a very uneventful new year's eve (i wasn't even aware of it until around noon -_-) - such is life with a baby! 

but m continues to make me delicious meals everyday, it can't be easy twice a day, everyday. but he's been doing it for the past 2 months since little j was born.

today's lunch - corn/clam chowder with a sandwich (roast beef and turkey, half and half).

so hearty and yummy.

another tortilla wrap/riceless burrito m made with some trader joe's cod filets, with spinach, tomatoes, black beans, and cheese. omg we don't need to go out for fish tacos anymore!

tortilla wrap m made with the left over prime rib from christmas with hummus, cheese and greens.
so so good!!!

a mini feast for two (& the baby who can't eat these yet) for christmas m cooked up - and a feast it was!! prime rib of beef, sautéed kale & cabbage, mashed spiced potatoes and mashed sweet potatoes.

such a hearty, yummy christmas meal on baby's first christmas. :D

a simple christmas eve snack spread for baby's aunt and uncle in town.

finally got a chance to get some korean food at café 232 (such a warm spring-like day!).
we got spicy cod fish soup (maeuntang) and spicy squid stir fry (ojinguh bokum), which we used to get frequently before baby - but as we noted on our last few meals, they swanked up their game but the food isn't as good as before. they have been going down a slow hill for a while but this time it really crystalized for us - it isn't worth it to eat ere anymore, sadly.

 m made indian food with trader joe's ingredients - tikka masala sauce and grilled chicken, as well as naan bread. he added a bunch of csa veggies which rendered a bit of water, thinning down the sauce a bit. i still thought it was really good, comforting like stew on a cold day.

it'd been a long time since we first/last tried waza ramen (and were subsequently disappointed) and thought we might give it another try. they had lunch specials so we thought it couldn't hurt much either.

the bento box set with salmon teriyaki was a good deal at $9, and wasn't half bad. the tuna set was obviously a bit too much tuna - overall, it was just ok, especially for the price. oh well!

 mmm salad! somehow salad was so good after not having any for a long time.
salad with waffles and eggs for breakfast was a great welcome change.
thank goodness for the CSA!

m made this amazing platter with trader joe's prime rib & baby dark leafy green mix stir fry.

the steak was good but the stir fry was the star of this dinner - so savory/umami, with tartness and leafiness. and of course, mmm steak! 

sweet audrey brought us french onion soup she made, complete with crouton and cheese!
sounded so comforting and good that we ate it for dinner immediately. so good!!!

amazing bowtie pasta with tomato sauce and smoked herring m made tonight.
sooo flavorful & good and luckily it was a huuuge platterful that we have leftovers for tomorrow!

finally my 6 week post partum check up came and went with a clean bill of health, we stopped to eat at hanco's for the first time since the summer - now with  the little one in tow.
we got a classic banh mi, pork vermicelli salad, and  pho, it was a bit too much to finish especially with a baby waking up from her nap whimpering, but still very happy to have eaten something different!

i finally cooked! i hadn't since baby was born - any free time went to sleep and /or eating, and occasional showering. -_-
i had a craving for dukboki - i made this quick version, full with perilla leaves and topped with cheese.
a bit soupy but it would've been perfect with crispy panfried gyoza to dip into the sauce.
still, beyond satisfying!

amazing how satisfying & comforting ramen can be on a cold, dreary day.

m cooked this for me while i fed the baby - customized with greens, shrimp dumplings, eggs, mushroom. soooo good.

this photo may look weird but it represents the best mac 'n cheese ever!
m made this huge bowl of mac 'n cheese with peas, corn kernels, toasted walnuts, broccoli and cauliflower, topped with fresh tomatoes and herbs - may sound strange but the texture and flavor balance and contrast with all the veggies is unbeatable.

another trader joe's convenience - toaster silver dollar pancakes and waffles!

i love silver dollar pancakes (more crisp edges, the better) and i do love breakfast food.

over-easy eggs, sausages, and silver dollar pancakes with maple syrup and good coffee. my favorite!!

one of our recent favorite meals - steak from trader joe's and some kind of vegetable dish.
since pregnancy/baby, we wanted to up the iron and protein intake to keep up with the energy expenditure and general health, we've been getting precooked meats from trader joe's, as we'd itherwise be eating vegetarian diet if we only cooked at home.
this time, sirloin steak with baby broccoli & veggies stir fry. so satisfying!

our first meal eating out since baby at castro's!

got to catch their breakfast special, since we're up so early - i got huevos rancheros, 

which looked very different than other ones i've gotten before, but really good nonetheless.

m got his usual beef burrito, which was still good.

first meal out was a success!

