thanks to our seat being right up against a fluorescent red light wall, the photos came out as if we had a meal at some gory place (i've toned the redness down but they still hurt my eyes) - but the food at shanghai café was, as always, so so good.

we got our usual 3 - xiaolongbao (soup dumplings), broccoli in garlic sauce, and squid with pickled cabbage over rice. they were excellent today, maybe we hit them at the perfect time when they weren't too busy. the broccoli today was especially good, all roasty good somehow. the other two are always good. 

amaaaazing.

full dinner at national thai - started with the tom yum kung (which is half gone in the photo, thanks, m), followed by our usual green chicken curry, and a plate of spicy pork & pineapple fried rice. curry was good as usual, and the fried rice, our first here, was good too - sweet & tart pineapple chunks breaking up the spicy meaty savoriness. the only slight downside was that the rice felt like newly cooked fresh rice. you need a little crunchy, dry texture of a day old rice to make fried rice really good. we left feeling very satisfied nonetheless.

late dinner of natto, kimchi with perilla leaves on black rice.

so light and delicious!!

on some odd whim, i craved dukboki for breakfast today. with some perilla leaves on hand, i made ketnip (perilla) dukboki - topped with some scallions and havarti cheese, it was so perfect for what i was craving!

simple(r) meal at our janky japanese joint - chicken soba noodle soup and chicken katsu curry over rice.

not too filling but perfect on a snowy night.

it was such a cold day that we didn't have much options for eating out but we needed to stretch our legs and take a break from being cooped up and working. so we decided on café 232 korean for some hot broth, even though we'd had korean dinner at home last night. we got tofu maeuntang and soy sauce grilled chicken. both very delicious and we gobbled them all up without much talk.

made some 'proper' home cooked korean meal, one that consists of soup, a few banchan (side dishes), and rice (black rice in this case). m got a couple banchan's from the store the other day and i made the gaeranmari (egg omelette rolls) and miyuk muchim (spicy seaweed salad), along with kimchi jigae with some tinned smoked trout - kimchi jigae with smoked/tinned fish always makes some interesting flavors that are hard to achieve with just the broth. a very satisfying meal for a cold cold night!

after running around in the coldest day of the winter (3ºF with windchill) to shuttle our cat to the vet and back, we decided to have our anniversary tapas dinner nearby at olea (happy hour ftw!!) - we pretty much got what we got last time, but with some extras for the special occasion. some sangria for me (!!) and beer for m, fried fish fingers with spicy aïoli, "romanesca" dip (tomato, red bell pepper, etc) with whole wheat pita, celery & peashoot salad, meatballs with feta and quince paste (i think?), and spanish pitza (topped with manchego, quince paste, sea salt, herbs). they forgot one of the dishes (pitza) so gave us another round of fish sticks on the house, which, as it turns out, we didn't need.

we were so stuffed by the time the pitza arrived that we barely finished everything - but we did! - and waddled back home like two piglets.

m made turkey meatballs in tomato sauce, with kale & potatoes, over black rice for dinner.

so good - spicy, meaty, kaley (yes), and nutty texture from the rice, all together - party in my mouth!

ground beef burrito and molé poblano torta at castro's. mmmm~!!!!

so good, savory, satisfying - not if only they had put some more pickled jalapeños! 

ohhhh yes!

salad, philly steak sub, and hawaiian slices at 3 luigi's. excellent quality today (their food presentation & quality tend to vary a little). so good!!

dinner at café 232 - tofu maeuntang and ojinguh bokum (spicy squid stir-fry). both hearty and satisfying, albeit loaded with msg (i'm sure).

amazing tapas dinner at olea - the photos are not great since it was so dark in there and i couldn't get some of the individual dish shots to work. but we ordered fish sticks, meatballs (in some amazing heavenly crack sauce or something), red pepper dip with pita, and celery & pea shoot salad. all are amazing (even their crusty bread) but the meatball and the salad were incredible. every time we go there for their happy hour tapas deal, we always leave super satisfied and surprised that we don't eat there more often... especially after eating janky food for a stretch, this was a real treat. 

amazing dinner m cooked tonight - big salad of dark leafy greens (kale, tatsoi, chard etc) with beets & turnips, single-handedly removing nearly all our csa goodies. then a huge platter of pasta we shared - spaghetti in tomato sauce with tinned sardines & garlic. so spicy and delicious!

simple homemade dinner of kimchi jigae & gyeran mari (with black & brown rice) - satisfying even on such a spring-like day.

late lunch at sakura tokyo, our go-to cheap janky japanese place. m got a kara-age (japanese fried chicken) platter (with shumai in lieu of the usual cali roll by accident) and i changed up my pace a little bit at got the salmon bowl and got all fancy for $7.50! they were both delicious, and i was surprised at how fresh the salmon sashimi was and also how much i enjoyed the cooked salmon part. chicken was, as always, perfectly cooked.

then for light dinner, m made salmon salad (salmon again for me!) and made them into little ssams for little mini bit-size salads. so refreshing and delicious! 

 the burgers that did us in for the day at clinton park café.

another lunch special at castro's - m got roasted pork and i got their 'bistek with onions'. my steak was very well done but surprisingly pleasant to eat and well flavored. the sauce it was cooked in was delicious as well. m's pulled pork was almost like dark turkey meat, making it for a good wrap in the tortilla these dishes came with. very filling and satisfying!