super satisfying korean meal at café 232 - their food isn't the best or the greatest of all korean foods, but it's a good place to have near by to satisfy the cravings. and they do it pretty dang well these days.

we got our favorite, spicy squid stir fry (ojinguh bokum) and something i've eaten maybe 3 times in my life (and 2 of them here), yookgaejang soup. the soup was so different than the usual ones that i make or order, fuller, robust flavors with more notes of umami, probably from the beef. veggies, eggs, and clear noodles in it made up for rounded out flavors - my favorite of the two tonight!

delicious meal after an appointment (which made me starved) at shanghai cafe deluxe.

with our gluttonous eyes (mostly m's), we ordered 4 dishes (vs our usual 3) - xlb's, broccoli in garlic sauce, squid with pickled cabbage over rice, and spicy pork over rice.

we actually took some food home for the first time, and we definitely didn't need that 4th dish of pork.

but dang, the dumplings and the squid were, as always, so so so delicious.

we'd been walking around for a while deciding what to eat, and finally ended up at zaytoons super hungry. we hadn't been back for about a year, since last time we ate here wasn't great. but we ordered platters this time, one shwarma platter with beef & lamb, and one falafel platter with lots of baba ganoush. this time, it tasted excellent, i especially liked the pairing with the citrusy salad. but yet again, this time, it was hard to digest the food after as well. i'd still come back for more food, and probably consume a bit less pita. 

i have been craving mentaiko (or any other fish roe) insanely lately, so i grabbed some at the store the other day, along with some udon noodles. so tonight, i finally made kimchi mentaiko udon stir fry, and it was soooooo satisfying and delicious. kimchi and mentaiko were the only things to season this, and i only put in butter & a bit of olive oil to cook everything. wish we had some shiso or kennip (perilla) for topping but small amount of mint did the trick for tonight.

it's been a long long time since we've been to village yokocho - but with a friend in town from california, it was a good place to meet up, despite the pouring rain (we rode our bikes).

i had a very strong jonesing for ikura (salmon roe) or al-bap and just had to get their sashimi bowl (salmon sashimi, uni, crab meat, tarako, and... ikura! with some shiso and ginger).

m & friend got eel bowls and we shared a lot of appetizers but i only managed to capture this measly sad platter of yakitori. their yakitori skewers are normally pretty delicious bout the gizzard was very disappointing. i liked the quail eggs, but it's hard to go wrong with them!

we even had amazing dessert after at cha-an down the street, but also didn't managed to photograph. :(
but it looked something like this (bottom photos).

i craved tofu and ssam, so i concocted this dubu duruchigi (spicy tofu stirfry). we didn't have much other ingredients or banchan in the fridge, so i used some kimchi (radish and cabbage both), veggies and tofu for the dish. it was a bit on the sweet side and a bit too saucy for my taste (i accidentally pour din too much sugar), but it did fix my cravings.

it's been a long time since we last ate at samurai mama, but we had an errand in the vicinity, giving us the perfect excuse to go for their lunch special. they came with a delicious salad, and i got a sansai udon, and m got a katsudon. my udon was so well cooked, with perfectly cooked noodles and broth. the tonkatsu was excellent, especially the sauce and the veggies (kabocha and carrots?) mixed into the egg mix. the meat part was good, but i thought it was a bit tough. definitely a good deal for the flavors!

quick bite after running errands - pineapple & ham pizza for me, and philly steak sandwich with sauce for m, and a side salad to share. so satisfying.

delicious happy hour tapas at olea - we got our favorite dishes : fried fish with spicy aioli, celery & peashoot salad (with apple, walnut, gorgonzola), meatballs with quince paste and yogurt, pita with romesco dip (tomato & red pepper?). they're all so good, every time, but my favorites are the meatballs and the salad - salad is just so refreshing always, and the meatballs, i swear has crack in them. so so good. i love their flavor combinations so much, and the tapas are such good deals.

we both craved some katsu so when we arrived at sakura tokyo II, m ordered our favorite, curry tonkatsu-don and i got a regular chicken katsudon. unfortunately, the katsudon was just so so, though it wasn't bad at all - their katsu's usual crispiness was reduced to mushiness when cooked with egg * sauce. but the curry katsudon was as good as ever. crispy and tender, so good!

a good night for warm korean food (chilly!) - i was craving spicy pork badly, so we ordered one, along with some hot brothy bowl of tofu maeuntang. the soup was a bit too spicy today though it was still good and comforting. the pork was so good, i just wish that it was a slightly larger dish there. exceptionally good mixed with rice a little bit.

 late night pasta m made for us, served above on a huge platter for us to share.
simple tomato sauce, with min leaves on top, and canned salmon mixed in.
so delicious & comforting!

we were in park slope and needed something smallish and fresh, so we headed to 'snice again (since i don't know any other place off the top of my head). looks like we got our usuals again, without remembering so - m his veggie meatball sub, and me, my quinoa salad. with they were a little heartier, but it sated us for the moment.

a little over-rich dinner at castro's - my molé poblano torta and m's ground beef burrito both started out strong, but got a little heavy toward the end. the torta, mostly because it had ran out of its quota of pickled jalapeño, and burrito, i guess the cheese and meat was too much.

i'm thinking i'll be skipping castro's for now and if i want mexican, i'll have to stick with lighter mission style mexican at pequeña for a while.

holy cow, this meal just blew my mind. hours later, it still blows my mind. it'd been a really long while since we've last been to cho dang gol, and thanks to our accountant being near k-town, it became our yearly ritual after filing our taxes to stop by there for lunch.

today i ventured and got chung gook jang jigae, a stew made from very stinky version of fermented soy bean paste, and m got his usual seafood cham dubu (kind of like soon dubu). they were both incredible - their food is so well balanced, and never have i seen their food cross the line with seasoning (which i think is easy to do with korean food). still, the flavors run deep, not high, and they ran throughout the meal, good to the last drop. i love the nurungji at the end of the meal there too.

and even their banchan is so delicious :

light meal at sakura tokyo ii - i remember there being a plate of avocado and cucumber rolls before all this food came, but somehow i failed to document it. shame, since that was my favorite part!

m got a delicious pork katsu curry don,  and i got a sansai (mountain vegetable) udon. the udon noodles were surprisingly well cooked and though this is nowhere even near the vicinity of deliciousness that is samurai mama, i still slurped it all up.

i've been on a korean food kick lately! got another dose of it at café 232, this time with maeuntang (with cod fish) and some bibimbap. somehow that broth in the maeuntang was nearly magical tonight and i couldn't stop eating it. wished it had been full of broth in a huge bowl.

craving a lot of tofu and also something simple, i made simple cold tofu dish - half with warm cooked kimchi, and half with soy sauce yangnyumjang. then i made my recent favorite go-to comfort food of jook (congee) with egg, whipped up in about 5 minutes (with pre-cooked rice, of course, a cheat).

very simple and not too filling, and definitely satisfying.