries to share. i forewent my usual veggie burger and got myself a real burger this time! a california burger (avocado) without cheese was pretty perfect.

hope the storm's not too bad - the wind picking up by this afternoon already destroyed a tree & fence today on our street!

homemade indian food special at melissa's! spicy tofu tikka masala, saag (no paneer), and lentil dahl, with freshly made naan bread!

amazingly tasty, light (for indian food), and perfectly seasoned - well done, melissa!!! (thank you!!)

another amazing meal at cong ly - m got his usual pho #1 (which the mr. owner man remembered!), and i tried a new dish, lemongrass grilled chicken over rice.

the pho there is really good - although i'm sure it still pales in comparison to the west coast versions, the broth is solidly refreshing and soothing, and their noodles better than some other places in nyc.

my chicken over rice was really yummy too - especially the fish sauce with chili that came with it made everything incredibly delicious!!!! 

afterwards, we weren't quite full yet (we had our CSA volunteer shift earlier, moving boxes, etc, so we were really hungry), so we walked over to a nearby chinese bakery for some coffee and dessert. we had procured some egg tarts before our dinner, and also got some apple tart and sponge cake to make the dessert trifecta! the apple tart was so good that i got a couple more to bring home. only 80¢! how can we not love chinatown.

a grey, lazy day - after a slow lazy walk -_- we ended up for some spicy korean food at café 232.

we got tofu maeuntang and some spicy squid stir fry. they were both so perfectly good today, especially the squid - perfectly tender & spicy. yummy.

a big group meal at tasty hand-pulled noodles - about 14 of us took over their entire basement dining area (even with their son or nephew playing starcraft in the far corner). we all got a noodle bowl of some kind, mine being a sea-food one, and cara's veggie & egg in vegetarian broth.

mmm so nice on a rainy day - belly full of noodles!

having had a rather lazy day (luxurious!), we crawled over to castro's, though we weren't sure if we were craving mexican food. m got his usual ground beef burrito, and i got my usual 2 fish taco deal.

we don't always feel great after eating here (stomach-wise) but my tacos were dang good for what they are!

a really random and accidental meal during our walk - a seattle-style teriyaki joint that had opened up a few days ago, apparently. 

they only had one flavor of sauce (teriyaki), unlike in seattle, where they have other sauces like spicy, but these were pretty good deals - huge platters of rice, veggies and teriyaki meat of choice, freshly cooked, at under $6 each - nothing to write home about but decent, filling, huge food.

potluck dinner with friends to welcome an old friend back in town - so many amazing dishes, including samosas, empanadas, potato pancake, kale & chickpea salad (ours!), roasted veggies (and many that didn't get photographed here)... all ending with this great ginger bread cake audrey made - delicious as always!

another delicious meal at national thai - we go there at dusky time, which is why with each entree the photograph gets darker and darker. :P

we ordered som tom (green papaya salad) - which is always lightly dressed and never heavy-handed. and for the first time, we got a beef satay appetizer. i'm not sure that i've ever had beef as a satay form (usually have gotten chicken since i was a kid, that I can remember), and it was pretty tough to eat as a satay/skewered form, as it was a hunk of meat, closer to a small piece of steak. the sauce/marinade (peanuty curry sauce) was really good, despite the hard-to-chew/biteoff factor. and as always, their green chicken curry was tip top - so perfectly spicy, with the white meat offsetting the spiciness just the right amount, and with plentiful of vegetables. so great!!!

dinner at menkuitei with a friend after our CSA pick up.

she wasn't so hungry so she got some kabocha appetizer, m got a huge bowl of mabo tofu, 

and i got my usual favorite, shoyu ramen.

very satisfying, though it wasn't as chilly as it has been.

a huge platter of pasta (that platter is about 16"x16" O_O) that m made for lunch.

yowza!! oyster mushrooms & enoki mushrooms with fusilli, tossed in butter, olive oil, chili flakes and parmesan cheese - topped with kennip (perilla leaves). so light and delicious!

then later at night for my own dinner, i made myself a dukboki. i used the little rice cake (mochi/duk) sticks i got from h-mart last night, along with a couple kimchi gyoza we got at the same time, as well as some cheesy cheese. i threw in some tatsoi greens and enoki mushrooms for some good measure and also so i don't feel too bad about eating a big bowl of starch (i've had that pasta earlier, after all). 

all in all, it was so satisfying, and well-cooked, if i say so myself, but i shouldn't have been so lazy and should've pan-seared the gyoza before throwing it into the dukboki. would've made a much better textural contrast.

dinner with old friends in k-town - we met up at seoul garden natural tofu, a place i hadn't been in years. it seemed very different there, the menu looked unfamiliar, but that could've been just my memory. everyone got a kind of bibimbap, m a special seafood bibimbap (very different than other regular ones) and i got the good ol' seafood soondubu stew. 

the food was good, maybe not as homey and special feeling as our favorite place, cho dang gol, but still really good food nonetheless.

then after, we walked over across to the food galleria mall for some dessert and uninterrupted hangout.

again everyone else got red mango frozen yogurt, but it felt too cold for me, so i got a bubble tea & vietnamese coffee flavored cupcake combo at spot bakery (which is also down in east village). mine was a mistake (not very good) but the yogurt was good, as we knew it would be.

then hours later :

before biking back home, we stopped by h mart for some shopping then a stop over at woorijip.

m wanted a little snack with beer so we picked up some small bits from their buffet area - small batch of kimbap, omelet roll, pork meatball 2 pieces of kimmari (deep fried clear noodles wrapped in seaweed) and some dukboki to dip the kimmari in. i've been craving kimmari since i recently was reminded of it via a eatyourkimchi video, but this one was one of the worst i've had in my life, if not the worst.

yuck, all cold and gummy. dukboki wasn't great either, but the rest were decent... especially the pork meatball.

i also wanted a redemption of a proper dessert, so when i saw these pretty colored song pyun, a special kind of rice cake only eaten around chusuk holidays in korea, i couldn't resist.

they were really delicious, perfectly tender and chewy with slightly sweet bits of sesame syrup inside.

they didn't have the pine-needle scent that i love, but still great!