we are so lucky to have such sweet friends - audrey brought us this pumpkin soup with rosted pumpkin seeds. we put our garnish but the pumpkin seeds were the best one of them!!
thank you, audrey - it was so good (and gone in no time), and i can't wait to try the scones she brought us as well.

sweet julia silently stopped by without our knowledge and left this peanut stew with quinoa on our stoop for us. soooo amazingly sweet, we were so touched. and i didn't know there could be anything like stew made with peanuts, but dang it was so good!! thank you again, julia!!

m's yummy fry-up, courtesy of trader joe's ingredients (tj's and we have become fast friends since the baby). just perfect, one of our all time favorites.

delicious smoked clam pasta m made for us tonight - it was really amazing!
garlicky, slightly spicy with chili flakes, briny smoky flavor of clams, capers, just the perfect balance.
mmmmm~

m made this simple kimchi and tofu dish, with rice and seaweed, after several days of eating bready stuff. so simple but hits the spot every time!

so i had a baby a couple days ago, a mere couple hours before the official due date - it was a very nice homebirth, but i didn't feel like eating at all during the whole process. so we ended up with a lot of frozen food we'd stocked up - but today our friend julia came by and dropped off this homemade coconut chickpea curry with papadoms, which was nice to have. such sweet friends we have!

delicious ramen on an unusually warm/humid fall evening with audrey at menkuitei.

all of us could've gone for their cold noodles but they stopped serving them after the summer - first time this has happened in the 10 years we've been going there!

m got a mabo-don, audrey the roasted pork ramen and i got my usual shoyu ramen.

we got to hang out eating some choco-pie at m2m after when another friend came to meet us - gotta stock up on this before the baby comes! (due in 2 days!)

it's been a LOOOONG time (over 5 years) since we've last eaten at moïm (and that was the only time, i believe). brooklyn has come a long way since those days when we had to either trek into the city or find small places hidden away like this but since we were in the vicinity, we decided to finally give it a try. (plus café 232 has been upping their prices without much upping their game, so we thought this would be a worthy splurge.) we got our old favorite, the dak gui chicken dish (dish of the same idea/name here from café 232) as well as a seafood dolsot bibimbap. the chicken was saucier than we remember it, but dang it was soooo well cooked. perfectly tender with super crispy skin. all the jujube's and herbs flavored the sauce with layers and it was just so tasty to eat. the bibimbap was a bit too soupy (instead of crisped on the stone bowl) so it was more like a paella than bibimbap but still had great flavors. besides the weird, odd-mannered staff, it was all in all a really good meal!

sometimes you need diner breakfast food for dinner. pancakes & sausages, corned beef hash w/ over easy eggs & grits, copious amount of coffee at mike's.

these two dishes at cammareri café never disappoints - bbq sandwich and mac & cheese.

the first couple times had the sandwich, it had greens in it as well, and we didn't even notice that today's didn't have any until afterwards since it was still really tasty. i do miss having greens with it though.

the mac & cheese was still delicious, never too heavy or too cheesy. sometimes their roux tends to be a bit too grainy but i can get past it. very satisfying and cheap dinner.

after a loooong walk back home from south slope, we ended up randomly at joy indian restaurant, which we haven't been to in years. somehow i was in the mood for indian food since a couple days ago, and it was a lucky stumble that i hadn't thought of at the time. we ordered chicken tikka masala (theirs is so good) and a bindi bajhee (okra dish), with a side of cheese naan. somehow the two main dishes we got were such a good match - well-balanced flavors, texture, and even the color! so delicious, i was beyond full.

maybe because we also stopped at cousin john's bakery on the way up there while we took a little break with this huge eclair. we got two but one was enough for both of us as a pre-dinner dessert. good pâte à choux, good chocolate, and great custard cream. mmmm~~

last night, m made this huge pot of delicious lentil & vegetable stew - chock full of yummy delicious things, like kale, okra, corn, peas, baby broccoli, chicken sausage, with the mirepoix trio (celery, carrots, onions) in beef stock as well. i had a bowl as a midnight snack last night and again for dinner tonight. it was so so hearty and yummy, topped with fresh tomatoes and parsley. i had a side of grilled chicken breast strips m got me from trader joe's as i must've been craving lots of protein today. soooo good!

went back to il porto for their delicious pizza we'd tried last time. this time, we weren't nearly hungry,

so we got their rugola e parmigiano (arugula, parmesan and portobello mushrooms) salad, and got a large (18") seafood pizza. holy crap was it large - i barely ate 3 slices and i was over-the-top full. clams, mussels, octopus, calamari, with tomato, basil over simple marinara sauce, with drizzles of bouillabaisse, it's just so so good!!! although getting a large (good call, m -_-;; ) was definitely not necessary. we were both way too full for way too long!